More Cast Iron Cooking-Ruger Forum Culinary Program (contd)

[Swampbilly]

Man, you folks have been making me HONGRY with all of that cast iron dutch oven cooking. I have some cast iron pots and pans, but will soon have to add a dutch oven to the collection.

For those who do not have any cast iron cookware, I have come to learn that every household should have at least one piece - the Lodge 12" cast iron skillet w/ lid. Will last forever and so useful.

So, after viewing Sixshot's cobbler creations in the dutch, I got motivated and took to some cast iron creation of my own. I figured we had enough dessert pictures, so decided to offer a main course idea.

From my many years living in the South Louisiana region (Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans) here's a popular Creole dish - Etoufee
(pronounced : A - too - fay). This one will be Creole Seafood Etoufee.


First you begin by melting 1/2 stick of butter in the 12" skillet. True Cajun recipes will have you use one whole stick, but I lighten it a bit...that's as close to diet food as this dish gets folks.
(please do not insult the Etoufee by using margarine. I think we all know now the health benefits of margarine were a grand marketing scam. The stuff is only a couple of molecules away from plastic)

Next, you add in the chopped vegetables...lovingly referred to in South Louisiana as "the holy trinity" / onion, bell pepper, and celery
Chop well - 1 large yellow onion, 1/2 yellow bell pepper, 1/2 red bell pepper, and 3 stalks of celery. Stir in, and sautee in butter, stirring ocasionally, for approx. 15 - 20 minutes, or until vegetables soften and onions begin to "clear" in apprarance.
I also sprinkle this mixture with 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning, and just under 1/4 teaspoon of cracked black pepper

Next, I stir in 1-can of Campbells Golden Mushroom Soup...NOT the standard mushroom soup. Use Golden...important for taste and color. After emptying the can contents, fill the soup can 3/4 of the way to the top with water, and pour into the mixture. Stir this in and continue to sautee for another 5 - 7 minutes.



Next, we add in a little fire (cayenne pepper)...NOT too much ! I generall add 1/4 teaspoon...some might want a little less:

Here are the main ingredients for this Seafood Etoufee - 1-lb container of Lump white crabmeat and 1-lb of shrimp :

Stir in the crabmeat, being careful to not break up the lumps too much. When stirring this, I find it best to "slip the spoon underneath the mixture and gently move it around without breaking the lumps apart too much.

Your fire should be on simmer...cook the crabmeat for approx. 12 - 15 minutes, stirring gently a couple of times :

P.I.S.S. = put in some shrimp !

Gently push the shrimp down into the mixture. Cover the skillet and simmer the shrimp for 7-10 minutes, or until they turn a slight even pink color. Doesn't take long for the shrimp to cook, and if done too long, they tend to toughen.

Next, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley. Lightly stir in and simmer for 5 minutes :

DONE !! Ce se Bon !!!

Go ahead, get you nose down there and smell it....haaawwww....that's some good Creole cookin' Cher !!

Serve over rice with a nice cold beer or a glass of cabernet sauvignon. Or for the non-drinkers, any old favorite beverage.


So, you see, you too can cook Cajun / Creole with ingredients you can likely find in your neighborhood - ENJOY !!!



MD

 

[lumbering.buffalo]

Ok, that dish has been added to my recipe database. :lol:

 

[Jeff Hoover]

In best cajun accent, " Dat shore look goooood" .

Being from Maryland, I didn't know crab came in plastic containers :lol:

MD, you're right on about margarine. I put suet out for woodpeckers in the winter. I read if you scoop out two holes, replace one with butter, the other with margarine, the woodpeckers won't touch the margarine. I did, the woodpeckers never touched the margarine. Food for thought. Unlike woodpeckers, I only eat what's put in front of me .

How about some Jambalaya and Red beans and rice

Hey flatgate, how about that Recipe section so we quit polluting the Gallery section with all this great food ?

 

[Swampbilly]

Being from Maryland, I didn't know crab came in plastic containers

HA, HA....yeah, I hear you...I've caught plenty of my own crabs when living in Louisiana and from the markets when I lived in Virginia, near the Chesapeake Bay. But unless you want to go through all of the shell pickin'...it tends to be easier preparation with the ready packed

I started to put it here, under this Ruger cookbook thread, but was afraid not enough people would see it...as all of the Dutch oven cooking was in the gallery.

http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=65195

Good to know that when we take a break from shooting those great Ruger firearms, we can whip up some great grub.


MD

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Well I thought all Cajun recipies started with the words. FIRST YOU MAKE A ROUX. Boy do I hate that word takes 45 min. to do one. One cup of lard( yea lard because you eat so little) and one cup of flour.
Yours looks great. I will give it a try for sure.
I worked in Cajun country off and on for 40 years. Love to eat and cook the food.
Thanks,
Jim

 

[sixshot]

Thanks, I guarantee you I will try that recipe, looks & sounds wonderful. Yesterday I did a leg of lamb, marinated the night before, also had a #12 oven full of dutch oven spuds & the best biscuits in the universe (my wife's) I forgot to take a picture of the biscuits, dang it!

Dick

 

[callshot]

That looks good. At this time in my life anything that someone else cooks always looks and tastes good. When I worked as the Dairy Fairy (manager) in a grocery store, I looked up some particulars on margarine because I wanted to know how to answer customers questions about it as opposed to butter. I found that it is only one molecule different from plastic. I always use butter now.

 

[contender]

I'm gonna have to make some of that. However, I'm a sucker for crawdad etoufee, so I may have to add some of those as well.

 

[Swampbilly]

That's true too Contender...you can remove the crabmeat and shrimp and substitute 1-lb - 2lb of crawfish tails. Make certain you check the package, as many are now packaging it in 12oz packs, rather than 16oz.
If that's the case, use two of the 12 oz packs.

And PLEASE...if at all possible, check the package carefully if the crawfish were harvested in the US, preferably Louisiana. There are a LOT of crawfish sold here in the US that are imported from China. If that's all you can find, well it is what it is...but please at least check.


I made a slight edit at the crab & shrimp photo above...forgot to list the quantity. For my recipe above, that crab container holds 1-lb of meat and I'm using 1-lb of shrimp.

Also one more edit I made above...after emptying the Golden Mushroom Soup can contents into the vegetables, fill the soup can 3/4 of the way to the top with water, and pour into the mix. Stir that in...


Regards,

MD

 

[Quietdood]

Outstanding... 5 stars. I have a question but can't find the Ruger Cookware-Smithing section.

My Lodge Cast Iron Skillet seems to be rusting a bit on the bottom. Sometimes after I cook with it, if I accidentally leave it on a moist counter and it leaves some rust stains. I've been lightly oiling the entire thing now... instead of just the inside, hoping this might help. Is this a good idea? I have a feeling this rust might be a normal part of cooking with these.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

I'm gonna have to make some of that. However, I'm a sucker for crawdad etoufee, so I may have to add some of those as well.

Mr Contender Sir,
In the South we fish with crawdads. We eat CRAWFISH and Mudbugs :lol: :lol:
100% correct on the crawfish coming from China. That is what the major chains around here carry.
A Story about that. When I was living in Morgan City LA., which is in the heart of Cajun/Crawfish Country. The China crawfish were cheaper than the LA. ones in the store I shoped in. Go figure that one out
Jim

 

[Swampbilly]

Wyandot Jim...

Yes, that's correct...they sometimes are cheaper. Just part of the predatory business practices of China to kill US industry. Kind of like the way they and Japan dump electronics on the market until they kill the competition...then raise pricces.

I have looked at some of the Chinese crawfish recently and find their prices pretty expensive now.

I have a story to tell on how this came about. Many years ago a Chinese delegation came to South Louisiana and was interested to begin farming crawfish and were looking to purchase the harvesting and processing equipment manufactured and sold in Louisiana.

Of course, the locals were quite excited by this as they saw new market opportunities to sell the equipment to China. So, there was a large initial purchase of harvesting and packing equipment. This was all seen to be great, as Louisiana had a new equipment sale market so China could process and market crawfish...in China, it was thought. Yeah, right...

Well, in typical eastern culture fashion...meaning we don't create the original invention, but we will copy yours and make it cheaper...the Chinese returned home, disassembled the equipment, and reverse engineered it. They then began manufacturing the equipment themselves and marketing it too. That ended the Louisiana equipment sale opportunity to China.

To add insult to injury, next thing you know Chinese farmed and packaged crawfish began arriving in Louisiana and other parts of the country and dumped on the market at very cheap prices.

Believe me, I checked those packs and only purchased homegrown. Or when the price of crawfish was too high, I switch to shrimp.

Today, Chinese produced crawfish are all over the place, and now I find they've raised their prices once they gained foothold.

I blessed out a manager at a local Charlotte "Cajun" themed restaurant who markets their entire business off of the Louisiana image, and then uses Chinese crawfish. I won't be eating there again.

Regards,

MD

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Wyandot Jim...

Yes, that's correct...they sometimes are cheaper. Just part of the predatory business practices of China to kill US industry. Kind of like the way they and Japan dump electronics on the market until they kill the competition...then raise pricces.

I have looked at some of the Chinese crawfish recently and find their prices pretty expensive now.

I have a story to tell on how this came about. Many years ago a Chinese delegation came to South Louisiana and was interested to begin farming crawfish and were looking to purchase the harvesting and processing equipment manufactured and sold in Louisiana.

Of course, the locals were quite excited by this as they saw new market opportunities to sell the equipment to China. So, there was a large initial purchase of harvesting and packing equipment. This was all seen to be great, as Louisiana had a new equipment sale market so China could process and market crawfish...in China, it was thought. Yeah, right...

Well, in typical eastern culture fashion...meaning we don't create the original invention, but we will copy yours and make it cheaper...the Chinese returned home, disassembled the equipment, and reverse engineered it. They then began manufacturing the equipment themselves and marketing it too. That ended the Louisiana equipment sale opportunity to China.

To add insult to injury, next thing you know Chinese farmed and packaged crawfish began arriving in Louisiana and other parts of the country and dumped on the market at very cheap prices.

Believe me, I checked those packs and only purchased homegrown. Or when the price of crawfish was too high, I switch to shrimp.

Today, Chinese produced crawfish are all over the place, and now I find they've raised their prices once they gained foothold.

I blessed out a manager at a local Charlotte "Cajun" themed restaurant who markets their entire business off of the Louisiana image, and then uses Chinese crawfish. I won't be eating there again.

Regards,

MD

Hey MD,
Thanks, I didn't know the rest of the story.
The next will probably be farm raised shrimp by China. Lots of that taking place now. I will not buy those when I can get Gulf shrimp. I saw the ponds in Thiland growing the 8-10ct Tiger Prawns
I think WILD GULF shrimp is cheaper now than it hase been in years.
I just bought 10# of never frozen head off Gulf 17-20 ct. for $5.00#
I like you use shrimp rather than crawfish, but I think the crawfish fat adds to the taste.
I do a crawfish fettuccine to die for. Big pain to make because you have to reduce the cream and seafood stock/clam juice a bunch. But worth it.
Jim

 

[45Colt_Man]

I ran the maintenance for an aviation company in Alaska. We had a branch in Lake Charles, and several other branches in Louisiana and Texas. I would figure out ways to have to go to Louisiana, just so I could have the food from that area. Convinced the boss I needed to spend six weeks there a couple of times. Great food, good people and I could take my wife with me at their expense.
Took a crew of about eight down there one time. The bar ran out of Budwieser, the manager went across the street to his competion and bought all the Bud they had and brought it back. Then they locked the doors. I asked why they were locking the doors, he replied we have to close at such and such a time, but those that are inside can drink until they want to leave. We Alaskans were always welcome there, probably the best night they ever had.

They do have good food there, but who ever heard of 10 ounce cans of beer.


Dana

 

[Swampbilly]

Ahhh....yes, I recall those days fondly.

I once frequented a local bar in the small town I grew up in...town of Scott, which is 4 miles west of Lafayette, along I-10, and about 69 miles east of Lake Charles.

At 2:00am they would close the doors and a few close friends, guys and gals, would remain...often until about 6:30am that morning. We would then all head out to breakfast together.

Been a very long time since I've done that. Good times...


MD