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!