OUT WEST: Food & Lifestyle

Mardi Gras Food

Red Beans & Rice

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Red Beans & Rice

Course Main Course
Cuisine Creole, Soups, Stews, Chowders
Keyword fat tuesday, mardi gras
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 3 hours
Total Time 3 hours 15 minutes
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp bacon grease (or vegetable oil)
  • 1 cup yellow onion chopped
  • 1/2 cup green bell pepper chopped
  • 1/2 cup celery chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 andouille sausage sliced on bias
  • 1 lb dried small red beans soaked overnight and drained
  • 1 ham bone
  • 8 cups chicken broth
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 sprigs thyme

Instructions

  • In a large heavy bottom pot over medium high heat, saute onion, green bell pepper, celery and garlic until softened, about 3-5 minutes. 
  • Add andouille to the pot and saute for another 3 minutes.
  • Add soaked red beans, ham bone, broth, bay leaves, salt and pepper, cayenne and thyme.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 hours.  When finished, remove ham bone and thyme springs.  Serve with steamed white rice and garnish with sliced green onions.

Make plans to simmer a pot of these Creole Red Beans and serve it up with rice this weekend. You’ll be ready to Laissez les bons temps rouler, as they say in the Big Easy. 

This dish was traditionally made on a Monday, which was laundry day, and back when we washed clothes by hand on a wash  rack it took most of the day, which left little time for cooking.  A leftover ham bone, some dried beans soaked overnight and the faithful trinity of onions, green bell pepper and celery quickly became the go-to meal for feeding the family.

Banana Dutch Baby w/ Maple Bourbon Cream

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Banana Dutch Baby with Maple Bourbon Cream, Pillowy dutch baby filled with caramelized bananas, bourbon maple syrup and creamy bourbon whipped cream.

Every Sunday, growing up, we would eat banana pancakes. My dad loved them. Well, I loved them too. The bananas would get naturally caramelized when they touched the griddle and the sugars with the maple syrup were a perfect combination. This is my grown up version of my childhood favorite.

If you haven’t had a dutch baby before, its basically a thicker pancake that poofs up when cooked creating this perfect vessel for filling with yummy stuff like bananas. I just happened to have some bourbon on hand and mixed that in with my maple syrup creating a magical mixture.

So, the next time the kiddos are at a sleep over..break out the bourbon and fancy up your breakfast, grown up style.

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Banana Dutch Baby with Maple Bourbon Cream

Banana Dutch Baby with Maple Bourbon Cream, Pillowy dutch baby filled with caramelized bananas, bourbon maple syrup and creamy bourbon whipped cream.
Course Breakfast
Cuisine Breakfast
Keyword Breakfast, Dutch Baby, mardi gras, Pancakes
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 2

Ingredients

Maple Bourbon Whipped Cream

  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp maple bourbon syrup recipes follows

Maple Bourbon Syrup

  • 1 cup good maple syrup
  • 1 tsp bourbon

Dutch Baby

  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 3/4 cup warm milk
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 pinch salt

Caramelized Bananas

  • 2 bananas, peeled and sliced
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp butter

Instructions

Maple Bourbon Syrup

  • Heat syrup and bourbon in a small sauce pan over medium low heat for about 5 minutes.  Let cool before folding into whipped cream.

Maple Bourbon Whipped Cream

  • In a medium bowl, blend on high with a mixer, cream, sugar and vanilla until thick and creamy.
  • Fold in maple bourbon syrup.
  • Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

Dutch Baby

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  • Using a hand mixer, blend eggs, flour, warm milk, sugar, vanilla and salt until combined.
  • Place butter in either one large or two small cast iron pans in the oven until melted.  Remove from oven and swirl to coat pan with butter.
  • Pour batter evenly into either the two cast iron pans or one large pan. Place in oven and cook for approximately 20 minutes or until large and poofed up with no jiggle left to it.
  • Rove from oven and top with caramelized banana and maple bourbon whipped cream.

Caramelized Bananas

  • While the dutch baby is cooking, make the caramelized bananas.
  • In a small pan over medium high heat, melt butter.  Place banana slices in pan and toss to coat.  Add brown sugar and cook until browned and sugary 3-5 minutes.

Plate Dutch Baby

  • Spoon caramelized bananas over dutch baby, drizzle a little maple bourbon syrup, top with maple bourbon whipped cream.  Add a lemon slice for fun.

Related Recipes:

Jambalaya with Shrimp & Andouille Sausage

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A.k.a the one pot wonder dish. No kidding… When word gets around that Jambalaya is on the dinner plan for the week, soon we have half the neighborhood gathered around the table. It’s miracle food, but that’s what food is suppose to be, the thing that brings us all together.

Cajun food is quite often made using fresh seafood, which is one reason why as a Pacific Northwesterner I happen to love Cajun food. The other, of course, is that I married a Southerner. When we were first married, Emeril’s cookbook: Louisiana Real & Rustic was my bible. I’m pretty sure I made nearly every recipe in the book, well, except rabbit, but we won’t go there. So, make this jambalaya, it’s really so easy. Gather your friends around and share stories. I’m pretty sure they’ll be back for more.

Shrimp and Andouille Jambalaya
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Jambalaya with Shrimp & Andouille Sausage

Course Main Course
Cuisine Seafood
Keyword cajun food, fat tuesday, jambalaya, mardi gras
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 16 large shrimp peeled, deveined
  • 1 ½ cup andouille sausage
  • 1 ½ cup yellow onion chopped
  • 1 cup celery chopped
  • 1 tbsp garlic minced
  • 1 cup green bell pepper chopped
  • 1 ½ cup stewed tomatoes or 1 – 14 oz can
  • 3 bay leaves
  • ½ tsp cayenne
  • ¼ tsp thyme
  • S & P to taste
  • 1 cup long grain white rice
  • 2 cup chicken broth or fish
  • ½ cup green onions chopped

Instructions

  • In a large cast iron dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat.
  • Saute onion, celery, green pepper and garlic until softened.
  • Add andouille and cook for 3-4 minutes.
  • Add stewed tomatoes, bay leaves, cayenne, thyme and S & P and cook for 3-4 minutes.
  • Add shrimp and cook for 2 minutes.
  • Add rice and chicken broth, cover and cook on medium low until liquid is absorbed about 20 – 25 minutes.
  • Garnish with green onions.

Seafood Gumbo

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Mardi Gras 2019

“Laissez les bons temps rouler” ~ Let the good times roll

We are right around the corner from Mardi Gras and things are beginning to get real flavorful around here! I’ve got a few recipes up my sleeve, but we’re going to start with the most extravagant, it’s Fat Tuesday, you know!

Depending on where you’re from you could celebrate the final feast day before Lent with a fat stack of pancakes OR if you’re southern (or married to a southern boy..like me) with this AMAZING bowl of seafood gumbo. Of course, we make gumbo several times a year, but not like this. This gumbo is the ultimate, packed with Dungeness crab, shrimp and andouille sausage.

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Seafood Gumbo

Course Main Course
Cuisine Seafood, Soups, Stews, Chowders
Keyword cajun food, gumbo, soup
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

Roux

  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup flour

Gumbo

  • 1 cup onion, chopped
  • 1 cup celery, chopped
  • 1 cup green bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 cup red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 cup yellow bell pepper, chopped
  • 6 cup seafood or chicken broth
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 5 large bay leaves
  • 1 large Dungeness crab (or your local favorite 1lb +) body shell reserved, if available
  • 8 large shrimp, cleaned well, peeled with tail left on
  • 1 cup andouille sausage, sliced in rounds on a bias
  • 1 tbsp parsley
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp Cajun seasoning
  • 3 tsp file powder

Instructions

Roux

  • Heat oil in a heavy bottom pot over medium high heat.  Stir in flour using a wooden spoon.  Continue stirring until roux is copper penny colored.  This could take up to 20 minutes. Do not stop stirring because it will burn and taste horrible.

Gumbo

  • After roux is copper penny colored, add onion, celery and pepper.  Stir to combine 2-3 minutes until softened. 
  • Add broth, cayenne, bay leaves and body shell of crab, if using. Simmer for 20 minutes.
  • Remove body shell of crab.  Add crab meat, shrimp, andouille sausage, parsley, salt, Cajun seasoning and file powder.  Simmer for another 10 minutes. 
  • Serve with rice, chopped green onions and crusty french bread

Cajun Shrimp Maque Choux

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This quick and easy Cajun Shrimp Maque Choux can be on the table in just 20 minutes. Creamy corn is topped with spicy Cajun shrimp, peppers and tomato.

Creamy corn topped with spicy shrimp, peppers and tomato

January is a pivot month, especially if you live in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve made it through the darkest days of December and we’re headed towards lighter days. I am always looking for a quick comforting meal around this time of the year. This Cajun Shrimp Maque Choux is so easy to make in just 20 minutes. If you keep frozen shrimp and corn in your freezer, you are already half way there.

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Cajun Shrimp Maque Choux

Course Main Course
Cuisine Seafood
Keyword cajun, southern
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

Maque Choux

  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup sweet yellow onion, diced
  • 1 tsp garlic, minced
  • 2 cups corn, drained if using canned
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 12 large shrimp, cleaned and peeled
  • 1 tsp Cajun seasoning
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tsp garlic, minced
  • 1 small red bell pepper, julienne
  • 1/2 cup tomato, chopped
  • 1 tbsp cilantro, chopped for garnish

Instructions

  • 1.  In a medium pot over medium heat melt 1 tbsp. butter.  Add onion and saute for about 2-3 minutes or until softened.
    2.  Add garlic and saute for about 30 seconds. Stir in corn and cream.
    3.  Season with salt and set side. 
    4.  Season shrimp with Cajun seasoning and garlic.
    5.  Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large pan over high heat. Place shrimp in pan and sear until just pink, then flip and repeat on other side. 
    6.  Add red pepper and saute, stirring frequently for 2 minutes.
    7.  Add tomato and cook another 2 minutes.  
    8.  Serve shrimp over corn and garnish with cilantro.