Tag Archives: Cajun

Chicken Étouffée à la Dad

photo 2 (3)Once upon a time, we were in Wisconsin at my parents’ house. In Wisconsin, the days are book-ended by coffee at the beginning and amazing dinner at the end. Recently, my dad has been on a Cajun kick and I’ve tasted two different kinds of Étouffée and a Gumbo. These culinary excursions have reminded me of something: I LOVE CAJUN FOOD. I had forgotten, somehow … though I don’t understand how, since that’s what we served at our wedding, for Pete’s sake.

Anyway, Cajun and I are getting along just great again. We reignited our feelings for one another through this recipe, courtesy of this awesome food blog, via my dad, and now I’m passing it along to you.

If someone served this to me at a restaurant, I would be happy. That’s how good it is. It has a nice low burn to it, but it’s not too spicy–in fact, my husband denies he can even taste the spice.

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Hmmm. His taste buds must have been nuked–that’s the only explanation I can think of, because there’s definitely some heat there.

In fact, upon further thought, I believe I can identify the very place where his taste buds were forever damaged: a little restaurant called Burmese Gems (since closed) that we ate at during our undergrad days in Bloomington, Indiana. Their food was so spicy that once, on the walk back to the dorms, I had to lie down on the sidewalk because the pain in my abdomen from the spice was so severe.

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The sidewalk, people!

My taste buds made it out okay, but apparently my spouse’s were forever inoculated against spice, and now he can’t taste it unless it’s of the magnitude of the Chicago fire. Or something.

Anyway.

Here’s the recipe, a couple semi-blurry iPhone pics and my firmest endorsement.

Chicken Étouffée à la Dad

(Serves 8)

Ingredients

2 TBS olive oil
2 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 stick butter
2/3 cup flour
1 large onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 bottle amber beer
2 bay leaves
1-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with chiles
3 cups chicken stock
1 TBS maple syrup
2 TBS Cajun seasoning
2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
Serve with rice and a bottle of hot sauce

  1. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or large pot. Season the chicken with salt and pepper; brown in batches and remove to a cutting board.
  2. Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces (it will still be a little raw–that’s fine). Prep your veggies: dice the onion, green pepper, celery, and mince the garlic.
  3. Melt the butter in the pot; when melted, add the flour and stir frequently for 20-25 minutes (don’t let it burn!) to create a roux. The roux is done when it’s a little darker than peanut butter. If your chicken brownings are coloring the roux from the start, go even darker.
  4. Add the diced veggies and garlic to the roux. Cook for 10 minutes, until they’re softened.
  5. Pour in the beer and scrape the pot to get all the browned bits in circulation.
  6. Add the remaining ingredients (bay leaves, tomatoes, stock, maple syrup, Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire sauce) and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and add the chicken pieces back in.
  7. Simmer for 45 minutes; taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
  8. Serve with rice and hot sauce that everyone can add to taste.

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Cajun Corn Chowder

Wow, you guys. I haven’t posted a recipe since . . . since . . .

I actually don’t remember when I last wrote about food. But I think it was sometime in the spring. What with being pregnant, moving, recording an album, and then having this little bundle in October, photographing what I cook and writing long involved stories about how I simmered something has been my last priority. Though for the record, I love reading other people’s long and involved stories about how they simmered something. And I may yet return to such simmerful chronicles at a future date. But for now, my new photographic priority is much more interesting than a half-minced clove of garlic!

And when she does this . . .

. . . oh man. A picture of chiffonading basil is the last thing on my mind.

Altogether, I had no plans of blogging about food this fall or winter. But then, last week, I got America’s Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook from the bookmobile. And I landed on this recipe for corn chowder. I made it, LOVED it, and thought: I must share this recipe with my beloved foodie friends!

It’s worth noting that while there is a recipe and a printable link at the bottom, there are no step by step pictures, but that may be a thing of the past since I’m now cooking like this:

With a baby strapped to me.

I took this picture in the bathroom mirror as the soup was simmering. In fact, 15 minutes prior to taking this photograph I was chopping an onion while breastfeeding my baby hands-free, using the Moby wrap to support her. I couldn’t exactly bend over and mess with her feeding position, so everything had to be accomplished with a fairly immobilized torso, but’s it’s amazing what you can get done wihout bending your back!

And it’s also amazing what you can not accomplish . . . like leaning over the sink to do dishes. Enter: the dish-doing husband wonder.

Anyway everyone, this chowder is easy to make, fantastic to eat, and it’s probably going to be on the menu at our Christmas family gathering. My husband, who is not the chowder type (read: he despises New England clam chowder), loved it. And when I say loved, I mean that soup was gone the very next day. That’s right–we made short work of those so-called 6 servings. Heh heh. Think: spicy but not too spicy. Creamy but not heavy (the secret: blended corn). Delightful little bits of sausage, onion and pepper all swimming in a to-die-for broth. YES. This is what food is all about.

Cajun Corn Chowder

Serves 6

Ingredients

8 cups frozen corn, thawed
3 ½ cups chicken broth
8 oz andouille sausage, chopped
1 onion, chopped finely
1 red bell pepper, chopped finely
1 TBS vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp Cajun seasoning
1 ½ lbs red potatoes, cut in small cubes (about 1/2 inch)
½ cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper, to taste

  1. Put half the corn and 2 cups of broth in a blender, and blend for about 10 seconds; set aside.
  2. Put the oil, sausage, onion and pepper in a large pot, and cook over medium high heat for about 8 minutes, until vegetables are soft and a little browned, adding a little salt and pepper as they cook and stirring occasionally.
  3. Add the garlic and Cajun seasoning and stir for 30 seconds, until fragrant.
  4. Add the blended broth/corn, the additional 1 ½ cups of broth, the potatoes and cream, and stir everything together. Simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
  5. Add in the remaining 4 cups of corn, season to taste, and serve.

And on a completely unrelated note . . .

I love unrelated notes. Especially when they’re wearing tiny jeans with little pink bows.

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