50 States; 50 Meals: Louisiana

This week I tried cooking food from the bayou. Something I have always thought about doing but was afraid to because I didn't think it would be kid friendly enough. I always assumed the flavors would be too strong or too spicy. Well you know what they say about assuming. For our Louisiana menu I made Jambalaya and Shrimp Po Boy Sliders.

Jambalaya is a mixture of seafood, meat, poultry, sausage and vegetables, simmered with uncooked rice until the liquid (broth and tomatoes) is absorbed. My recipe called for chicken breasts, chicken thighs, turkey smoked sausage and shrimp. Between the vegetables and meats there was a lot of chopping to do. It was nice to have my husband in the kitchen acting as my sous chef. The only taste we were worried about was the thyme. It didn't seem to stop my kids.

[caption id="attachment_724" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Jambalaya[/caption]

 

Since we were having Jambalaya I decided to make Po Boy Sliders instead of a full on sandwich. Legend has it this sandwich was named in a New Orleans restaurant owned by Benny and Clovis Martin. The Martin brothers had previously been streetcar conductors. During a strike against the streetcar company the Martin Brothers fed their former colleagues free sandwiches. The employees of the restaurant called those on strike, "poor boys". That nickname then spun into the name of the sandwich. Add in the Louisiana dialect and you get po' boy. The most popular Po' boys are filled with roast beef or fried shrimp but can also include fried oysters, soft shell crab, catfish, crawfish, fried chicken or even french fries. A must for a traditional Po'boy is to serve it on a french baguette-like bread. I broke this rule. You then top it with lettuce, tomato, pickle (i broke this rule too) and mayonnaise. Onion too if you like. The girls had mayonnaise. I like to have remoulade sauce on my po' boys mostly because that is how they were introduced to me by my mom. Hi Mom! I grabbed some help from the Wegmans condiment and baking aisles and picked up Lousiana Fish Fry Products Fish Fry and Remoulade sauce (time saver even though I have a recipe to make homemade). Side note: The Louisiana remoulade had horseradish.

[caption id="attachment_726" align="aligncenter" width="168"] Louisiana at the grocery store[/caption]

I was actually more nervous about making the girls the fried shrimp than I was the Jambalaya. I used to buy them Sea Pak popcorn shrimp but they would just peal off the breading. The fried shrimp was actually their favorite part of the whole meal. The fish fry breading is a lot lighter than what you usually find on popcorn shrimp. They were fighting over who got the extra shrimp that didn't make it onto the sliders. By the way, if you are looking for a fast meal add this to your list. The shrimp fry up quickly.

Shrimp Po' Boy Slider

Ingredients

1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp
Louisiana Fish Fry Products Fish Fry
Louisiana Fish Fry Products Remoulade Dressing or Mayonnaise
Romaine Lettuce - ripped to small pieces
Roma Tomatoes - sliced
Red Onion - sliced
Slider Rolls or Baguette cut into small sandwiches
Peanut or Vegetable Oil

Instructions

1. Follow instructions for frying the shrimp on the back of the Fish Fry bag. a. Cover the shrimp with fish fry.
b. Fry in oil
2. Place Remoulade Sauce on bottom of sandwich roll
3. Place two fried shrimp on top the sauce
4. Top shrimp with lettuce, tomato and onion
5. Cover with top layer of sandwich roll

Note: You can easily make this a full sandwich by placing the ingredients on a bigger portion of baguette bread.

Right there in your etouffee was said 4 times during the preparation of this meal. Three times while writing this post. Remember that commercial?

Next up were heading back east. All the way to the top!

 

50 States; 50 Meals: Kentucky

You may remember back when we ate from Alabama we did so via web cam with my Husband, youngest and the Connecticut fam.  This time we ate all together in Connecticut.  I was so excited to finally make Kentucky Hot Browns!!  I first saw these open faced sandwiches on the Food Network show "Throwdown" with Bobby Flay SIX years ago and have been wanting to make them ever since.  So a hot brown is very popular in Kentucky during the Derby.  As I said, it is an open face sandwich topped with roasted turkey, Mornay sauce, tomato and bacon and Parmesan cheese.

Finished Sandwich

But... I didn't use the Bobby Flay recipe.  I went with one from Southern Living to be more traditional.  We couldn't find a turkey breast to roast so we cheated and bought turkey breasts from the rotisserie section of the grocery store.  I'm not complaining.  Less work for me.  One word of advice.  If you double the recipe don't double the Mornay sauce recipe.  I had a ton left over.

Hot out of the Broiler - Turkey and Mornay Sauce

In case the Hot Browns did not go over very well we picked up a bucket of fried chicken.  Not just any fried chicken... KENTUCKY Fried Chicken.  Original recipe, in case you were wondering. 

You can read all about how Harland Sanders, aka Colonel Sanders, first started making his chicken at a  service station and how he became a Colonel on the KFC website.

I headed back to the Derby for some more inspiration and decided to make a family-friendly Mint Julep.  I a friend of mine had shared this Pin with me around the Derby.  It is a Disneyland recipe.  Though we could not find creme de menthe syrup (vs. liqueur) anywhere.  So I improvised and used a can of mojito concentrate to get the mint flavor.  Our Mint Juleps were not as green as Disneyland's but they were still tasty.  I understand Maker's Mark makes a good Mint Julep bourbon too, just sayin'.

Next up is some Louisiana nawlins food.

50 States; 50 Meals: Kansas

Well we didn't go over the rainbow but the food was so good it made us do a happy dance.  Disclaimer: I make most of my meal choices from the Cooking Channel's website.  They had listed Kansas City-Style Ribs as a Kansas "food"; however, when I started doing my research it looked like this was really a Missouri food.  If anyone can educate me on which is right or if both are right I would really appreciate it.  So whether or not it was right we had ribs.  And they were goooood.  I looked at the recipe for making your own rub and sauce.  They way surpassed my acceptable amount of ingredients so on to the Wegmans website I went.  McCormick Grill Mates Pork Rub  and Wegmans Kansas City Style BBQ sauce were added to my online shopping list.  Done.  Other than that we stuck to the Neely's recipe.

[caption id="attachment_690" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Kansas City-Style Ribs[/caption]

Knowing that my youngest isn't the greatest fan of ribs I picked up a box of White Castle sliders.  The first White Castle opened in Wichita, Kansas in 1921.  It was the first fast-food hamburger chain. The first to sell a million hamburgers. The first to sell a billion hamburgers. And the first to sell frozen fast food. Which I bought and we loved.  I may have hidden the fact that they had cooked onions and the kids totally housed them onions and all.

[caption id="attachment_689" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Can you find Butter Boy?[/caption]

Next up is Kentucky and I finally get to make something I have been wanting to make for a long time.