Oyster Dressing - a recipe

Oyster Dressing, New Orleans Style

3 doz. Oysters
1 qt stale bread, wet and squeezed
2 tbsps butter
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp parsley
1 sprig thyme
1 bay leaf
3 tbsps sage
salt and pepper to taste

Drain the oysters, carefully removing all bits of shell. Save oyster liquor for stuffing. Wet stale bread with hot water, squeezing thoroughly. Mix and season with sage. Chop fowl’s liver and gizzard finely, and put 1 tbsp butter into frying pan.

Mix in chopped onion, and chopped liver and gizzard in the pan. As the mixture browns, add the herbs, and then the bread. Mix well. Add remaining butter and stir, blending thoroughly.

Add the oyster liquor, and then mix in the oysters. Stir for several minutes before using it to stuff the fowl

Fiction South

Pommes de Terres Souffle - a recipe

Marilyn and I are both avid collectors of old books, especially cookbooks. Miss M recently found an old cookbook on eBay titled New Orleans Creole Recipes by author Mary Moore Bremer. The book was first published in 1932 by Dorothea Thompson of Waveland, Mississippi. I could find nothing on the internet about the author but the book is a culinary treasure. If you can find a copy, buy it! Here is just one of its wonderful recipes. Here is an original recipe straight from the book.

Pommes de Terres Soufflé

This famous dish is difficult for any but a professional chef. All authorities agree that the kind of potatoes used is of great importance. I would suggest the use of a starchy potato.

Peel, cut square, and trim off corners. The pieces should be absolutely even, not thicker than a silver dollar, and cut lengthwise of the potato.

They are hard to cut. Do not soak. Wipe each slice dry. Have two pots of lard. Pot number one must be warm. Put in ten or twelve slices at a time. Let them cook slowly until soft and nearly done, then take out and cool.

Heat second pot of grease quite hot, but not smoking. Have the frying pan hot so as not to chill the grease.

Put into it not more than six slices at a time for the same reason. Turn on a fierce heat and fry until they puff and become slightly amber in color. Keep slices turning constantly.

If they do not puff in a moment, they will never do so.

The exact temperature of fat depends upon the quantity of fat and the texture of the potatoes; so accurate directions are impossible.

I would not advise one unskilled to try this for the first time when strangers are invited to dine; but anyone that likes to experiment might get great pleasure in mastering this dish. It is quite a feat, and puts one in a class with professionals. Besides, it is ever so nice.

The puffs may be served on a napkin and hurried to the table, having been salted first. One may get them in New Orleans, served most beautifully, sometimes in a hot basket made of pastry, tinted in various colors.

When you eat them, be sure to appreciate the one behind the scenes who prepared them, and say with the colored folk, “Ain’t dat sumpin?”

Eric's Website

French Chicory and Potato Salad

Chicory is as old as history itself, being a primary ingredient in many Roman dishes. The plant’s green leafs (radicchio) are often eaten as a salad in Europe and the root is used as a coffee substitute. It is largely unknown in the United States except for in the south, mostly around New Orleans.

Here is a Cajun recipe you probably have never heard of but try it anyway. I found it in the French Acadian Cook Book published in 1955 by the Louisiana Acadian Handicraft Museum, Inc. The recipe was contributed by Mrs. F.A. McKague of Jennings, Louisiana. Even if you aren’t familiar with the culinary qualities of chicory give this simple recipe a try it and I’ll bet that you’ll become a certified aficionado.

French Chicory and Potato Salad

1 lb of onions 3 lbs Irish potatoes
1 head of chicory 1 lb of bacon
Hard cooked eggs

Boil and dice potatoes and eggs in separate dish. Fry diced bacon and onions until brown. Mix potatoes, eggs and chopped chicory in frying pan and cook for five minutes. Serve hot. Serves six.

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Crawfish Pie

Crawfish pie is a Lousiana dish immortalized in the Hank Williams song Jambalaya. I found this recipe for crawfish pie in the French Acadian Cook Book published in 1955 by the Louisiana Acadian Handicraft Museum, Inc., Jennings, Louisiana. The person submitting the recipe is Gene Knobloch of Thibodaux, Louisiana and he offers this expert advice:

This is a basic recipe. To be a good Creole cook you must be original and you must have a good imagination. So throw in anything your good judgement tells you, even the kitchen stove if necessary.

P.S. – If you do not eat crawfish (shame on you) you may substitute shrimp.

3 cups cooked crawfish, tails and fat
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
3 cups cooked rice
4 yolks hard boiled eggs
1 ¼ cups of water 2 or 3 slices, well buttered bread
¼ cup minced celery Olive oil or other shortening
½ small green pepper, minced
Salt, black pepper, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, pimientos
1 bunch shallots, chopped fine
1 bay leaf

Saute in olive oil or other shortening, celery, shallots and sweet pepper, about five minutes. Add crawfish tails and fat, saute about 5 minutes longer. Salt and pepper to taste, add a few dashes of Tabasco sauce. Mix this with cooked rice, add water, mushroom soup, bay leaf. Add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Test for salt and pepper.

Pour entire mixture into a greased baking dish. Grate egg yolks of the top. Remove the crust from the slices of bread, cut each slice into four triangles. Arrange triangles in a circle on top of mixture. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, until mixture is toroughly heated and bread is toasted. Garnish with pimientos. Serves about eight. Present with gusto.

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Bertram Picou's Red Beans and Rice - a weekend recipe

French Quarter bartender Bertram Picou is a recurring character in my French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans. After appearing in Big Easy, he's developed a life of his own that transcends fiction. Like many Southerners, Bertram served in the Army and did his basic training at Fort Polk in Leesville, Louisiana. The Fort is the subject of Tigerland, a gritty but powerful movie starring Colin Farrell. It’s probably the best movie Farrell ever did and you might want to check it out. Anyway, the place was a hell hole and some say the chances of getting killed or wounded were greater there than in Vietnam.

Rutted dirt roads, tracts of heavily forested land that had never seen a chainsaw, miles of seemingly endless rifle ranges, and swamps so murky and misty that they looked like the backdrop of a Lon Chaney horror film, comprised Fort Polk. Alligators, armadillos, water moccasins and frightened, pissed-off young G.I.’s, soon to be bound for Vietnam, populated the musty old Fort where fever and meningitis were everyday occurrences.

And it was hot and humid! The World War II-vintage barracks had no air conditioning in the summer and little insulation in the winter. A soldier’s day started at 4:30 AM with thirty minutes of physical training before breakfast. This was followed by more PT, a one to seven-mile hike to the rifle range, orientation, target practice, a one to seven-mile hike back to the barracks, more PT, then bed. Bertram lost forty-six pounds in six weeks at Fort Polk.

Some of the drill sergeants were mean, some practically psychotic. Nice wasn’t in their vocabulary. Bertram is the personification of the term laid-back, but two words can still evoke memories of distress and instantly raise his blood pressure and heart rate. Those two words — grease trap! If you ever spent any time in the Army, you probably know what I mean.

Food in the mess halls was simple but filling. All you could eat in fifteen minutes or so. They served red beans in abundance and rice. The problem was, not together. Army regulation said you can’t have two starches on one plate. Good idea for the Army, bad idea for Bertram Picou who thinks RB&R should be part of the Government’s food pyramid (or whatever shape it is now!)

Bertram breathed a large sigh of relief when he finally got out of the Army. He cooks RB&R almost every day at his bar on Chartres Street in New Orleans French Quarter and here is his personal recipe.

Bertram's Red Beans and Rice

1 ½ lbs. dry red beans

2 stalks celery, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

½ green pepper, diced

1 red onion, sliced

½ tbsp. oil

10 c. water

1 veg. bouillon cube

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 ½ c. rice

3 c. water for rice

Soak beans overnight. Saute garlic, red onion, green pepper, celery in oil in large pot. Add 10 cups of water, vegetable bouillon cube, and beans. Let cook on medium flame until soft. Cook rice separately. When rice is done, serve topped with red beans.

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Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans and the Paranormal Cowboy Series. Please check it out on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages. You might also like to check out his website.

Gumbo Yaya

Bertram Picou is a recurring character in my French Quarter Mystery Series and first appeared in  FQM No. 1 Big Easy. Bertram is the owner of an eclectic bar on Chartres Street in New Orleans. He cooks some killer gumbo and always has a pot simmering in back for his regular customers.

Everyone in New Orleans makes gumbo, some tasting better than others. The best gumbo is like ambrosia, a gift from heaven itself. It’s now made all over the world but one thing is sure. You’ll never find better gumbo anywhere in the world that tastes as good as the worst gumbo from New Orleans.

Some say that Bertram’s gumbo is the best in the Big Easy. Don’t believe me? Next time you’re in the French Quarter, stop by his place and give it a try. The bar’s a little hard to find, but keep looking. Bertram's mother taught him how to make gumbo. Below is her recipe, told in her Cajun son's own words.

Bertram Picou’s Mama's Gumbo

"First thing is making the roux. Pour some oil in your big cast iron skillet and put it on the fire, medium heat. Add some flour and start stirring. Whatever you do, don’t leave the stove, even to chase Ol’ Shep, until the roux cooks to a pleasing shade of brown, maybe a little darker if your taste buds are more Cajun than most. Be careful now! Don’t burn that roux cause it’s the most important part of the gumbo! If it starts to smoke and curdle up, you done screwed up! Throw it out and start over.

Once you got the roux done, its time to make the gumbo. My mama throws in crawfish, shrimp, chicken, sausage, squirrel, deer, or even fish. "Whatever floats your boat," she used to say.

Fill up your big stock pot with water and set it on the stove. Get it to boiling then add the roux. Mama always uses four tablespoons, more or less, depending on the weather, how dark she had let it cook, and how she feels that particular day. Good cooks don’t read recipes. They just sense how something ought to taste. However many tablespoons she used, her gumbo always tasted damn good!

Keep stirring till the roux and water are mixed, then add a couple of chopped onions, a chopped bell pepper, six minced garlic cloves and your chicken, seafood, or whatever. This is where it gets tricky. You need to add salt, cayenne, and black pepper and this must be done to taste. Using too much, or not enough, can make or break the gumbo and practicing is the only way to learn how. You’ll have to do this yourself cause mama can’t go to everyone’s house.

Cook the gumbo on a medium hot flame and keep stirring till everything starts getting tender. Don’t put a lid on the pot.

Finally, boil up your rice till it's perfect (just about the hardest thing in the world to get right, but that’s another story). Add parsley and scallions to the gumbo, and, if you like, a little file, then ladle it on the rice and enjoy!"

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Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans and the Paranormal Cowboy Series. Please check it out on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages. You might also like to check out his website.

beignets - a recipe

Here is a recipe I found in the wonderful cookbook Hot off the Press – Good Cooking from the Pages of the State-Times Morning Advocate published in 1977 by Capital City Press. This recipe was submitted by Lillian Gremillion of Frisco.

BEIGNETS (The French Market Type)

½ pkg. Yeast cake 3 ½ cups plain flour
1 cup milk ¾ tbs salt
2 tbs sugar 1 egg
2 tbs cooking oil powdered sugar

Soften yeast cake in 1/3 cup lukewarm water to form a paste. Warm the milk and add sugar, oil and yeast mixture. Gradually stir in 2 cups flour and the salt. Stir until it forms a batter. Stir in egg until it is mixed well, and then add rest of flour. Mix well. Cover and set in warm place about 1 ½ hours to rise. Take dough out and roll until about ¼ inch thick. Cut in 2 inch pieces. Place on cookie sheet or pan and let rise another half hour. Fry dough until it is brown and then remove and let drain. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy.

Bertrand's Chicken Gumbo

My Aunt Dot Pourteau recently published her second cookbook titled All the Foods We’ve Loved Before and I was happy to see recipes from my uncles, aunts, cousins, grandmother, and yes, even my own mother. Dot is a wonderful person as well as a wonderful cook. She was married to my Uncle Bertrand for many years before his untimely passing. Bertrand grew up in Oil City, Louisiana. He was of French extraction and his parents owned a cafe in the fabled oil town of Oil City.

To say that the Pourteau’s could cook is like saying the sky is blue. Here is a recipe from Aunt Dot’s wonderful cookbook. This is a very rare recipe that I don’t believe you will find anywhere else. It was perfected by a family of French descent that catered to the ravenous appetites of the oil patch. Try it if you get a chance and I’ll give you my Oklahoma guaranty that you won’t be disappointed.

1 large fryer (or equivalent in breast and thighs), cut up
1 1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped fine
4 cubes chicken bouillon
3/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
3 tablespoons cornstarch
rice
file
olive or canola oil

Clean chicken and remove skin. I use a Dutch oven to cook this dish in, spray bottom of pan with Pam to avoid sticking, put in the chicken skin and cook the fat out until skin is crisp. (This fat that is rendered out of the skin helps give it a little bit mor chicken flavor). Besides, Penny, our son Steven’s dog that is making a home with us at the time, loves chicken cracklings.

Salt and pepper chicken pieces. Fry chicken pieces until they are light brown. Take out the chicken and set aside. Add onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic. Add olive oil, if needed, to saute vegetables until they are limp. Sprinkle vegetables with a small amount of salt and pepper. They will smell soooo good. Add 1/32 cup flour and make a roux. Do not let the flour get very brown, just a light tan color. Add approximately 2 1/2 quarts boiling water slowly to roux and four cubes of chicken bouillion. Taste broth, as it may need to be reseasoned at this time.

Return browned chicken to broth, cook on low heat until tender (DO NOT OVERCOOK CHICKEN!). Remove chicken from broth. When ready to serve thicken the broth with about 3 tablespoons cornstarch in about 1/3 cup cold water. Slowly stir the slurry of cornstarch into broth. Let broth come back to a slight boil, then you can tell if the broth is as thick as you wish, if so return chicken to liquid and cook, very slowly to avoid scorching, about ten minutes.

TO SERVE: Put steamed rice in individual serving bowl and sprinkle with file, as desired. DO NOT put file in gumbo while cooking. Put chicken pieces over rice and ladle gumbo over all. May serve with a side order of salad. Lettuce, tomatoes, celery, carrots, and anything else you like. Garlic bread is also good with this meal.

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