Fried Cornmeal Battered Bayou Shrimp

The Gulf's good blessings...

There are so many good ways to cook shrimp, but one of my favorite ways is using an old tried and true recipe and doing what many of us are trying so hard not to do - eating fried foods. Somehow though, every once in a blue moon ya just gotta treat yourself to the flavors of foods like this one, so simple and rustic yet comes about with a balanced complexity from the seasoned batter beautifully adhered to the marinated beer spiced shrimp.

Now when it comes to frying seafood, oh-my-goodness, there are so many good recipes and methods and it really comes down to what kind of mood you are in or what your tastebuds are calling out, ya know what I mean?

Welcome to Tailgating and Game Day Week 1, Chicken Fried White BBQ Sandwiches

Week 1 Submission ends midnight Monday, Aug 29th 
Voting Starts Aug 30th

Suit up, it's time to start playing...

Today starts another series of football fun kinda like I did a couple of years ago where many of you jumped in and shared recipes. Of course, with time things change, so this year you can link in your recipes to share all the foods, snacks and drinks we like on game day. Find recipes from fellow football fans that know how to do some serious tailgating and serve up the best football party grub.

Plus, you might just score a game win. The more recipes you enter and the more comments you make on certain sites can better your chances for the Grand Prize. The strategy is simple; just spread the word of each Tailgating and Game Week on featured sites and follow through on other insider tips ... the playbook to earn extra points is revealed below the links.

Get Ready for Tailgating & Game Week

Game Week Play Book

This is another series of football fun kinda like I did a couple of years ago where many of you jumped in and shared recipes. Of course, with time things change, so this year you can link in your recipes to share all the foods, snacks and drinks we like on game day. Find recipes from fellow football fans that know how to do some serious tailgating and serve up the best football party grub.

Plus, you might just score a game win. The more recipes you enter and the more comments you make on certain sites can better your chances for the Grand Prize. The strategy is simple; just spread the word of each Tailgating and Game Week on featured sites and follow through on other insider tips ... the playbook to earn extra points is revealed below. First, let's get to the game.

Foolproof Engagement Chicken

Glamorous Annie Bell...

Of all the baked and roasted lemon chicken recipes I remember throughout my life, one of my fondest came from grandmother’s cook and it has taken me a long time to remember exactly why. Roasting whole chicken, as I know it, means fiddling with it constantly, basting several times, turning and flipping to even out the browning process and a diligent watch in keeping the breast meat moist while the thigh cooks done. Annie Bell, who I could write a book about, was a real character, always wearing her wig slightly crooked and always full of tomfoolery, doing nonsense pranks all the time, but when it came time to cook chicken, she was no fool. I remember her cooking a whole bird in a heavy cast iron skillet, maybe a shallow Dutch oven without the lid, and it being the best roasted chicken ever…you understand what I’m saying? Now, that’s a pretty strong statement and I’ll explain.

Crab Claw Bordelaise

Fingers or Claws?

the only thing that matters is the taste...

The dish today has been wandering around in my head for some time now. Why, I’ve mentioned it to so many of you, I hope you are not tired of me yapping about it. Gwen, you are always on the road taking your readers at Bunkycooks along for interesting road trips. I am glad you are heading back to NOLA soon, I hope you try the Bourbon House’s version of this dish, that is the one that kinda got me kick-started in wanting to make this. Homer and everyone at work, thank you for my endless going-ons, I appreciate ya’ll nodding your heads every once in a while. But most importantly, special thanks to my good friend, Cajun Chef Ryan, who is always there to help and follow up with correct procedures and his knowledgeable wisdom of great southern cookery.

Ground Beef Tacos

Update on my

Taco Seasoning Mix

Well folks, I think I have finally settled on the ingredients I've been working on for a few years in making a taco seasoning mix. Some folks would say I am crazy, why make your own, why the extra expense especially when you can get a pack for less than a dollar. Well, there you go, you get what you pay for my friends and until I really starting tinkering with this one, I thought the best one out there came in a yellow package, still do as for store bought. But this is the one going down as my recipe.

A few of you wanted an update when I thought I got it right so here it is. I first published a version last October for Taco Salad and have since revised that recipe too. This time, I am using it to make another favorite. Here is the recipe on how I prepare the meat sauce for tacos, a little different from before. Now if you use anything other than extra lean beef, cook the beef first and drain off the fat, otherwise follow the recipe for some of the best taco meat I know made from ground beef. Enjoy!

Lady Peas ~ Summer's Delicacy

You can call these a winner...

We southerners are peculiar about our peas. Some like the hearty, dark-meat types like the black-eyes, crowders, purple hulls and pink-eyes which makes the best darken broth; others cherish pale lady creams, zipper peas (also known as white crowders) and butter peas which yields light broths.

Lady Peas are my very favorite summer delicacy and they are only available for a short time during the summer and you can only get ‘em here in the South. Some folks refer to these as cream peas 'cause when cooked, that's exactly what you taste, pure creaminess. These old-fashion heritage peas are smaller, sweeter and a lot more tender than most peas.

Beef Teriyaki Tenderloins

 Mock this...

You may have overlooked a well-kept secret. Several years ago, the National Cattleman's Beef Association developed, well actually came up with a name, the portion of this shoulder cut from the chuck area.  Beef Shoulder Filet or Petite Tender Cut, however you call it, is a tender and very inexpensive cut of meat. Because it works well with marinades and cooks so tender, mock tenderloin could well be another name, and the best part, this costs about eight-dollars verses about twenty-eight for the real Châteaubriand.

Taking a cue from Cook's Illustrated and doing a reversal, this is one of my favorite ways to serve tenderloin or in this case, mock. Heck, it is a better cooking method for sure and my marinade is just so darn tasty with beef, at least we think so.

Piquant Creole Asparagus

Tiny is good...

Imagine the day, long ago before the early 1800's, when these green shoots appeared in southern markets and Creole cooks held them in awe, some toying with the idea as these being oversize fern fronds, or even sparrow's grass as some referred to it. A delicacy only the wealthy could afford, some feared these spears as the berries are very poisonous. In the finer restaurants, folks ordered Pointes d'Asperges au Beurre, or as we would say, asparagus tips in butter... and probably hawked full dinner courses upwards of a three Liberty head double eagle, one of New Orleans Mint's better coins.

I spotted these spears in a market and grab a bunch knowing all along what I was gonna do. It's unusual to see these pretties this small during late summer, I saw these babies were from Peru and that's just fine with me. This is a side dish we enjoy very early in the spring or when the shoots are small and slender, meaning extraordinarily tender. Other times of the year we slice the shoots in quarter-inch thick slices horizontally the whole length of the spear. Quick cooking is the key which is why I like to steam them but a quick boil will do just fine.

Chicken Mushroom Bordelaise

Blond Headed Stepchild

Southern Cooking Class 101

Bordelaise is one of the classic French sauces named of course from the Bordeaux wine region. Made with dry red wine, its characteristics are the brownish demi-glaze made rich from bone marrow, butter, shallots and seasoned perfectly with garlic and thyme.

The Bordelaise we enjoy in our southern region is nothing what-so-ever like the classic French. Basically a compounded butter sauce of garlic and thyme, sometimes parsley, a step-child so to speak, still we call it a Bordelaise. Why? I haven't a clue yet some say it is a bastardize version. Then there is the Creole version made from both worlds combining red wine, bone marrow, garlic and parsley with the French mother sauce Espagnole. I cannot repeat in print this one's name.

Grilled Cajun Chicken Po-boys with Comeback Sauce

Cultural Classics

The po-boy is another southern classic food icon born out of generosity and comes from New Orleans. There are so many wonderful foods from all over the south, many from here in Mobile but of late, I have been obsessed with the foods from the Big Easy. This one however, blends a trio of things I like from the south: Grilled chicken marinaded in Cajun spices, Mobile’s Comeback Sauce and New Orleans Po-boys.

Martin Bros in the French Quarter, 1920's

streetcar burning on Canal St, 1929

First, a little history of the poor boy sandwich for those interested. Bennie and Clovis Martin left their Raceland, Louisiana, home in the Acadiana region in the mid-1910s for New Orleans.

My Version of Pascal's Manale BBQ Shrimp

served as an appetizer

Will the real Pascal recipe please stand out...

For as long as I can remember enjoying barbequed shrimp I have, like most folks, been confused on the real Pascal's Manale recipe. The more I research it, the more confuse I become as it seems everyone including those who work there are very rigid in their opinions on the correct method and the right ingredients. Many won't say and those who do talk babble endless about what amounts to much about nothing.

Now for those of you not familiar with BBQ shrimp, it has nothing to do what so ever with barbeque as you know it. That's just a misnomer that somehow stuck. Pascale's Manale is the oldest Italian restaurant still in operation in New Orleans, uptown area on Napoleon Ave, opened in 1913

Shrimp Butter Spread

Let see Forrest,

You can use this on: crackers, bread slices, toast points, pita chips, bagel chips, canapes, cucumber slices, radish rings, celery sticks, fried green tomato wheels, fish and grits, soft shell crab sandwiches, sushi rolls, Thai rolls, Vietnamese rolls, summer rolls, crab claws, catfish fingers, fish sticks, squid rings, steak oscar, tomato wheels, tomato bacon wraps, bacon wrapped jalapeños, mini seafood shells, oyster loaf, crawfish loaf, crab balls, boudin balls, lobster burgers, fish tacos, seafood kabobs, grilled portobellas, chipotle corn cakes, grilled salmon, smoked salmon, salmon waffles, seared candied scallops, garlic mussels, coconut shrimp, crab stuffed shrimp, fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, pickled shrimp, shrimp cocktail, Cajun shrimp, shrimp shooters, shrimp skewers . . . okay, that's enough, I'm tired now...

Enjoy!