Hoppin' John Biryani

I have found the perfect meal for your New Year’s Day feast. The October/November of Garden and Gun had an article on a Lexington chef by the name of Ouita Michel who now presides over the kitchen at the historic Holly Hill Inn near Lexington Kentucky. She was asked to create a dish to please the families of both a Pakistani bride and her Kentucky groom. The result is hoppin’ John Biryani, a union so delicious you might wonder why no one thought of it before. Biryani comes in a thousand variations from Persia, Pakistan, and India but has much in common with the Southern New Year’s Day staple of black-eyed peas. Both are built around rice, fortified with beans, meat, or vegetables, and are often only created for special holidays.

The first version of Michel’s biryani for the wedding was a hit. But she kept experimenting adding her favorite bacon and country ham, adding pecans, parsley and green onions. She uses long grain rice, preferably the Southern-grown basmati variation called Texmati. She then stirs in black-eyed peas (fresh or frozen). You can change the ingredients in this biryani for your personal preference. I found the dish delicious and just a great dish to begin the New Year.

Happy New Year!

 

Hoppin’ John Biryani

Serves 8

Ingredients:

For the rice:

2 cups Texmati long-grain rice

4 cups water

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

½ white onion, thinly sliced

½ tsp. ground cumin or 1 tsp. cumin seeds

½ tsp. ground cinnamon or 1 2-inch stick, cracked

½ tsp. ground coriander

¼ tsp. ground cloves or 5 whole cloves

¼ tsp. cardamom or 4 green cardamom pods, cracked

¼ tsp. turmeric

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. salt

 

For the black-eyes peas:

6-8 strips Broadbent or other thick-cut bacon (about 1 cup), cut into ¼ -inch lardons (I’m still a big fan of Benton’s and I just heard I could buy it in New Orleans! The shipping costs are more than the bacon when ordering from Benton’s in Tennessee.)

½ white onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1 tbsp. garlic, minced

1 tbsp. ginger, minced

1 jalapeño, seeded and diced

1  12–ounce bag frozen black-eyed peas

2 cups ham or chicken stock

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Salt to taste

Preparation

For the rice: Soak the rice in water for 30 minutes. Drain and reserve liquid. Pour oil into a 3-quart Dutch oven and heat over medium. Add onion and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add spices and continue to cook 2-3 minutes until spices become fragrant. Add rice and stir to combine. Pour in reserved liquid (you should have exactly 3 cups; if not, adjust amount with water). Add salt. Bring rice to a simmer, cover, and remove from heat. Steam for 20-30 minutes or until cooked.

For the peas: Place bacon in large saucepan and brown on medium-high heat, about 5 minutes. Add onion, carrot, and celery, and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, and jalapeño, and sauté for 2 more minutes more. Stir in peas, stock, bay leaves, and pepper. Simmer uncovered on medium-low for 40 minutes or until peas are tender and most, but not all, of the stock has evaporated. Add salt to taste.

To assemble: Fluff the rice with a fork, then fold in the peas, along with the add-ins. Serve immediately or cover until ready to rewarm; moisten with warm stock, if needed.

Add-ins: 1 bunch chopped flat-leaf parsley; 6-8 sliced green onions; 1 cup diced toasted pecans; 1 cup browned country ham; ½-cup raisins or dried currants.

 

 

Christmas Dinner '16

Christmas dinner is always a treat. A glass of champagne; the stress of the gift giving is over; and one can sit down and enjoy a nice simple meal. I always choose a roast of some sort, some potatoes, Yorkshire pudding or popovers. Dessert is a simple Godiva chocolate. I buy one box a year and finish it up on Christmas day.

A standing rib roast is dramatic, and this recipe for a boneless version is crunchy and crackly on the outside and meltingly delicious on the inside. The way to cook a roast is to multiply the weight of the meat by 5 minutes, cook it exactly that long, turn the oven off, and walk away. This is the version from Julia Reed’s cookbook, South.

 

Rib-Eye Roast

Serves 10

One 8-10 pound boneless rib roast

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce

Butter, softened

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Three hours before you are ready to cook, remove the roast from the refrigerator and place in a shallow roasting pan. Sprinkle the meat all over with Worcestershire sauce and rub it in with your hands. Coat the meat all over with softened butter. Don’t be stingy-the roast should look like a lightly iced cake. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Set aside, uncovered.

About 30 minutes before cooking, preheat the oven to 500°F.

Place the roast in the oven and bake for exactly 5 minutes per pound. (If your roast is exactly 8 pounds, cook it for exactly 40 minutes. This is what your calculator is for.) As soon as the baking time is complete, turn off the oven but do not open the oven door. Put up a sign---do whatever you have to do---but leave the meat inside for another 1 ½ hours.

Remove the roast to a carving board and slice. Because the meat has already “rested” in the oven, it does not need to rest further.

 

I am using this recipe from Southern Living for potatoes this year. A little different but it sure looks good.

From ‘Southern Living’ December 2016.

 

Baby Hasselback Potatoes with Blue Cheese

Serves 10

10 (2 ½ oz.) small Yukon Gold potatoes

½ cup salted butter, melted

1 ½ Tbsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 ½ tsp. kosher salt, divided

1 oz. blue cheese, crumbled (about ¼ cup)

½ cup crumbled cooked bacon, (about 6 slices)

¼ cup chopped chives

Preheat oven to 425°F. Slice each potato crosswise at 1/8-inch intervals, cutting to within ¼ inch of the bottom of the potato. (Do not cut all the way through potatoes.) Arrange potatoes, cut side up, on a greased baking sheet.

Combine melted butter, rosemary, and 1 teaspoon of the salt in small bowl. Spoon 1/3 cup of the melted butter mixture evenly over potatoes.

Bake in preheated oven on middle oven rack until tender, 45 to 50 minutes. Spoon remaining butter mixture evenly over potatoes. Sprinkle with blue cheese and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Bake until cheese is slightly melted and potatoes are golden, about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with bacon and chives, and serve immediately.

 

These popovers are terrific. Great with your roast for Christmas dinner. The cornmeal adds a Southern touch.

From ‘Southern Living’ December 2016.

 

Cornmeal Popovers

12 popovers

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup fine white cornmeal

1 ½ tsp. kosher salt

1 ¾ cups whole milk

4 large eggs

¼ cup salted butter, melted

Place a 12-cup muffin pan in over. Preheat oven to 450°F. (Do not remove pan.)

Whisk together flour, cornmeal, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together milk and eggs in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk milk into flour mixture until well blended.

Remove muffin pan from oven. Spoon 1 teaspoon melted butter into each cup of hot muffin pan, return muffin pan to oven for 2 minutes.

Remove muffin pan. Divide batter among prepared muffin cup. Bake until puffed and golden brown, 18-20 minutes. (Centers will be moist.) Serve immediately. These are delicious.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Goodies to Give

I like to give some Christmas goodies to neighbors and postal workers (so they might be more careful with my mail) and other friends at church. So this week I started baking cookies, toasting pecans and making cheese straws. I am not a big baker so I do choose easy recipes, but if they taste good and are given from the heart what else do you need?

 

Chewy Molasses Cookies

I love these chewy cookies. They keep chewy for many days and can be frozen 2 weeks ahead and baked later.

Ingredients:

Makes 2 ½ dozen cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

¾ teaspoon ground cardamom

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1 large egg

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup mild-flavored (light) or robust-flavored (dark) molasses

¼ cup (packed) dark brown sugar

Coarse sanding or raw sugar (for rolling)

Place racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat to 375°. Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and salt in a small bowl.

Whisk egg, butter, granulated sugar, molasses, and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Mix in dry ingredients just to combine. Place sanding sugar in a shallow bowl. Scoop our dough by the tablespoonful and roll into balls (if dough is sticky, chill 20 minutes). Roll in sugar and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 “apart.

Bake cookies, rotating baking sheets halfway through, until cookies are puffed, cracked, and just set around edges overbaked cookies will not be chewy, 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

 

Cheese Straws

Makes 10 dozen

1 stick butter

2 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted

¾ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Combine the butter and cheese and mix well. Add the flour and seasonings and blend well. This can be done in a food processor. Force the mixture through a cookie press into strips and place on ungreased cookie sheets. (Or form the dough into a cucumber sized loaf, chill, and slice and bake for cheese wafers.) Bake until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Cool completely before storing in candy tins or other airtight containers. These can be made 1 week in advance. They can be frozen as well, and baked later.

 

Spiced Pecans

Makes 4 cups

4 cups pecan halves

1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 heaping teaspoon dark brown sugar

1 heaping tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary leaves

1 tablespoon melted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the pecans on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Season the pecans with the salt, pepper, cayenne, sugar, rosemary, butter, and olive oil. Toss together until the pecans are thoroughly coated. Return the pecans to the oven for another 2 to 3 minutes, until roasted and fragrant, but be careful not to overcook them.

Happy holiday cooking!

 

 

The Caribbean Room

The renovated Pontchartrain Hotel’s Caribbean Room re-opened this year and we had been getting recommendations to especially go check out the Hot Tin Bar on the roof. So I decided to pre-celebrate my husband’s birthday at the jacket-required Caribbean Room and have drinks on the roof pre-dinner.

The Pontchartrain was built on New Orleans’ St. Charles Avenue in 1927 as a luxury apartment building. There were problems with the stock market crash. These were solved when in 1949 the space became a luxury hotel. The owner thought a great hotel needed a great restaurant and he created the Caribbean Room. Frank Sinatra, The Doors, Rita Hayworth, Presidents Ford and Bush stayed there. Tennessee Williams wrote ‘Streetcar Named Desire’ while living there.

Back in the 1970’s when we first visited New Orleans we ate at the Caribbean Room along with other great eating places in New Orleans. I have to admit I don’t remember it, not like I remember the first visit to Antoine’s. That’s another story.

The place fell on hard times and the restaurant closed several years ago. It re-opened this past June. The AJ Capital Partners bought the property with real estate developer, Cooper Manning (eldest son of quarterback Archie Manning) being the local face of the owners. The James Beard award winning chef John Besh brought back the restaurants and bars with Chef Chris Lusk heading the Caribbean Room. We didn’t get to check out the Bayou Bar where in 1967 the deal was signed to create the New Orleans Saints. Next visit.

We began our visit for cocktails at the Hot Tin Bar. My husband, of course, had his favorite New Orleans drink, the Sazarac. We took the drinks to the terrace to check out the night time skyline of the Big Easy and the Crescent City Connection. It was windy and chilly and we headed back inside to finish our drinks. I think summertime would be a good time to relax on the terrace, especially at sunset.

In the dining room we decided to have one of their special cocktails, a duck fat infused Sazarac----another Sazarac. It was just a bit smoother than the usual. I had the crispy oysters for a starter and my husband had their signature Crab Meat Remick.  I then had their duck which was excellent. My husband continued with another old standard, Snapper Pontchartrain with hollandaise, crab and wild mushrooms. We ended with their famous Mile High Pie and they presented my husband with a lit sparkler topped chocolate brioche in celebration of his birthday.

 

Crabmeat Remick originated at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1920, named in honor of the then president of the stock exchange, William Remick. It was a signature dish of the old Caribbean Room and even Emeril has his version at his Delmonico’s in New Orleans. This recipe for Crab Meat Remick comes from The New Orleans Restaurant Cookbook I have from 1967.

Crabmeat Remick

1 pound lump crabmeat

6 strips crisp bacon

1 scant teaspoon dry mustard

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon celery salt

½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce

½ cup chili sauce

1 teaspoon tarragon vinegar

1 ½ cups mayonnaise

Divide crabmeat into 6 portions and pile into individual ramekins. Heat in 400°oven and top with strips of crisp bacon. Blend together mustard, paprika, celery salt, and Tabasco sauce. Add chili sauce and vinegar, mix well, blend with mayonnaise. Spread the warm crabmeat with this sauce and glaze under the broiler flame.

Serves 6

 

And here is the recipe for the decadent Mile High Pie dessert. It will put you over the edge if not careful. It is taken from the cookbook Cooking Up a Storm, published in the ‘Times-Picayune’ in February, 2014.

The Pontchartrain Hotel’s Mile High Pie

Serves 10-12

Crust

 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup shortening

4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

Filling

1 ½ pints vanilla ice cream, slightly softened

1 ½ pints chocolate ice cream, slightly softened

½ pint strawberry, slightly softened

½ pint peppermint ice cream, slightly softened

Meringue

8 large egg whites

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

½ cup sugar

Chocolate Sauce (recipe follows)

For crust: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Stir together flour and salt. Cut in shortening with pastry cutter or two knives until the pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon cold water over the flour mixture and gently toss with a fork. Repeat until all flour is slightly moistened. Form into a ball and roll out to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface. Fit loosely in a 9-inch pie pan. Prick the crust with a fork to prevent bubbling. Bake 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool.

For the filling: Layer the vanilla ice cream on the bottom of the cooled pie shell, and in layers add remaining flavors. Place the pie in the freezer while you make the meringue.

If necessary, adjust racks inside your oven in order to put the pie under the broiler, because the pie will be very tall. Preheat the broiler.

For the meringue: In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites with vanilla and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating until the egg whites are stiff and glossy and the sugar is dissolved. Spread the meringue over the ice cream, sealing it to the edges of the pastry.

Carefully move the pie to the oven and broil for 30 seconds to 1 minute to brown the meringue. Freeze the pie for several hours or overnight. Cut into wedges and drizzle some chocolate sauce over each serving.

Chocolate Sauce

Makes about 1 cup

2 (1-ounce) squares German sweet chocolate

2 (1-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate

½ cup sugar

½ cup heavy cream

In the top of a double boiler, melt chocolate with sugar and ¼ cup of the cream, stirring until well-blended and thick. Add as much of the remaining cream as necessary to achieve a pourable consistency.

Mirliton 16

Mirliton is from Mexico and is better known as chayote, but here near New Orleans it is mirliton and it is usually paired with shrimp. I found this soup recipe a couple months ago, but no mirliton was available yet. They come on the market in late fall and I just recently saw them in the market. So I did this soup as a starter for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Mirliton came to New Orleans by 1867 and is a backyard vine in a lot of homes. It has become the unofficial squash of New Orleans. Sechium edule is really a gourd but for eating we treat it like a squash. The US agricultural service tried to introduce it to America by sponsoring it in Homestead Florida in the 1920’s and they called it a vegetable pear but it never took off. It is eaten in a lot of tropical locations but in the US it is primarily seen around the South Louisiana area. The entire plant is edible. The shoots can be used in salads and stir-fries and the roots can be used like yams but it is the fruit that is usually eaten here.

The ones in the supermarkets are usually imported but local varieties can be had in farmer’s markets and are better. Better yet grow your own. You may use one from the supermarket but sometimes they are chilled and do not sprout. I have found them rooted already in my favorite Baton Rouge nursery. Sadly they were put out of business with the August 11 flood there. And I lost mine also. So will be looking now for some local varieties to start over next year.

Let your mirliton sit out in a dish in the kitchen. It will start to sprout and when the sprout is about 5 inches, pot it up. The fruit should not be buried but sticking out of the soil. It can be transplanted into the garden when danger of frost is over. They should be grown in a well-drained spot, perhaps a raised bed. I think the much rain this year is why I lost my plants in our garden. The plants can grow to 50 feet and need something to climb on. A horizontal trellis like a grape arbor is said to be best. Mine have climbed upon the live oak near the garden; difficult for harvesting. The plants need space. They have shallow roots that need up to 12 feet in diameter to spread without competition. If in a raised bed give it at least 3 feet on each side of the plant. Mulch heavily to conserve moisture but be sure it will drain well. The plants will not fruit until about October, and temperatures below 55° will kill immature fruit, and all should be harvested before frost. They will keep a month or so before sprouting and becoming uneatable. A first year plant will produce up to 30 fruit though I have not been that successful. Second year, maybe 80, and more the next year. Some plants in the right climate can produce up to 400 mirliton! Yield depends on hours of full sun (at least six hours), fertility (they are heavy feeders), and root competition.

So if you can find them, enjoy but save at least one to try and produce your own for next fall.

This soup was a very nice starter for our Thanksgiving feast. I think it helped us not to eat so much because we were satisfied. So next year give this a try and see how it goes.

 

From ‘Louisiana Cookin’  October 2016

Cream of Mirliton and Shrimp Soup

Serves 10

8 mirlitons, halved

¼ cup Louisiana pecan oil, (I used extra-virgin olive oil)

½ cup butter

1 cup chopped sweet onion

1 cup chopped celery

1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic

1 pound small shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon dried basil (I used fresh basil, about 2 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons quick-mixing flour, such as Wondra

2 quarts chicken broth

1 cup half-and-half

 

Instructions:

To a large pot, add mirlitons and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until fork-tender, about 45 minutes. Transfer mirlitons to a colander, and let stand until cool enough to handle.

Remove and discard seeds and fibrous membranes from mirlitons, and scoop out as much flesh as possible. Place flesh in a large bowl, and mash until smooth.

In a large Dutch oven, heat oil and butter over low heat until melted. Add onion, celery, and mirliton; cook until onion is soft, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and shrimp; cook for 2 minutes. Stir in peppers, salt, ginger, and basil. Add flour, stirring well.

Stir in broth, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, and add half-and-half. Serve immediately.