Ten Things I Can Cook Well (Belated)
Posted in Part of Tens on September 22nd, 200610. Omelet. This deceptively easy-seaming breakfast dish is actually easy to screw up. Having a good omelet pan is extremely helpful. It’s also fast work, with overcooking very easy to do, so attention to detail and fast reflexes are important.
9. Shrimp stuffed Redfish. I love this dish, but unfortunately don’t get the chance to make it often. It’s coated in a rich seafood cream sauce, which makes for too much seafood taste for some folks, and it’s incredibly rich, meaning anyone on a diet can’t even smell the thing.
8. Baked Spinach & Artichoke hearts. This spinach casserole (with cream cheese and bread crumbs) is a hearty, flavorful way of eating a vegetable I usually can’t stand.
7. Spaghetti Sauce. I make mine with greek seasonings, which gives it an “Italian with a Twist” flavor. I do use beef, though, without switching to lamb, so I don’t go too overboard with Greek things. In the kitchen, that is.
6. Crab Mornay. The most decadent appetizer I know. It’s one of the few dishes I can put out at a big party and know that no matter how much I serve, it’ll all be gone. Perfect accompanied by melba toast.
5. Lasagna. There’s almost no variety of this dish I dislike, but it’s hard to beat a good old-fashioned home cooked pan of the stuff. I make a less-Greek version of my spaghetti sauce to include inside this dish, along with a few extras.
4. Oyster dressing. Everyone thinks “cornbread dressing” is eaten all over the south, and it is, in most places. But in Cajun country, most families are raised on bread dressing, made with the stale leftover ends and pieces of bread accumulated over the course of the summer and fall (kept frozen). It’s all brought out, toasted, and ripped up for a rich dressing that defies description.
3. Pain Perdu. Literally “lost bread”, this is the other thing we do with leftover bits of french bread: we make it into a special Cajun version of French toast. Traditionally served with cane syrup, as maple and other flavors have to be imported.
2. Chicken & Andouille Gumbo. Some would say this is my best dish (and it’s the one I’ve cooked for more people than any other). It’s deceptively simple, involving making a roux, sauteeing some vegetable bits, seasoning it all, and adding water and the cooked chicken and sausage. Sometimes it’s Duck and Andouille Gumbo when I want an even darker, richer flavor.
1. Chicken Cordon Bleu. My richest, tastiest, best dish by far. The sauce coating this one is worth a listing of its own. I’ve had folks walk into the kitchen after the meal, find a loaf of bread, and just stand there mopping up sauce from the pot with it.
Come eat sometime, cher.
