Shrimp Etouffee

Maybe you knew, maybe you didn’t know. But my family has Louisiana roots. My love for cajun food, and mardi gras is probably apparent. One of my favorite dishes is etouffee. I can’t eat it often because its so buttery and delicious that it can’t possible be good for you right? I don’t make mine with roux. I only use that for gumbo. It’s pretty time consuming for me.

The base of many if not all cajun dishes. The holy trinity, celery, onion and green bell peppers.

Butter. Always butter.

Smother the veggies until tender.

Add your shellfish and garlic. Season.

Add water and flour. Check the seasoning again, season to taste!

Stir in parsley and green onions, turn off heat.

Mama Miemo’s Etouffee

Ingredients

1 ½ stick of butter

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 lbs of peeled, deveined shrimp, or crawfish tails with fat

1 tbsp all purpose flour

2 stalks of green onions, sliced thinly

¼ cup parsley, minced

Cajun Seasoning, black pepper, cayenne pepper, to taste

Directions:

In a heavy bottom pot with a lid, melt down butter. Add onions and sautee until clear. Add green bell pepper and celery. Cover, stirring occasionally until golden. Add shrimp and garlic. Stir until shrimp is pink. Whisk 1 cup of water with one tablespoon of all purpose flour until well blended. Add to pot, stir and add seasoning. Bring to simmer. Continue to season to taste. When sauce thickens up to a gravy consistency, add parsley and green onion. Stir, cover and turn off heat. Serve over rice.

Posted on December 10, 2014 by miemo 0

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I used to eat only boxed mashed potatoes. Gasp, I know. But that’s how my mom made them for Thanksgiving. I never really grasped the concept of making mashed potatoes from actual potatoes. Then one year, I stored my mashed potatoes in the same bin as my dryer sheets when I moved. And when it was time to eat mashed potatoes…they tasted like my dryer sheets.

I am scarred for life.

I learned how to make mashed potatoes from real potatoes. It was a lot easier than I expected. And again I have no recipe.

First I take a whole bulb of garlic. Slice off the top, drizzle olive oil over and in it. Wrap it in foil and throw it in the oven. Whenever I eat mashed potatoes, it is usually with a roasted dish, so at the point it’s already on.

Peel and cube the potatoes. I think I used about 4 russets. Then cover with cold water and salt. Boil until fork tender. After those are done cooking, I drain them and set aside. In a small sauce pan I heat up a little cream, then peel the roasted garlic and then toss them into the pot. I let them infuse until bubbling but not boiling.

After the potatoes are drained, I put them back in the pot, and using a potato masher I mash it with butter (to taste) and add the garlic and a little bit of cream at a time until its the preferred texture. Here you can mash and add salt and pepper to taste as well!

Sorry I don’t have a recipe. I hoping it will be intuitive enough. If not, I’m sure there’s plenty of recipes to follow, like this one!

Posted on December 8, 2014 by miemo 0

Brunch: Farmers Fishers Bakers

Looking for a brunch place in Georgetown? Check out Farmers Fishers Bakers. A couple of friends visited from NYC and their go to spot in DC is this place for brunch. That means a lot coming from a couple of foodies that LIVE in one of the best culinary cities in America. They asked us to join, and hello, I love brunch, I couldn’t say no.

The husband HATES looking for parking in the city, but lucky me, he will take us here again (because it is that good) because they have a paid parking garage available. He doesn’t care the cost, as long as he doesn’t have to scrape rims on the city sidewalks.

The food is fresh, hot and delicious. There is definitely something for everyone. I like that they bring the the breads to the table, as well as passed dishes like eggs benedicts and fried shrimp. And what’s even better? All this quality food, at a buffet brunch price of $29.99.

They’ve got grilled veggies, make your own nachos, a plethora of desserts, hot meats, friend chicken, french toast. SO much food.

Did I mention, the cinnamon buns are amazing? Yes. And they come out hot and gooey.

So who wants to go to brunch?

Farmers Fishers Bakers
3000 K Street NW
Washington, DC 20007

Posted on December 5, 2014 by miemo 0

Quick Garlic Bread

I’ve never made garlic bread before. I was always the…buy some from the freezer aisle and throw it in the oven type. It’s so good, I just felt like it would be more complicated that it really is. And honestly…I didn’t even look up a recipe for this. I was like, lets use my cooking instinct.

I bought a block of KerryGold butter and a baguette from Society Fair the day before and when it was decided I was making fancy spaghetti for dinner, I decided to use my left over baguette to finish off the meal. Garlic bread literally tastes like, butter, garlic and Italian herbs. So that is what I did. I cubed up some room temperature butter, a couple cloves of garlic, and sprinkled in some dried Italian herb mix. Stir.

I cut the baguette in half, then I generously rubbed my butter mixture on it. In every nook and cranny.

Then I baked it in a preheated oven at 375F and watched it until browned. I like mine extra garlicky, and the Kerrygold was salted, so it was deeelicious.

Posted on December 3, 2014 by miemo 0

December Already?!

My, my, my. Where has the time gone. It is already December 2014. Things have been slow around the blog, I know. But no apologies. Never any apologies. I am thankful that you guys come by and read, and share, definitely. But life is worth living! That being said, I will try to be much better about blogging.

Its been a hectic couple of months but I will try my hardest to be back. Now that I’m not as sickly, and back at cooking. YAY more things to write about. But really, December, where has the time gone? I am super excited to put up a tree this year. We skipped last year, because we were worried Bawse was too young and would destroy it when we left. But he is almost 2, so lets hope he’s better about it.

That being said, here is a couple of my old holiday drink posts to help you get into the spirit!

Mulled Wine

Hot Vanilla Bourbon Cider

Posted on December 1, 2014 by miemo 0

Succotash

This is one of my favorite side dishes. In the summer I like to use fresh corn, but since that’s not in season anymore sweet frozen corn and lima beans will do!

Chop onions, and squash, don’t forget to smash and mince the garlic.

Melt down butter and olive oil.

Toss in garlic and onions.

Add the squash, and cook until a little bit clear. Then add the corn and lima beans, and season it with salt and pepper! So easy, yet so tasty. I can’t even write a recipe for this because you can make it your own way, to taste! Enjoy.

Posted on November 26, 2014 by miemo 0

Fancy Mac N Cheese

Caramelized onions, cheese, bacon, macaroni. All delicious, even better together. One of the favorite sides I make is this glorious dish. I got the recipe from The Pioneer woman herself, but made it with my own favorite cheeses. So definitely make it your own way, after reading her instructions.

First you gotta prep all your ingredients, so you aren’t scrambling around for them later. I like an organized kitchen. Bacon takes the longest, so it goes first. After its mostly cooked, but not too cooked, I set it aside. Save about 2 tablespoons of bacon fat too.

Then in the hot bacon fat, I sautee the onions. Your house should smell fabulous at this point.

Then set everything aside.

Boil your macaroni for half the time they tell you to on the box. Drain and set that aside. Now for the fun part.

Take the bacon fat you reserved, and melt it down with some butter.

Measure out your cheese and your flour while the butter melts.

Don’t forget to whisk it real good. Then slowly add the flour and keep whisking so it is smooth.

Then add your dairy…

And your seasoning.

While that cooks, whisk together the egg yolks. Then grab a quarter cup of that hot milky, buttery, fatty liquid…

And slowly whisk it into the eggs. Then add it back to the pot!

Stir in the cheese until melted. Turn off heat.

Add in the bacon and onions.

Stir in the macaroni.

Lay it out on a baking dish and then top with more cheese and some bacon. Then watch it disappear at dinner. You can find this recipe at The Pioneer Woman’s Website. My changes were just the kinds of cheese I used. I used cheddar, gruyere, and an italian mix. Enjoy!

Posted on November 24, 2014 by miemo 0

Turkey Day Turkey

I don’t know about you, but roasting a turkey for Thanksgiving is super intimidating. I can roast chickens all day, but something about the turkey that makes my cooking confidence zero. No matter how much I read on how to do it. It just makes me nervous. My older brother is always in charge of roasting/deep frying the turkey, even if it’s my year to host.

Well this year, we are headed to my husband’s family’s home for Thanksgiving. He so boldly volunteered to cook the turkey. To my disbelief. To prepare for it, I made a trial turkey to brine. For some reason, they didn’t put out whole turkeys yet, so I had to work with a turkey breast with wings…no dark meat. Weird right?

I usually would measure out salt, herbs, etc for the brine. But we found this jar of stuff, and decided to try it out. It’s also got dried fruit in it. I approve.

If you don’t already have one, and you cook a turkey every year, I suggest you get one. It’s just a big multipurpose bucket from home depot. With a lid. This is where I’m brining the turkey overnight.

Instead of a whole gallon of water, I dissolved the salt mixture in half a gallon of water, and then half a gallon of apple cider.

Dunk your turkey in there, I like to put the hole at the top so it can fill up and sink to the bottom. Cover and set outside (if it’s cold enough) and let it brine overnight.

The next day I opened up and saw that the turkey was completely submerged. YAY!

After I took out the turkey, I stuffed it with these goodies to make it fragrant.

Then I rubbed it down with butter, lemon zest and herbs.

My over is a little uneven. But pretty successful for the first try. The meat was cooked all the way through and it was surprisingly moist! It took me a few hours to cook it. I preheated the oven to 450F, then when the turkey went in I turned it down to 350, then basted every 30 minutes or so. If it gets brown too quickly, you can loosely cover with foil.

Do you have any turkey tips?

Posted on November 19, 2014 by miemo 0

Lao Food: Sour Fruit Dipping Sauce

I have been craving sour stuff lately. I follow some Lao women on instagram, and I saw that they made some green mangoes with a dipping sauce that my mom used to make. It definitely brought me back. I remember Maman would make those and I would end up eating fist fulls of mangoes and then giving myself a tummy ache after. Sad to say, I still haven’t learned my lesson. The last time I had this was when my mom was still alive. It was definitely nostalgic, biting into that sour mango with the salty, spicy, sweet sauce.

Ingredients, Fish Sauce, Shallot, Red Thai Chili Pepper, sugar and toasted rice powder.

Mince the peppers and shallots.

Stir sugar into the fish sauce to taste.

Mix in the fresh ingredients.

Add the toasted sticky rice powder.

Stir, stir, stir.

Let it chill in the fridge while you wash, peel and cut your mangoes. Everything is to taste, so no measurements. You got this. It definitely hit the spot. I was a little sad because one of my mangoes was a little bit sweet.

Posted on November 12, 2014 by miemo 0