LOUISANIA STYLE BBQ SHRIMP

From Miss Mary’s Kitchen…
Louisania Style BBQ Shrimp

When Norm and I got married, he treated us to a memorable honeymoon in New Orleans , LA that began with a romantic train ride on the “Crescent” from Atlanta to New Orleans . Part of the plan (of course!) was to dine our way through as many of the wonderful restaurants as we could fit into our week’s stay in the city. Of particular note was dining at Pascal’s Manale, a restaurant in the Garden District of New Orleans. To get there, we took the famous St. Charles trolley almost to the front door of this long-standing establishment. Known far and wide for their Barbeque Shrimp, the quaint white tablecloth restaurant lived up to the pre-billing Norm had given. We later noticed that many French Quarter restaurants featured a version of this entrée but were told that Pasqual’s Manale was the inventor of the dish.

As you are served these huge Gulf prawns swimming in a big bowl of delectable smelling broth (it’s really not a barbeque sauce), they drape a bib over you, give you lots of crusty bread, and encourage you to ‘dig in’. I was a bit puzzled by the bib, but quickly came to understand the logic behind the offering. This meal is one of the messiest, most wonderful experiences anyone could ever hope to experience! The sensory explosion of spices of the sauce is fantastic, peeling the shrimp is an adventure, and the enjoyment of sopping up every last drop of that cooking liquid is truly a gourmet delight.

The memory of that stellar dining experience stayed with me, and through years of trial and error I came up with a version of my own. No, it’s not as messy as the Pascal’s Manale version (bibs are hard to find, and I peel the shrimp!), but much of the flavor is captured in my baked version – I believe the restaurant prepares theirs’ on the stovetop. The spicy heat of the sauce can easily be regulated by reduction of the freshly ground black pepper, but I invite you to try the recipe as I’ve written it before experimenting with the ingredients. Lots of crusty bread or an optional bowl of steaming rice and a salad are all that’s needed to take you away to a New Orleans inspired meal!

LOUISIANA-STYLE SHRIMP
Serves 2

¾ lb. medium to large shrimp
3 T. unsalted butter
1 t. chili powder
1 t. freshly ground black pepper
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
1 t. minced garlic
2 T. dry red wine
¼ t. salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel and devein the shrimp, arrange in a single layer in a 8”x8” glass baking dish. In a small saucepan, combine all other ingredients. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and pour over the shrimp. Bake for 8-10 minutes, watching so the shrimp don’t overcook. Serve over rice, or with bread to soak up the sauce.

Christmas Seafood Salad

From Miss Mary's Kitchen
Christmas Seafood Salad

Pinpointing the time for Christmas Eve dinner has usually been a guessing game at our house. Norm is always working at the store on this evening. Never knowing when this day will end has meant we could only vaguely plan when he would get home. For the first couple of years of our marriage, I wound up with dinners that were more than a "bit" overdone! Needless to say, I wised up, and came up with a meal that fit the bill of being ready when my spouse arrived. It also added to my pleasure of having a meal ready without fretting over it. Proudly, my Christmas Seafood Salad has become our favorite for Christmas Eve.

Since this is a meal you can quickly have on the table, it might help reduce your stress during the holiday season when friends and relatives are arriving at "unknown" times. You can prepare everything in advance and then sit back and relax, knowing you only need to place the ingredients on the plate, and your meal is ready. The selection and quantity of seafood and garnishes can be adapted to fit your preferences, or those of your guests.

A simple dessert to accompany this would be ambrosia and/or pound cake.

CHRISTMAS SEAFOOD SALAD
Serves 2, easily multiplied

Salad

1/2 lb. large shrimp
6-8 king crab legs, shells removed
2 lobster tails (5-7 oz. each)
Old Bay Seasoning
2 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
gherkins (or any tiny pickles)
assorted olives
capers
red-tipped lettuce (to cover plates)
lemon wedges

Seafood Sauce

1 c. mayonnaise
1/4 c. tomato catsup
2 dashes Louisiana hot sauce
1/4 t. garlic powder
2-3 T. dill pickle relish
1 T. horseradish (or to taste)
1/2 t. sugar

assorted crackers

Boil shrimp and lobster tails until done (I use the recipe for cooking shrimp that is on the Old Bay Seasoning can). Drain, cover and place in refrigerator to chill. Mix all ingredients for the Seafood Sauce, cover and place in refrigerator. After the seafood is chilled, remove, peel, then return back to refrigerator. Place 2 dinner plates in the refrigerator to cool at that time.

When your guest arrives, remove the plates and lettuce from the refrigerator. Cover each plate with lettuce leaves to make a bed for the salad. Arrange seafood as desired on each plate. Cut eggs into wedges, place on each plate. Scatter the remaining ingredients on the plates.

Serve with Seafood Sauce and crackers.

Special Shrimp Scampi

From Miss Mary's Kitchen
Special Shrimp Scampi

There are many versions of Shrimp Scampi, ranging from the very basic to the most elaborate, and I think I have tried most every one of them! I take great pleasure in finding ways to incorporate the wonderful smell and taste of garlic into a recipe, particularly when that includes my most favorite food, shrimp.


In this dish, I realized the basic importance of pairing wines to food as it plays out through the wine you use in the preparation versus the wine you serve with the food eaten. I mistakenly used a different variety of wine in the preparation from what I served with the Scampi. Guess what?! The food just didn’t taste right! The lesson I learned is that wines used in flavoring foods should compliment (or copy) the wine you serve with the dish.

SPECIAL SHRIMP SCAMPI
Serves 2, easily doubled

12-16 shrimp (16-20 count preferred), peeled and deveined
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. butter
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
¼ c. dry white wine (match to wine served with meal)
2 T. minced parsley (optional)

HELPFUL HINTS: have all ingredients prepared and assembled because this recipe is completed quickly once started. Adjust garlic to taste preference.

In a 10” skillet, melt butter with olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, stir until it begins to very lightly brown. Drop in shrimp in a single layer; allow shrimp and garlic to cook for 1 minute. Stir ingredients, flip shrimp over and cook 1 additional minute. Pour in wine, stir to mix, turn temperature down to simmer, cook 2 minutes. Stir in parsley, remove from heat.

Serve over rice or with crusty bread to absorb the sauce.

Butternut Squash Soup

From Miss Mary's Kitchen...
Want something really good for a cold winter evening?
Try this Butternut Squash Soup Recipe I dreamed up one night!


BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

2-3 lbs butternut squash
36 oz chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice squash lengthwise, remove seeds.
Cover cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with Pam
Place squash on cookie sheet, cut side down.
Bake 1 hour at 350 or until done... Remove from oven and cool

When cool enough to handle, peel off skin.
Cut into chunks and put into blender in batches with small amount of chicken broth.
Process until smooth
Transfer to large pan and add remaining broth.
Add salt and pepper to taste

Note - I have quartered an onion and baked with the squash, and processed. - Good addition

Lazy Pie

From Miss Mary's Kitchen ....
Lazy Pie


Tasty and easy to make desserts rank high on my list of "must haves" in my recipe collection. My mother's mother, Memaw, was capable of putting a made-from-scratch meal on the table that almost always included one of those yummy desserts.

Getting her to give you the exact measurement of ingredients she used was quite another thing! Memaw was taught how to cook using the sight and feel of the ingredients as measurements, and when she used "measuring" utensils, it was often a spoon from the table setting or a coffee cup used at breakfast. While these were standard measurements in earlier days, converting them to today's units of measure was a process of trial and error, not to mention many hours of joyfully watching and helping my grandmother in her kitchen.

Lazy Pie is not truly a pie but is closely associated to a cobbler. The ability to use a variety of fruits (fresh or canned), and the ease in preparation makes this one of my favorites - you can have it ready for the oven in less than 15 minutes.

If you use fresh fruits, add a compatible fruit juice to fill the measuring cup. The baking of this dessert can be done in advance because it is as good at room temperature as it is hot out of the oven. I must confess, however, that a melting scoop of ice cream over a bowl of Lazy Pie made with cherries is extremely mouth-watering as well as the tastiest treat you can have!

LAZY PIE
Serves 4 - 6

1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 stick butter (1/4 lb.)
pinch salt
2/3 c. milk
2 c. fruit and juice (fresh, frozen or canned)
extra sugar for topping

Place butter in an 8" baking pan, put in 350 degree oven to melt. Into a medium mixing bowl, sift the measured flour. Mix in remaining dry ingredients, and gradually stir in milk to blend thoroughly. Remove pan from the oven, pour batter over butter - do not stir. Pour fruit and juice on top of batter - do not stir. Before putting pan in the oven, sprinkle 1-2 T. sugar on top to create a waxy crust.

Bake for approximately 1 hour until nicely browned.

English Trifle

From Miss Mary’s Kitchen

Many years ago, Norm had a partner in his wine business who was from England. During the course of the relationship, we also came to know his parents. They were truly unique people, and it was a pleasure to know them. When I raved about her dessert at the end of a shared holiday meal, Anne offered me a recipe for English Trifle. It has come to be a Christmas favorite for us.

If I stop for a moment, I can still hear Anne describing the preparation of this dish in her wonderful British accent. She had "Americanized" her recipe over the years of living here, but there were certain standards she held. Of particular note was the usage of Bird's Custard Powder, an English pudding mix that Anne swore by. When I left that night, she gave me a box of this pudding mix so I could try it for myself. Today, I search to find a container of Bird's each time I make the trifle because it does add a distictive flavor, just as Anne described! Another caution in making the dish is to not use pineapple, fresh or canned, in the choice of fruit because it will not let the gelatin to set up properly.

I hope this becomes a tradition at your house!

ENGLISH TRIFLE
Serves 6 - 8

1 pound cake (I use Sara Lee frozen)
sherry (not cooking sherry)
16 oz. canned fruit (no pineapple)
1 sm pkg. flavored gelatin (I use cherry)
1 Birds' Custard Powder box
1/2 pt. whipping cream, whipped

Remove crust from the pound cake and cut into 2" cubes. Make a layer of cubes in the bottom of a trifle bowl (or large glass bowl). Sprinkle sherry liberally over cake, allow to soak in. Drain fruit, saving juice. Pour fruit over cake.

Prepare gelatin using juice from fruit as liquid (add water if not enough). Pour the mixture over the cake and fruit. Cover with plastic wrap, put in the refrigerator to set (overnight if preferred).

Prepare the custard powder according to directions, allow to cool. Pour over all ingredients, cover with plastic wrap, return to the refrigerator for several hours to set. At serving time, top with whipped cream.

MATLACHA CRABCAKES

From Miss Mary’s Kitchen…

Matlacha Crab Cakes

A number of years ago my parents came to visit us, along with my sister and nephew. For dinner that night, we decided to have crab cakes, a well-known favorite of Daddy’s. After Norm and I collaborated to come up with a recipe that was more crab than breadcrumbs, he and Daddy were sent off in search of lump crabmeat. That “quick trip” turned out to be a multi-store visit but they proudly arrived back with enough to serve six seafood-loving diners. Despite the delayed preparation for this feast, the wait was well worth it!

During dinner the conversation turned to “picking” crab meat, and the work involved with the process. Daddy’s father had retired to an island near Ft. Myers , FL about 60 years ago, and there was always an abundance of seafood available in the area. One of our favorite restaurants on the island today, Moretti’s, was once the home of the Matlacha Crab Co., where people worked each day to “pick” crab meat. If any of you have ever attempted to remove the meat from the shell of this small crustacean, you understand the effort.

We serve these delectable Crab Cakes with mashed potatoes, cole slaw and lots of tartar sauce. Our version of tartar sauce is quite simple – mayonnaise, dill pickle relish and fresh lemon juice – and is a great basic accompaniment to most any seafood. Be sure to serve the seafood with fresh lemon wedges to brighten up the taste.

MATLACHA CRAB CAKES
Serves 4 - 6

1 lb. lump crabmeat, drained (I often use half claw meat for sweetness)
1 T. each yellow and red bell pepper, finely minced
1 t. dry mustard
2 T. onion, finely minced
1 T. chives
1 egg, beaten
1 c. soft breadcrumbs
milk
salt and paprika (to taste)
all purpose flour
Oil/butter

Saute onion to soften in a small skillet using butter; set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, carefully pick over crabmeat to remove particles of shell. Try not to break up the crab while doing this. Fold all other ingredients in except milk, flour, oil and butter. If too dry, add milk to help mixture bind together. Place a 10" non-stick skillet on the stove over medium heat; add oil and butter to cover the bottom ¼ inch deep. Put flour in a pie plate for dredging. Shape approximately ¼ cup of the mixture into a patty, gently roll in flour to completely cover. Place 4 to 6 patties in the skillet. Do not crowd or you will not have a crispy crust on the cakes. Sauté over medium to medium high to brown first side, turn, sauté on other side. Reduce heat, cook 5 minutes, turning once. Remove to absorbent paper, drain briefly before serving.