]]> https://dinnertablediplomacy.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/25-may-2011-dinner-news-wordless-wednesday/feed/ 0 nancyab WW-6 https://dinnertablediplomacy.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/18-may-2011-dinner-news-wordless-wednesday/ https://dinnertablediplomacy.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/18-may-2011-dinner-news-wordless-wednesday/#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 12:00:18 +0000 http://dinnertablediplomacy.wordpress.com/?p=1309

Monday – Memphis District Munchies – Elvis Meatloaf
Tuesday – Vicksburg District Vittles – Mississippi River Chicken & Dumplings
Wednesday – New Orleans District Nosh
Thursday – BBQ Byway
Fishy Friday River Style

Bring the taste of The Shack from Arkansas to your house.

Today I wanted to give you some suggestions from both ends of this flood with a BBQ focus.  Some are straight sauces while others are “different” dishes.  Many of these could be used to serve a tasting menu of several different styles with each person getting one rib of each style.

Menu

Regional Lists

Bill’s Barbeque – Tour of the Southeastern US differences in sauce.

Southern Cooking by State – Quick category page to search the region on Allrecipes.com

Favorite Barbecue Sauce Recipes – Mega list of recipes from around the web. Only one is on the below list.

Kentucky

Owensboro Mutton Barbecue Sauce makes for a good flavor base for Burgoo, the traditional western Kentucky stew rich with vegetables and bold flavors.

Western Kentucky Pork Barbecue Sauce – Ketchup with dry mustard and other spices.

Illinois

Cairo Style BBQ Sauce – Several barbecue restaurants line the streets of the small town saved by the levee blasts last weekend.

Grills Gone Wild – Winner of the Southern Illinois Men’s Health BBQ competition. Rub based ribs smoked with Apple wood.

Tower Rock BBQ Hog – Instructions on how to smoke a whole hog.

Missouri

Missouri Style Barbecue Sauce – cooked with a sugar-free vinegar basting sauce and glazed at the end with a Ketchup and butter based sauce.

Missouri Style Ribs – Starts with a rub and ends a vinegar and hot sauce baste that could be used just on the side with the ribs served dry.

Tennessee

Rendezvous Dry BBQ Ribs  – From the Charlie Vergos Rendezvous restaurant in Memphis. Ribs are cooked with a simple vinegar baste and the dry rub is added after they are removed from the heat.

Memphis Barbecue Nachos – Served at the Autozone Ballpark this is more of an assembly guide then recipes to create the cheese and barbecue sauces.

Memphis chicken with coleslaw and a potato stack – British take on Memphis comfort food.  I am not sure there is too much crème fraîche passed around the picnic tables, but it’s a nice combination.

Arkansas

A Proper Shack Barbecue Sandwich – The lore and legend behind the famous BBQ Pork sandwich from a local restaurant chain that is now closed.

Mark’s Arkansas Barbecue Sauce – Hybrid of Memphis and Texas styles with some Kentucky bourbon tossed in.

Mississippi

Barbecue Corn Muffin – Ground beef and cheddar in a muffin base.

Back Woods Mississippi Style Pig Bones – Soy Sauce and honey with ketchup and sherry brings all sorts of worlds together.

Louisiana

Ugly Brothers Mr. Jack’s BBQ Sauce – Great Cajun site with lots of family recipes.  Ketchup and yellow mustard sauce with just a touch of vinegar.

Pascal’s Manale BBQ Shrimp – New Orleans based recipe that is heavy on the hot sauce and butter… or margarine… there is a controversy over what the actual restaurant uses.

Monday – Memphis District Munchies – Elvis Meatloaf
Tuesday – Vicksburg District Vittles – Mississippi River Chicken & Dumplings
Wednesday – New Orleans District Nosh
Thursday – BBQ Byway
Fishy Friday River Style

Cheese Grits makes a soft landing for the bold regional flavors.

Here are some city classics and country favorites to add to your dinner plan on days you crave upscale creole as well as those you need down home comfort Cajun.

Menu

Creole vs. Cajun

The Roots of Cajun and Creole Cuisine – There are no quick listings of the difference… it’s a history lesson… but worth the read.

John Besh’s Creole Seasoning – great combination that is light on salt.

Grillades: Cajun vs. Creole – Nice explanation of how this dish differs from North to South and from back woods to country fair.

Entrée

Crawfish Etouffee – works for shrimp as well.

Seafood Gumbo – Cajun version, tomatoes but no roux.

Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo – Emeril – this is a great episode to watch to understand how long it takes (by the count of the number of beers you drink) while the roux cooks and becomes chocolate-brown.

Side Dish

Baked Cheese Grits – Cheddar and Monterey Jack blend.

Creole Red Beans and Rice  – sausage and rice with a great explanation on the regional nature of beans.

Corn Maque Choux – like succotash, but a different spin on a Native American classic.

Dessert

Banana Foster – the original Brennan’s recipe…. 35,000 pounds of bananas a year can’t be wrong!

Milk Punch – The morning after drink of choice goes well with a thick slice of chocolate cake.

Pralines – Chocolate free recipe for caramel and pecan clusters.

Monday – Memphis District Munchies – Elvis Meatloaf
Tuesday – Vicksburg District Vittles – Mississippi River Chicken & Dumplings
Wednesday – New Orleans District Nosh
Thursday – BBQ Byway
Fishy Friday River Style

Creamy soup, moist chicken, and chewy soft dumplings.

The original recipe from RecipeArchive.net calls for boiling a whole chicken, picking off the meat and building the soup with Cream of Chicken soup.  Here I have used leftover white meat from a previous post (2 May 2011 Dinner News – Abbottabad, Pakistan) and created a simple milk gravy in place of the canned soup.

If you have 6 people to serve this is a great single meal.  If not, I have included my method for individually freezing dumplings and storing the soup in separate containers for later use.

Ingredients

Pasta By Well

Troubleshooting

Roll

Shape

Cook Carefully

Large Batch

I.Q.F.

Soup

Final Storage

This is the best way I can think of to make sure that the dumplings do not get mushy and they can be revived in small or large batches.

Lessons Learned

I missed the veggies from a more Northern recipe, but the taste was plenty chicken enough.

We are more dark meat people than white meat so this was a good way to use breasts and save them for a rainy / sick day.

The dumplings would be nice with herbage in the dough as well.

I started using a new photo editing program tonight… worked great for leveling… not so much for text… anyone want to guess which one I left in with the icky text?

Monday – Memphis District Munchies – Elvis Meatloaf
Tuesday – Vicksburg District Vittles – Mississippi River Chicken & Dumplings
Wednesday – New Orleans District Nosh
Thursday – BBQ Byway
Fishy Friday River Style

Creamy Comfort Food on a rainy spring day.

This district comprises Southeastern Arkansas, Mississippi and Northern Louisiana.  The coast is dotted with classic southern diners and upscale fusion restaurants providing for both old and new world flavors wherever you travel.  I tried to select from lighter and less fried dishes and found some new gems I had never heard of… enjoy!

Menu

Entrée

Smoked Chicken and Dumplings – add some flair to a Southern tradition.

Mississippi River Chicken and Dumplings – Traditional boiled chicken with flat noodle dumplings.

Mississippi Delta Tamales – Great step by step pictures of filling and assembly with the History of Hot Tamale in Mississippi available at the same blog.

Plate Lunch – More of a philosophy than a recipe, hot meat, choice of potato, choice of vegetable, and biscuit or biscuit. This blog provides a nice look at menus and happenings around Oxford Mississippi.

Side Dish

Barbecue Rice – Served as part of the Gillett Coon Supper in Arkansas.  This event was a popular school fundraiser that drew people from all over the state for Raccoon, corn, rice, and even ham for the squeamish.

Comeback dressing – Between a Remoulade and Thousand Island this salad dressing can also be used as a sandwich spread or a variety of entrée creations.

Hearty Black Eyed Pea Dirty Rice – Could also be an entrée with ground beef, bacon and sausage.

Dessert

Mississippi Mud Pie – Four different recipes including one that has coconut.

Arkansas Oatmeal Cake – Brown sugar and cinnamon with pecan topping

Monday – Memphis District Munchies – Elvis Meatloaf
Tuesday – Vicksburg District Vittles – Mississippi River Chicken & Dumplings
Wednesday – New Orleans District Nosh
Thursday – BBQ Byway
Fishy Friday River Style

Serve coated in sauce with classic southern sides.

This Paula Dean version of Elvis’ favorite meatloaf makes for a light and cheesy alternative to tomato based classics.  Paula’s recipe called for a condensed soup based sauce, but I decided to go old school and build it from scratch sans salt.

Ingredients

Prep

All In

Bake

Build

Sauce

Lessons Learned

The green pepper and onion were too large.  Next time I would pulse them in a food processor into more of a paste.

The bread grease mop at the bottom of the pan was a nice idea. I used a lean “meatloaf mix” (beef, pork, veal) and only had 2 tablespoons of fat that bubbled up and could be drained.

I had enough sauce left over for a small mac and cheese, but I don’t think making a sauce with less than a cup of milk would be easy to build.

Monday – Memphis District Munchies – Elvis Meatloaf
Tuesday – Vicksburg District Vittles – Mississippi River Chicken & Dumplings
Wednesday – New Orleans District Nosh
Thursday – BBQ Byway
Fishy Friday River Style

Elvis meatloaf with a Paula Dean twist for a light and cheesy lunch.

From Cairo, Illinois in the North to the mouth of the White River in Arkansas the Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District is the center of  as levees are blasted and the Mississippi spills from its banks.  Here are some suggestions on local fare you might find as you travel the Great River Road.

Menu

Regional Recipe Guides

Southern Illinois Outdoor Magazine

Elvis Recipe Postcard Collection – 13 recipes published as a series.  There are other places on the web that the recipes are easier to read, but this is the only place that may have all of them in one place.

Entrée

Cheeseburger Meatloaf and Sauce – Paula Dean’s spin on Elvis’ recipe.

Slow Cooker Rotisserie Style Memphis Chicken – Spiced whole chicken cooked dry on aluminum foil balls in a slow cooker.

Memphis Style Turkey Leg – Alton Brown recipe based on a Memphis restaurant he visited during his Feasting on Asphalt series.

Side Dish

Hueys Potato Soup – Creamy soup garnished with cheddar and bacon.

Pancho’s Dressing – Served with an avocado salad at the West Memphis, Arkansas restaurant of the same name.

Fried Sweet Onion Rings – The next best thing to sitting at the Anvil Restaurant even if it isn’t their exact secret recipe.

Deep Fried Pickle – Some restaurants offer ranch… other honey mustard,

Dessert

White Pie – From Buton’s Cafe in Southern Illinois this white vanilla custard is made with only egg whites and includes blanched almonds.

Berry Best Fried Pie – another southern staple with a variety of local flavors made with frozen fruit.

Half Moon Pie – A fried pie variety filled with cocoa and sugar.

View

Take a drive through Cairo Illinois on You Tube and see the Victorian architecture and well manicured lawns of the city at the center of the first levee breach debate.

Hickman, Kentucky – Photo gallery of the flood of ’37.

Lewis and Clark on the Great Road – Great pictures and information on what the river was like when the explorers passed through the area.

Ease into the week with a tart that is cheesier than the average quiche and easily customized with your choice of bacon and onion.

It looks like a simple combination, but there are many options on this theme to play with… Spanish onions, turkey bacon, and a rich Emmental? Sweet Vidalia / Walla Walla, thick cut applewood bacon, and a local smoked Swiss? I used a double smoked hickory bacon with a plain swiss and some baby Vidalia, but the combinations are endless.

The original recipe calls for a single tart pan with a removable bottom, but I decided to make it more leftover friendly by creating two 2-person serving size dishes. With a bright leafy salad or fresh fruit cup it makes a relaxing meal. If you would like to use this as a starter for dinner some regional suggested dishes can be found in the Fat Tuesday 2011 in Switzerland post.

Ingredients

Prep

Blend

Puck

Chill & Heat

Cornstarch

Custard

Roll

Build

Flood

Bake

Lessons Learned

Rolling out dough outdoors on a muggy day leaves the crust too limp to form easily.  Next time I would chill the dough after rolling it out.

I need to up my paprika pantry section to include smoky and hot varieties.  Using sweet paprika in this small a quantity was more for color than taste.

The whole wheat flour could have used some sparkle.  A tablespoon of orange juice or two would have helped the crust.

]]> https://dinnertablediplomacy.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/kasewahe/feed/ 0 nancyab Finished tart for two Ingredients for the crust, filling, and custard. Cube butter, slice onions, dice bacon, mince garlic, and grate cheese Cut butter into crust dry ingredients until fine. Dough comes together quickly with slight mixing and the warmth of your hands into a puck. Saute Bacon and Onion while chilling dough for at least 20 minutes. Create a slurry with cornstarch and milk and mix until there are no lumps. Mix slurry into remaining milk, add 2 eggs plus 1 yolk, and save white for another use. Roll one portion of dough between two layers of waxed paper. Shape dough in tin or pan of choice and fill with cheese. Sprinkle cheese with Paprika, add bacon and onion mix, and then flood with custard. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes and then finish at 350.