Mama Mulate's Okra with Crawfish and Tomatoes - a weekend recipe

Mama Mulate, voodoo mambo, and Tulane English professor in my murder mystery Big Easy has a garden in the backyard of her house in inner-city New Orleans. Okra is her favorite vegetable and she uses it in many of her dishes. She also grows big, juicy, Creole tomatoes. When she combines Louisiana crawfish with her okra and tomatoes, she creates a unique dish you have to taste to believe. Check it out! While you're at it, check out French Quarter Mystery #1 Big Easy on Amazon, BN, Apple iBook's, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Ingredients 

·         1 lb okra, trimmed and sliced

·         1 ½ lbs crawfish tails

·         3 Tbsp butter

·         1 onion, medium, coarsely chopped

·         4 tomatoes, large, peeled, seeded and chopped

·         ½ c Balsamic vinegar

·         2 Tbsp lemon juice

·         1 Tbsp parsley, fresh, chopped

·         Salt and pepper

·         Hot cooked rice 

Directions

Combine oil and butter in a large skillet and heat until butter is melted. Add onion and bell pepper, and toss to coat evenly. Stir in okra and cook, medium heat, until onion is translucent.

Add tomatoes, Balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, parsley, salt, and pepper. Simmer and stir until tomatoes soften. Add crawfish and continue cooking for about 5 minutes. Serve with rice.

###

All of Eric's books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and on his iBook author pages, and his Website.

Big Easy on Sale for 99 Cents!

Big Easy, the first book in Eric Wilder's French Quarter Mystery series, is now available on your Nook or Kindle for 99 cents. Clarion Review said, "Wilder's fiction is like an icy cold Hurricane slush on a hot Louisiana day." Read it now for only 99 cents and take a trip to the Big Easy.

Eric'sWeb

Mama Mulate's Oysters and Champagne - a weekend recipe

Mama Mulate, voodoo mambo and character in the mystery novel Big Easy, loves oysters. This is one of her favorite recipes whenever she’s not eating them on the half-shell.

Ingredients

·         24 oysters, in shells ·         1 c fresh cream ·         1 T butter ·         1 c champagne brut ·         3 shallots , finely chopped ·         ¼ lemon, juice only ·         3 egg yolks ·         1 sprig of dill , finely chopped ·         1 dash horseradish ·         1 pinch saffron ·         Pepper to taste

Directions

Place cheesecloth over a bowl. Open the oysters over the bowl and recover all liquid. Separate the oyster shells and reserve the oysters. Combine egg yolks, cream, ½ c champagne, chopped dill, horseradish, saffron and lemon juice. Mix well. Add pepper to taste.

Heat ½ T butter in skillet over medium heat. Add chopped shallots with ½ c of champagne. Reduce the mixture for 5 minutes, or until there is only a small amount of fluid in the pan. Add the cream mixture, egg and oyster liquid to the pan. Reduce by half for about 10 minutes over medium heat while stirring. Don’t let the mixture come to a boil.

Add oysters and poach for 3 minutes. Remove the oysters and place them in their shells. Stir ½ T butter into champagne sauce and whisk vigorously over the heat to combine. Coat each oyster, in its shell, with sauce. 

To stabilize oysters in the oven and keep them parallel with the cookie sheet while cooking, position them on about ¼” of coarse salt. Cook for 3 minutes in preheated oven at 250 °. The sauce should be nicely browned. Serve with toasted French bread.

Eric's Big Easy Page

Mama Mulate's Sticky Creole Muffins - a weekend recipe

Mama makes a breakfast muffin that is sticky, gooey and totally decadent. She rarely cooks them except in the morning, so mostly only her family and closest friends have had the pleasure of trying them. Since each muffin contains probably a million calories, this is likely a goodly thing. If you ever eat one, you may get permanently hooked. On the addiction scale from one to ten, these muffins are a ten. Enjoy, but try not to eat the whole pan.

Ingredients

• ½ c sugar
• 1/3 c butter
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ c flour, sifted
• 1 ½ t baking powder
• ¼ t salt
• ¼ t nutmeg
• ½ c milk
• 6 T butter, melted
• 1 t cinnamon
• ½ c sugar

Directions

Cream ½ c sugar and 1/3 c butter, and then add the egg. Sift dry ingredients, except cinnamon and the second ½ c sugar. Stir in milk and creamed mixture. Fill 12 muffin holders and bake in 350° oven for 20 to 25 minutes. When muffins are done, dip in the melted butter, and then in the sugar and cinnamon. Serve the muffins warm and try not to eat more than one before you leave the kitchen.

Eric'sWeb

Mama Mulate's Cajun Tomato Fritters - a weekend recipe

The mirliton is an aggressively-growing vegetable that thrives in south Louisiana, and dominates Mama’s backyard. An itinerant cheapskate, the voodoo mambo can’t stand to see a single plant go to waste, and compensates by creating many mirliton recipes. Here is one of her favorites.

Ingredients

• 4 tomatoes, finely chopped
• 2 mirlitons, finely chopped
• 1 green chili pepper, deseeded, and finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 ½ cups flour
• ½ bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
• ½ bunch fresh mint, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Vegetable oil

Directions

Combine all ingredients, except flour, in a bowl. Add enough flour to make a thick batter. In a frying pan, heat oil until hot. Drop the batter, by spoonfuls, into the oil, and fry until browned. Turn once to brown on both sides. Remove fritters with a slotted spoon and drain on absorbent paper towels. Enjoy.

Eric'sWeb

Mama's Steamed Oysters - a weekend recipe

Mama has a PhD in English literature, but when it comes to sports, she isn’t a typical academic. A track star at the University of South Carolina, she participated in world-class sprints and relays. Her sleek body still attests to her former athletic prowess.

Another dirty little secret, Mama likes professional football and loves the New Orleans Saints. She attends every home game, at least when someone else is treating, that is. A recalcitrant cheapskate, she refuses to pay what she considers an exorbitant price for tickets. When she can’t see her beloved Saints playing in person, she often hosts a game party, serving steamed oysters, a New Orleans favorite.

Ingredients

• 4 dozen oysters, shucked
• Salt and pepper to taste
• A dash of cayenne

Directions

In a steamer, steam the oysters in a mixture of water and beer for about 5 minutes. Combine with salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne. Serve on crackers with drawn butter and, or Tabasco sauce.

Eric'sWeb

Mama Mulate's Backyard

Mama Mulate lives in a lower-middle class neighborhood in New Orleans, not far from the Mississippi River. A jungle of garden plants covers her front porch, banana palms and dieffenbachia, melding with the fragrance of bougainvilleas draping from the ceiling in wicker baskets.

Pink hibiscus blossoms and purple morning glories cram the well-tended beds beside the small porch, a small vegetable garden growing on the side of the house. They only provide a clue as to what is behind the ten-foot stockade fence surrounding Mama’s house.

When you walk out the back door, you find yourself on a multi-tiered redwood deck that encompasses a thousand, or more, square feet. Wind chimes, Japanese lanterns and voodoo vevers hang from the rafters over the covered portion of the deck.

Mama’s backyard is a landscaped work of art. Cobbled paths pass pools of koi, rock and water hyacinth. Mirlitons and moonflowers climb the back fence. She grows vegetables and herbs in her raised beds.

A Tulane University English professor, Mama often hosts poetry and book readings in her backyard, her students enthralled by the music of Billie Holiday, piped from hidden speakers. A botanist, herbalist, practitioner of Vodoun, and one wonderful Creole cook, no one ever leaves hungry, either physically or spiritually.

Eric'sWeb