Grillades

Are you looking for an interesting party meal that gets people involved? I always am! It's fun to have friends over for dinner and really nice when you don't have to do all of the work right before everyone is ready to eat. In the past, I've done sandwich parties and pizza parties. Each guest makes two sandwiches or two individual pizzas; one for now and one to take home. As I pack the "doggy bags" I make sure that no one gets the sandwich they made. This let's them taste a little something different than their dinner when enjoying a midnight snack. A grits party seemed like a fun twist on a "make your own dinner event."

My mom recommended a grits bar after she had a small dinner party with friends. People were talking about the meal for weeks and seemed to get pretty involved in decorating their grits. It was quite a hit, so I tried it during the holidays.

My mother-in-law made 5 servings of her super-fabulous grillades, over 20lbs of meat. Though I know she did all of the work, I have to give my father-in-law credit for making a huge mess. He was in charge of tenderizing the meat, but refused to follow direction. I highly recommend covering the meat with freezer paper or saran wrap as you flatten it, this will prevent bits from splashing all over your kitchen. Needless to say, he had a blast but my mother-in-law had to clean it up when he was done.

I guess moms do know best because we ran out of grillades and grits bar fixins about an hour into the party!

Here are some grits bar suggestions-
Cracklins
Smoked Sausage
Ham
Bacon
Creole Maque Choux
Assorted cheeses- smoked gouda, cheddar, and pepper jack
Green Onions
Sauteed Mushrooms
Grillades
Anything else you want!

To make the serving interesting, use martini glasses and add a sophisticated touch to this down home meal. Enjoy!

Janet's Grillades

4lbs top round sliced ¼ inch thick, cut in bite size pieces, pounded flat if necessary
½ cup bacon drippings
½ cup flour- seasoned to taste with garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, black pepper, salt, thyme, oregano and paprika
1 cup onions, chopped
2 cups green onions, chopped
¾ cup celery, chopped
1 ½ cups green peppers, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans petite diced tomatoes, about 2 cups
2/3 teaspoon thyme
1 cup beef broth
1 cup red wine
3 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper, black
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon Louisiana Red Hot
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
3 Tablespoons parsley, chopped

Heat 4 Tablespoons bacon grease in a Dutch oven. Dust each piece of meat with seasoned flour and brown well. More grease may be needed as you add meat to the pot. As the meat browns, remove to a warm plate. To Dutch oven add 4 more Tablespoons bacon grease and flour. Stir and cook to make a dark brown roux. Add onions, green onions, celery, green pepper, garlic and sauté all together until limp. Add tomatoes, and thyme and cook for 3 minutes. Add water and wine. Stir well for several minutes; add browned meat, salt, pepper, bay leaves, Red hot and Worcestershire. Lower heat, stir and continue cooking. If veal rounds are used, simmer covered approximately 2 hours. Remove bay leaves. Stir in parley and cool. Let Grillades sit several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. More liquid may be added. Grillades should be very tender. Sever over grits or rice.

New Year- Healthier Foods?

Well, with the new year I'm trying to start cooking some healthier foods- poached chicken, grilled vegetables and salads. But I still want some of my traditional home cooked favorites. I couldn't help but ask myself...If I make a roux without oil but still put the sausage in the gumbo is that healthy? I guess healthier is better than not healthy at all!

I started with a quick pan fry of the sausage, then added onions, peppers, celery and garlic and topped it off with an oven toasted roux and homemade turkey stock. Then added some seasonings from the pantry along with a little file from the New Orleans Farmers' Market. The result was a perfectly colored, great tasting gumbo with less fat than my original recipe. It probably would be considered healthy if I left out the sausage. But honestly, who wants gumbo with out sausage?

Turkey Stock-
The remains of our Christmas Turkey
2 onions, cut in half
1 head of garlic
2 leeks- tops only, reserve the white part for the gumbo or another dish
1 bell pepper, cut in half and seeds removed
3 carrots
2 jalapeno peppers, whole
4 ribs of celery
2 bay leaves
fresh herbs- thyme, marjoram, savory


Combine ingredients in a large stock pot. Add water until everything is covered. Bring mixture to a boil, Reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours. Let cool and then strain to separate the liquid. If you have time and feel like going through the trouble. Pick through the remaining mixture of vegetables and meat to reserve wanted parts for the gumbo.


Oven Toasted Roux

20 cups of flour or an entire 5lb bag of flour

Spread flour evenly on a large baking sheet or in a dutch oven. Bake at 350 for two hours, stirring every 20 minutes. Flour should be nutty in color. Continue to roast if you want it darker. Use flour in place of oil and flour based roux in recipes. I thought 20 cups was too much to start with, just in case and used only 3 cups...it worked perfectly. NO need to do the whole bag if you don't want to. But, I bet friends would love getting a whole jar of roux! It works great with whole wheat flour too.

Poached Chicken Breast
2 chicken breasts
1/2 lemon
herbs- thyme, fennel, oregano, savory

Fill a pot 1/2 with water, squeeze lemon juice into the water and throw the lemon in the water. Add herbs of your choice. Bring water to a boil, then add chicken breasts and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Then turn off heat and let the chicken breasts it in the water for 15 more minutes. Drain and use chicken breasts on salad or in chicken salad.

Grilled Snapper with Jalapeno Holandaise and Jalapeno Smoked Bacon

For a while, I decided I wouldn't cook fish! I had so many bad experiences with fish that wasn't fresh when I purchased it, or it just didn't smell the way I wanted it to. Well today, I decided to give it a shot again. This time I went to my local Whole Foods Market and the very nice man who helped me said, "If it isn't fresh, doesn't taste right or is not to your satisfaction, I'll give you your money back. I bet my job that you'll love it!"

Well thank you kind sir! It was great. The red snapper was flaky with just the right amount of moisture and no nasty fishy taste! Just wonderful fish that tasted and smelled great! Fish is redeemed.

My initial plan was to make a healthy grilled fish for the start of the new year...well, that was the plan, but not what happened. How could I pass up fresh jalapenos and the sticks of butter left over from Christmas? Since we don't usually keep butter in the house, I decided I had to use it to get rid of it :) Thus, Jalapeno Hollandaise was born...In the blender, it is so easy!

Jalapeno Hollandaise-
1 stick butter- melted and hot
6 egg yolks
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp green onions
1 tsp diced jalapenos

Put the egg yolks, lemon juice, green onions and jalapenos into a blender. Cover and blend until frothy. While the blender is still running, very slowly pour the hot melted butter into the egg mixture. This will make the sauce very thick. Serve immediately.

I poured this over the fish with a saute of jalapenos, onions, garlic, scallions and jalapeno smoked bacon...so much for healthy!!! You may also want to drop a little bit of bacon in the hollandaise while it is blending to give it a nice smoky flavor. Enjoy!