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.

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

Big Billy's Cajun Catfish Fingers with Terrebonne Dipping Sauce - a weekend recipe

Big Billy wasn’t a Cajun but he enjoyed cooking like one. He got this recipe from a Terrebonne Parish cousin, adding the beer to the batter to add his own personal touch. Enjoy.

Cajun Catfish Fingers

Ingredients

• 4 large catfish fillets cut into 1-inch strips
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 8 oz beer
• Dash Cajun hot sauce
• Peanut oil for frying

Directions

Add 1 cup of flour, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper to a shallow bowl and mix well. Add beer, 2nd cup of flour, and a dash of Cajun hot sauce in a second shallow bowl and mix well. Dredge catfish fingers in flour mixture, and then beer batter. Fill a cast iron skillet with peanut oil. Fry fingers in a single layer until they are golden brown and flake easily—2 to 4 minutes on each side. Drain on a brown paper bag

Terrebonne Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

• ¼ cup Dijon mustard
• ¼ cup stone ground grainy mustard
• 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsp honey
• ½ Tbsp lemon juice
• Dash Cajun hot sauce

Directions

Combine ingredients and mix until well blended. Chill until ready to serve.

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Born in Louisiana, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of corrupt politics, and ghosts that haunt the night. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans. Please check his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.

Mavis' RC Soft Custard - a weekend recipe

Here’s a recipe my mom used to make for my brother Jack and me. We both loved RC’s. Growing up without air-conditioning in hot and humid Louisiana, the cool custard hit the spot on a hot summer’s day. The recipe came from a cookbook she had called Favorite Recipes, compiled by the Pilot Club of Shreveport. Many of the recipes were attributed to someone. This one was not.

Ingredients 

·         1 bottle Royal Crown cola

·         2 eggs

·         2 Tbsp. sugar

·         1/8 tsp. salt

Directions 

Add sugar and salt to eggs and beat. Add the bottle of Royal Crown cola and cook over hot water until slightly thickened, stirring frequently. Pour into custard cups and chill in refrigerator until set. Serve and enjoy.

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Mama Mulate’s Bread Pudding with Jamaican Rum Sauce

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You wouldn’t know it by Mama’s slender frame, but she has a real sweettooth. Here is one of her favorite New Orleans’ desserts, along with her own special sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 loaf stale French bread
• ¼ can evaporated milk
• 1 pound butter
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• ¼ pound raisins
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 3 tablespoons vanilla extract
• ¼ cup brown sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wet the bread and squeeze the water out of it. Melt the butter and mix with all other ingredients. Pour mixture into a well-greased 4 x 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 2 ½ hours. The pudding will rise in the first hour. After an hour, remove pan from oven and stir the mixture to tighten it. Return to the oven for the second hour of cooking.

Jamaican Rum Sauce

Ingredients

• ¼ stick butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup Jamaican rum

Directions

Place all ingredients in double boiler and cook for 10 minutes. Beat until fluffy.

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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.

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Shannon's Logan County Venison Chili - a weekend recipe

My stepdaughter Shannon lives on a ten-acre farm west of Guthrie in Logan County, Oklahoma. She has nine horses and far too many cats, dogs, chickens, peacocks and other assorted animals. Like her Grandmother Joy and Mother Marilyn, she is a wonderful cook. When Scotty, her significant other, returns from a hunt during deer season, she often prepares her own version of venison chili. Take it from me, it’s wonderful!

Ingredients
• 2 T vegetable oil

• 1 onion, large, chopped

• 1 green pepper, chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, large, minced

• 2 ½ T chili powder

• 1 ½ lbs venison, well trimmed, cubed

• ¾ lbs venison, well trimmed, ground

• 1 28 oz can tomatoes, crushed

• 1 c red wine

• 2 T cumin, ground

• 2 T Worcestershire Sauce

• ½ t red pepper

• ½ t salt

• 1 t black pepper

• 2 t Massa powder

Directions
Heat oil in large skillet. Stir in onion, green pepper, garlic and chili powder. Sauté until tender. Add venison and stir with a wooden spoon until brown. Drain off fat. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes or long enough for chili to thicken. Serve in festive bowls topped with shredded cheddar cheese.

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Big Billy's Blackened Catfish - a weekend recipe

Big Billy had an enormous outdoor grill and loved to cook on it whenever the weather was good, and sometimes when it wasn't. Here is an easy catfish recipe with as much wonderful flavor as you could ever want.

Ingredients

·         4 catfish fillets

·         olive oil

·         1/3 lb bacon

·         2 tsp cayenne pepper

·         2 tsp lemon pepper

·         2 tsp cumin or chili powder

·         2 tsp garlic powder

·         2 tsp thyme

·         2 tsp white pepper

·         2 tsp black pepper

·         2 tsp rosemary, crushed

·         2 tsp fennel seed, crushed

·         1 tsp allspice

·         1 tsp oregano

·         ½ tsp salt

Directions

Fry bacon; discard bacon and retain grease. Combine all dry ingredients, rub fillets with olive oil, then coat liberally with spices. Drop in hot bacon grease and cook until you can easily put a fork through them.

Lemon Butter

Ingredients

·         ¼ cup melted butter

·         1 teaspoon lemon juice

·         ½ teaspoon tabasco

·         sliced green onions

Directions

Combine, mix well and serve as dipping sauce with blackened catfish.

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Big Billy's Catfish Fajitas - a weekend recipe

Big Billy was a Dallas restauranteur and Oklahoma oil man. It’s no secret he loved to cook, and he loved Southern comfort food. Here is one of his favorite and simplest recipes.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. catfish, filets

• 1 cup lime juice

• 3 cups mesquite wood chips

• 1 onion, large, chopped

• 1 red pepper, large, chopped

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 2 Tbsp. butter

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp pepper

• 8 tortillas, flour or corn, warmed

• Sour cream, salsa, avocado and lime slices

Directions

Place fish filets in large zip top bag. Pour in lime juice, seal and marinate in refrigerator for one hour. Soak wood chips in water for one hour. Drain wood chips. Sprinkle wood chips over pre-heated coals in a covered grill. Brush grill rack lightly with cooking oil and place catfish filets on rack. Close grill and cook for about five minutes on either side, or until fish is flaky.

In a large cast iron skillet, cook onion, red pepper and garlic in the butter until tender. Stir in salt and pepper. Cut filets into chunks, toss into skillet and mix well. Fill warmed tortillas with catfish mixture and serve with sour cream, salsa, avocado and lime slices.

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Choctaw Zweibelkuchen - a weekend recipe

Central Oklahoma has many citizens of German extraction, the language still spoken in Oklahoma households where German cuisine is still proudly served. Choctaw, Oklahoma, and the Old Germany Restaurant have hosted an Oklahoma version of Oktoberfest every September for the last twenty years.

Here is a Germanic recipe with a slight Okie modification. P.S. – this recipe originated in German wine country and, yes, grapes are now grown and wine being produced right here in central Oklahoma. Although great with wine, I can personally attest to the fact that this dish is also great with a cold Beck’s. Yes, southern comfort food sometimes has European origins.

Ingredients

• 16 strips bacon

• 4 large yellow onions, chopped

• 2 jalapeno peppers, roasted, deseeded, finely chopped

• 2 eggs plus 1 yolk

• ¾ cups sour cream

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Caraway seeds

• 2 -8 inch pastry shells half baked at 400 degrees

Directions

Fry bacon until crisp. Drain, crumble and set aside. Fry onions in oil until soft and yellow. Add beaten eggs, and yolk, chopped jalapeno pepper, sour cream, salt and pepper. Add crumbled bacon. Pour mixture into pie shells and sprinkle with caraway seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, or until centers are firm. Enjoy.

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Joy's Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake with Mocha Butter Frosting

Marilyn’s mother Joy had seven children. When her husband died in his early forties, she went to work to feed and support them, first as a waitress and later, owning her own café. None of her children ever went hungry and I quickly realized during the short time I knew her that she was a wonderful cook. Former customers of Joy’s café still remember her home-made cakes and pies. Here is one of her personal favorites.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 4 tbsp cocoa
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup mayonnaise

Directions

Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir in mayonnaise, water and vanilla. Mix well and pour into two 9” greased and floured layer cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Spread with mocha butter frosting.

Mocha Butter Frosting

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter
• 4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp light cream
• ¼ cup cocoa
• ½ tsp instant coffee

Directions

Cream the butter, adding half the sugar, cocoa and all of the instant coffee until well blended. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Blend in remaining sugar and cocoa, adding enough cream to bring the frosting to spreadable consistency.

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Natchitoches Meat Pie - a weekend recipe

Natchitoches is the oldest continuous settlement in Louisiana, and that includes New Orleans. Located on the Cane River, this scenic and interesting town was the location for the movie Steel Magnolias. With a diverse cultural history, that includes French, Spanish, English, African and American Indian heritage, this sleepy community is like no other. Here is the original recipe for the world famous Natchitoches meat pie. Don’t change it or it will no longer be a Natchitoches Meat Pie.

Ingredients: Meat Filling

• ½ lb. ground chuck
• 1 ½ lb. ground pork (not sausage)
• 2 tsp. flour
• 1 tsp. shortening
• 2 onions, large
• 6 scallions, small
• 3 tbsp. parsley (chopped, very fine)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 dash cayenne pepper

Ingredients: Pie Crust

• 4 cups flour
• 2 eggs, large
• ½ cup melted shortening, preferably lard
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. baking soda
• small amount of milk

Directions

Make the meat filling first. Meat should be ground twice and then run through a sieve. The idea is for the meat to be as smooth and uniform as possible. Brown the meat in a heavy iron skillet, pouring off any fat that accumulates.

Make a roux of the flour, shortening, onions, parsley, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Combine meat and roux thoroughly. Set aside for cooling.

Begin the pastry and DO NOT use cooking oil instead of lard. Sift flour. Add baking powder, lard, eggs and enough milk to make a stiff dough. Roll until very thin. Cut circles about the size of a coffee cup saucer from the dough. Fill with meat mixture and fold over. Moisten with water around edges and crimp with a fork. Poke a couple of holes in each pie (so they don’t explode!) and then deep fry until golden brown. You are in for a treat, so enjoy.

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Big Billy's Crawfish Fritters with Texas Dipping Sauce - a weekend recipe

My close friend Big Billy was both an oil entrepreneur and a Dallas restauranteur. He was such an interesting character, I could write a book about him. Come to think of it, maybe I will some day.

I once sold him an oil deal in Noble County, Oklahoma. It was a reentry—going into a previously drilled well in hopes of completing in a productive zone the original operator missed. We were unsuccessful in the predicted pay zone but came up roses in a shallow limestone. The well tested nine hundred MCFD (pretty damn good for a six hundred foot well) and Big Billy ultimately drilled ten offsets.

Big Billy, like his name, was a big man—six foot four and three hundred seventy five pounds. He had the mentality of a wildcatter along with the wildly crazy luck that made him successful. He had absolutely no pretense, but could cook some of the tastiest meals imaginable. He also liked Texas music and he, Kathy—his significant other— and I once made a special trip to see Willis Alan Ramsey at the Blue Door in Oklahoma City. But that’s another story.

Yes, Louisiana is the land of Acadia, but there are probably just as many Cajuns living in Texas. Big Billy borrowed a few secrets from his Louisiana neighbors in creating this dish that I guarantee is to die for. Although no longer with us, his legend and recipes will live forever.

Big Billy’s Crawfish Fritters with Texas Dipping Sauce

Ingredients
• 1 cup flour, sifted
• 1 pound crawfish tails, cooked and chopped
• 4 green onions, chopped
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup milk
• 1 ½ tbsp. melted butter

Texas Dipping Sauce• ¾ cup mayonnaise
• ¼ lemon, sliced
• ½ cup ketchup
• ¼ tsp. horseradish, prepared
• ¼ tsp. Texas hot sauce

Directions
Combine eggs, crawfish meat, onions, butter, salt and Cayenne in a large mixing bowl. Stir in flour until blended.

Heat cooking oil in a large cast iron skillet until very hot. Drop tablespoonfuls of batter— a few at a time—into hot oil. Fry until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, horseradish, squeezed lemon juice and Texas hot sauce. Serve fritters with Texas dipping sauce.

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