Lunch at Beech Grove

One of our friends had us for lunch recently.  It was a beautiful sunny fall day in the country.  The meal was Cajun risotto.  Doug lived in Italy for a while, hence the risotto.  But it was more like a jambalaya; and I think calls for a dollop of Tabasco to round out the Cajun aspect.  He served a sauvignon blanc but if you use the Tabasco, serve a Riesling instead.

Doug spent his life in the city after three degrees from Yale.  After living and studying in Rome and Venice he spent forty years with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.  After his wife died, he retired to his family plantation, Beech Grove, in Amite County, Mississippi.  There he has spent a good deal of time and money restoring and furnishing the home and adding a Palladian addition reminiscent of Monticello’s dependencies at the end of the U-shaped decks.  One of the buildings is a two story library to house his collection.  Being a Palladian scholar it is not surprising the way he designed the addition to the 1820’s plantation home.  And we got to talk about relations---not ours, but the relationships of the people who lived in our home and his home.  Of course, there was a marriage. Actually there were at least two marriages connecting the houses.  Everybody around here is related, usually going back several generations.

We were given the tour to see new acquisitions since we had been there last; then a glass of dry sherry. Doug had done lunch and was anxious to talk about healthful eating.  On his regimen (not diet) of eating organic, mostly vegetables, grains and fruits, he had lost several pounds and was proud of the fact he took no pills.  He should be quite thankful since he had spent about two years recovering from a sub-dural hematoma and its many complications. 

The meal was delicious.  Wild caught seafood and organic vegetables.  We let him in on the secrets of grass-fed beef and pastured animals.

Doug did not give me the exact ingredients for his Cajun risotto, but I came home and experimented with some measurements and ingredients and came up with what is almost Doug’s risotto. Just remember that you can use different vegetables and seafood and it would be best to use what is in season.

Doug’s Cajun Risotto

Serves 8

Sauté 1 chopped onion and 2 chopped cloves of garlic in 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter. Add 2 cups of  long grain rice and coat with the butter. Add 4 cups of chicken stock and cook the rice until done about 20-30 minutes. While this is cooking, blanch 2 chopped zucchini and 2 yellow squash in a pot of boiling water for 1 minute.  Drain and set aside.  Doug used frozen peas.  I decided to use okra from the garden. Use what you have.  Sauté separately a pound of shrimp, a pound of crawfish, 1 pound of crab, and 1 pound of small sea scallops. The shrimp and crawfish give good flavor.  So you may not want to use crab and scallops.  I did use crab but not the scallops. Sauté with 1 tablespoon of butter for each pound of seafood.  Put the vegetables and seafood in the rice mixture and add 2 tablespoons (or more) of Creole seasoning. Heat thoroughly and serve with a few asparagus spears on top for decoration.