“New Orleans Food,” by Tom Fitzmorris (Stewart Tabori & Chang, $27.95)
Asked once what my last meal would be, my passion for Cajun and Creole food kicked into high gear: shirred eggs with crabmeat followed by a short order of grillades and grits, which would segue into a lunch of seafood gumbo, fried oysters, deviled eggs with homemade remoulade sauce, baked eggplant, trout with pecans and bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and whiskey sauce for dessert.
I mean, if it’s a last meal, why worry? Tom Fitzmorris brings it all home in “New Orleans Food.” Fitzmorris, former editor of New Orleans Magazine, gathered more than 200 restaurant recipes from Crescent City restaurants, meals to be made at home, including novel ways to do trout.
A portion of the book’s proceeds goes to Habitat for Humanity, which is helping rebuild homes ravaged by Katrina.|Ellen Sweets
Shirred Eggs with Crabmeat Remick
The author writes: “The biggest hit we’ve ever had at our Sunday brunches is this recipe, which turns a classic crabmeat appetizer into a terrific egg dish. You don’t see shirred eggs very often, even in restaurants, but I love this style. The technique is to cook the eggs with powerful heat from above after setting them on something savory.” From “New Orleans Food” by Tom Fitzmorris. Serves 6.
Ingredients
Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup bottled chili sauce
1 tablespoon Creole mustard
1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon salt-free Creole seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
Crabmeat and eggs
6 thick slices smoky bacon
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat
1 tablespoon lemon juice
12 eggs
Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together the mayonnaise, chili sauce, mustard, vinegar, Tabasco, Creole seasoning and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Cut the bacon into squares and fry until crisp. Drain well and set aside.
Divide the crabmeat among 6 small, shallow gratin dishes. Sprinkle with the lemon juice and bake until heated through, about 5 minutes.
Top each baking dish with an equal portion of crumbled bacon. Spoon in enough of the sauce to cover the bacon and crab. Then carefully break 2 eggs onto each dish, keeping the yolks whole.
Turn the oven up to broil. Put the baking dishes in the broiler and cook until the eggs have set. Serve immediately with a warning that the dish is mouth-searingly hot.
Trout with Pecans
In the early 1980, when trout amandine ruled the earth, Ella Brennan asked her chefs at Commander’s Palace why they were cooking trout with almonds like every other place in the world. Almonds don’t grow around New Orleans, she argued. Why not use pecans, she asked. The chefs got to work, and trout with pecans was born. This preparation also works very well with friend soft-shell crabs. Fish stock is available at such specialty stores as Oliver’s, Whole Foods or Tony’s Fine Foods or you can substitute clam juice. Serves 6.
Ingredients
Pecan Butter
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons toasted pecans
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Sauce
2 tablespoons flour
1/2cup shrimp or fish stock
1/2cup Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoon lemon juice
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
Trout
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons salt-free Creole seasoning
2 tablespoon salt
2 eggs
1/2cup milk
Six 6- to 8-ounce trout fillets
1 cup clarified butter
8 ounces toasted pecan halves
Directions
To make pecan butter, combine butter, toasted pecans, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce in the container of a food processor or blender. Process to a smooth puree and set aside.
To make the sauce, stir flour into 2 tablespoons of water to a smooth paste in a heat-proof bowl. Bring the stock, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice to a light boil in a small saucepan. Whisk about 1/3 cup of the hot stock mixture into the flour paste. Then gradually pour the flour mixture back into the saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking continously. Whisk in the softened butter, a tablespoon at a time. Keep sauce warm.
Combine flour, Creole seasoning, and salt in a wide bowl. Beat eggs with the milk in another wide bowl. Dust the trout lightly with seasoned flour. Pass it through the egg wash and then dredge it once more in the seasoned flour.
Heat half of the clarified butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until a sprinkling of flour sizzles in it. Add half of the fillets and sauté, turning once, until golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Transfer the fillets to a warm serving platter and keep warm. Repeat the process with the remaining clarified butter and trout.
Spread the pecan butter over the trout, sprinkle with roasted pecans, and top with the sauce.
Creole Eggplant Gratin Delmonico
This was the favorite side dish at the old Delmonico, before Emeril Lagasse bought and modernized it. Right after this casserole comes out of the oven, it’s delicious – even if you don’t like the eggplant.
The author writes: “I had this dish for the last time at Delmonico two days before the old regime closed down. It was the night of the Babylon parade, which passed right in front of the restaurant on St. Charles Avenue. We had most of our dinner, went out to watch the parade, and came back in for dessert with Angie Brown and Rose Dietrich, the sisters who owned Delmonico. The combination of that Mardi Gras experience with one of the best meals I ever had there is forever engraved in my memory. Serves 4-8.
Ingredients
2 eggplants, peeled and cut into large dice
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 cup small peeled shrimp
1/2 pound claw crabmeat
1 fresh ripe tomato, chopped
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
3 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, leaves chopped
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and drop the eggplant in for about 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Melt butter in a large skillet. Add onion, celery, and shrimp, and cook until shrimp turn pink. Add crabmeat, tomato, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, marjoram, parsley, lemon juice and salt and cook, stirring lightly, until mixture is heated through. Place it in a baking dish and top with bread crumbs.
Bake until bread crumbs are browned on top, about 15 minutes.
Deviled Eggs Rémoulade
Deviled eggs are not thought of as a particularly brilliant appetizer, but the author say that’s because most people have never eaten them with New Orleans-style red rémoulade sauce. That combination was a specialty at the historic, lost Creole cafe call Maylie’s. Arnaud’s revived the idea some years ago with its superb rémoulade sauce, and it still holds up. Add some sliced ripe avocado, lettuce, and tomatoes to the plate, and you have a fine little salad. For an extra touch, garnish each serving with a couple of boiled, peeled shrimp. Serves 8.
Ingredients
8 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
1 tablespoon chopped yellow onion
1 tablespoon chopped celery
1/2 teaspoon small capers
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 dashes Tabasco
4 small ripe tomatoes (Creole or beefsteak), cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices, the into half moons
One 8-10 ounce bag baby lettuces or spring mix
1/2 cup red rémoulade sauce
Directions
Scoop yolks into a bowl. Reserve the egg-white halves.
The the yolks, add onion, celery, capers, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and Tabasco and mix well with a whisk. (You can even beat it to fluffiness.)
Place the mixture into a pastry bag and pipe it into the centers of the egg-white halves.
Cut avocado halves into 1/4-inch thick slices. Fan out each sliced avocado half on one side of an individual plate, with the slices overlapping. Place an egg half in the avocado’s pit indentation. Put two tomato half-moons and another egg half on the other side of the plate. Surround all with lettuce leaves. Drizzle with the rémoulade sauce generously over each salad and serve chilled.
