Cajun Fires

WINTER BREW

SHRIMP OKRA GUMBO

Albert (My Dad)

32 oz. package frozen chopped Okra
2 lg. Onions chopped fine
3 T. Oil, 2 Tbsp. Vinegar, 1 tsp. Tabasco Sauce
8 c. Water
1 lb. Shrimp (peeled and deveined)

Use a 4 quart Dutch oven with a lid that can be put in the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put okra, onions, oil, vinegar, and Tabasco Sauce in the 4 quart pot. Bake with lid on for 1 ½ hours to 1 hour and 45 minutes. Stir every 20 to 30 minutes. Take lid off for last 30 minutes.

Put pot on to of stove and add water, let simmer for about 1 hour.

Add shrimp and let simmer for another 30 minutes.

Serve over rice. About 6 hearty servings

Variations: Use chicken or beef cut in chunky pieces. You can put in the chicken without cooking it, but fry down the beef first before adding to the gumbo and let simmer for 1 hour instead of 30 minutes. My Dad and I also add chicken gizzards to the chicken okra gumbo

½ c. Lard, shortening, or oil
1 lb. Lean Ground Beef
1 lb. Ground Pork
1 c. Onion (finely chopped)
1 c. Celery (finely chopped
1 lg. Bell Pepper (finely chopped)
2 c. Chicken Stock or Broth
2 tsp. Kitchen Bouquet
2 tsp. Tabasco Sauce
1 T. Worcestershire Sauce
Tony Chacherere’s Seasoning
¾ c. Green Onions (finely chopped)
5 T. Parsley (finely chopped
6 – 8 c. Cooked Rice (long grain)

Use a heavy 6-quart dutch oven that has a cover. Put lard in pot and heat to very hot, add both meats and “fry down” the meat, stirring and breaking up the meat so that it is crumbly, making a brown crust on the bottom of the pot, adding stock if needed to dissolve the crust, do this until meat is browned and cooked. Add next 3 ingredients and sauté until translucent. Add Kitchen Bouquet to stock and stir into meat mixture. Season with Tabasco, Worcestershire, and Tony’s to taste. This needs to simmer for about an hour or more if you have time, add liquid if it reduces too much. Add green onions and parsley to meat mixture and take off heat. No matter how many times I make this recipe, I never have the right amount of liquid for the rice or vice versa, so from this point on we add a little rice at a time to the meat mixture, add and mix until you have a moist, yet loose mixture, you DO NOT want mixture too mushy or too dry.

DonnE Dees

Another dear friend who I love to be in the kitchen with when he is cooking. He has a restaurant by the name of “DonnE’s Cooking. WOW, talk about good cooking. He cooked this pork loin for a segment on my web site “Southern Fires”. He cooks the best pork loin I’ve ever tasted, bar none.

5 – 7 lb. Boneless Pork Loin
3 T. Garlic (minced)
2-3 c. Onions (chopped)
2 Bell Pepper (chopped)
Cayenne Pepper
Salt

Down the length of the pork loin, with a long butcher knife, run through the center as far as it will go, then repeat process on other side, so that a slit runs the length of the meat. The slit needs to be about 1 1/2 inches long.

Mix onions, bell pepper, garlic, cayenne, and salt together in a bowl. This is the mixture you use to stuff the roast with. Put as much of it as you can down the slit you made in the center of the roast, stuff from both sides. There will be some stuffing left, set it aside to use in the gravy. Next rub the outside of the roast with cayenne and salt all the way around.

Prepare a pot with about 1/4 inch of oil in it. Put in roast and put lid on pot. Use a medium heat. Cook for about 30 minutes and check. Turn over and let cook another 30 minutes. 

Continue checking and turning. On a meat thermometer you want the thickest part of the meat to be between 160° and 170° when inserted. Take it off the fire at this point and let sit for 15 to 30 minutes before removing. 

Once you remove the meat from the pot add the leftover onion mixture to the pot and sauté until wilted. Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups water and gently stir until crust from bottom of pot has dissolved. 

You are now ready to serve the best roast you’ve ever cooked. This method of cooking the meat is called Pot Roasting. It can also be baked in the oven, grilled or smoked.

Ok, I realize you may not have the capability to do this to a turkey, but you can do the same thing to a chicken and it is just as good.

Turkey Fryer (special pot & butane burner I use to fry this bird)
12 lb. Turkey
3 gal. Oil (preferably Peanut Oil)
Seasoning Mixture: 2 T. Salt, 2 T. Red Pepper, 2 T. Garlic powder, 2 T. Onion Powder, 2 T. melted Margarine, 
1 T. Vinegar

Mix the seasoning mixture and put in Injector made for injecting meat. Inject the defrosted turkey and refrigerate for 24 hours before frying.

The contraption I have has this neat rack that the turkey fits on and there is a loop that a hook is used to lower the turkey & rack into the pot of grease that is 325°. A thermometer for frying is absolutely necessary to keep the oil at the proper temperature. Oh, by the way, this is all done outside, because of the size of pot and the butane burner.

When the turkey is lowered into the oil be EXTREMELY CAREFUL, the grease “spits, spurts, spues, and splatters” and burns if it touches you. The temperature will drop, but you can turn the fire up until the grease is back to between 325° & 350°.

Fry turkey for 3 1/2 minutes per pound until golden brown. Remove turkey from the pot VERY CAREFULLY. (If you have this turkey frying set up, it came with a set of directions, follow them carefully). You must use extreme care when frying turkeys or chickens, the grease is so hot and can burn seriously so easy.

To do a chicken, (and it can be done in the house on a regular stove) you will need a deep pot (something like a stockpot). Fill it half full of oil and follow the same directions for the temperature and cooking times. After you remove it from the oil, put on a draining rack in a baking pan and put in a 350° over, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes to dry the skin. It will be super crunchy.

4 - 5 lb. Venison (cut & debone venison into serving size pieces)
4 T. Oil
1 lg. Onion (chopped)
1 med. Bell Pepper (chopped)
1 c. Celery (chopped)
2 cloves Garlic (minced)
3 – 4 T. Roux
1 Sm. Can Tomato Paste
2 cans Beef Broth
Salt, Red Pepper, Black Pepper, Tabasco Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce
Cooked Rice

Marinate venison in a 12 ounces of red wine, beer, Coke, or 7-Up seasoned with salt and pepper overnight or 4-6 hours. Empty and throw away marinade.

Season Venison with salt, peppers, Tabasco & Worcestershire Sauces. Put oil in an 8-quart heavy saucepot or a heavy roaster, and allow getting hot but not smoking. Put meat in and brown it. You want it to be a  browned and it will make a brown crusty mess in the bottom of your pot. Remove venison from pot to a platter.

Add a little water to the pot to dissolve the crusty bottom. Add onion, bell pepper, & celery and wilt. Add garlic and continue to cook for a few minutes.

Add roux and tomato paste. Mix in well; you want to incorporate them well with the other ingredients.

Add broth. You may have to add a little water AFTER it has simmered a while. You want the consistency to be thicker than gumbo, more like a stew.

Taste to see how you need to season it. Add seasoning to your taste. It really needs to be spicy – not fiery hot. Chef Paul Prudhomme put it very well “All you want in your mouth is a nice after glow”. Add the Venison to the pot and let cook for 1½ to 2 hours or until Venison is tender. Simmer on a medium to low heat; all you want is a slow simmer. 
Serve over cooked Rice.

This is the first Red velvet Cake I ever tasted and it did NOT have a cream cheese icing, it was more like a pudding type topping and filling. We were celebrating an anniversary at a Wonderful Lafayette, LA restaurant and ended our meal with this delicacy.

1 1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. shortening
2 oz. Red Food Coloring
2 Eggs 
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 c. Flour
2 T. Cocoa Powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Soda
1 c. Buttermilk
1 tsp. Vinegar

Cream sugar and shortening. Add food color, eggs and vanilla. Mix flour, cocoa, and salt together. Mix flour and buttermilk into sugar mixture, alternating flour and buttermilk. Mix vinegar and soda together (it will foam, so put in a larger container) and FOLD into batter.

Pour into 2 - 9” greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350° for 25 to 35 minutes.

Frosting:

1 c. Milk
1/4 c. Flour
1 c. Sugar
1 c. Shortening
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Put milk and flour in medium saucepan, whisk until all lumps are removed and cook on medium heat until thick. Cool. Cream sugar and shortening until fluffy. Add cooled flour mixture and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla. Spread between layers of cake and the top and sides of cake.

PUMPKIN PIE CRUNCH

Tracy 

Tracy is Virginia’s daughter and she is her mothers daughter when it comes to fast, easy and delicious. This recipe is perfect if you need more than 1 pie and just don’t have the time to fool with 2, much less a crust.

15 oz can Pumpkin
12 oz can Evaporated Milk
3 Eggs 
1 1/2 c. Sugar
4 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 box Golden Butter Cake Mix
1 c. pecans (finely chopped)
½ lb. Margarine (melted)

Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, spice and salt together really well and pour into a well greased 9”x11” glass baking dish.

Sprinkle dry cake mix over filling. Sprinkle pecans over cake mix and pour melted margarine over all.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour.

Tracy tells me that she sometimes uses this as a replacement for sweet potatoes as her vegetable.

 

PECAN PIE

Thelma 

Another one of Thelma’s recipes. You are going to see a lot of her recipes around. She shared all the ones she had written down so far, she has a way to go yet, I keep telling her she needs to write the ones down that she cooked with her Mom and the ones everyone take for granted because they have eaten them for the past 30 + years. She had this recipe marked “The Best”.

3/4 c. Sugar
2 T. Flour
1 tsp. Salt
1 c. Karo Syrup (the clear one)
2 Eggs
1/2 c. Evaporated Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 c. Pecans (broken in large pieces)
1 unbaked 9” Pie Shell

Mix sugar, flour and salt together. Stir in Karo, beat eggs in one at a time. Add vanilla to the milk and mix into Karo mixture. Stir in pecans.

Pour into the pie shell. Bake at 350° for about 50 to 60 minutes.

SWEET POTATO PIE

Thelma 

Another one of my dear friend Thelma's recipes. It is so comforting to eat this wonderful pie.

1 c. Sweet Potatoes (mashed)
1/2 c. Evaporated Milk
2 Eggs (beaten)
1 tsp. Cinnamon (ground)
1 tsp. Nutmeg (ground)
1 c. Light Brown Sugar
9” Unbaked Pie Crust
Topping

Mix all ingredients together and beat with a wire whisk until everything is thoroughly incorporated.

Pour into the pie crust and bake at 450° for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350° for 30 to 40 minutes. Add topping during the last 15 to 20 minutes of bake time.

TOPPING:

1/2 c. Pecans (finely chopped)
2 T. Margarine (softened)
1/2 c. Light Brown Sugar (firmly packed)
1 T. Flour

Mix all ingredients and sprinkle on top of pie and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

CRANBERRY RELISH

Virginia

11 oz. can Mandarin Oranges
16 oz. can Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
1 c. Pecans (chopped small)
½ c. Sugar
1 tsp. Almond Extract

Mix all together the day before serving so flavors can marry