Tag Archives: main dish

Chili-Cheese Etouffée

This was our recipe of choice for Family Vacay 2010, and the photographs below were taken during that marvelous week. My husband and I were in charge of feeding a dozen people Thursday night, and this dish was the obvious pick. It’s an adapted version of a dish served at Yat’s, a Cajun restaurant in Bloomington. This recipe makes such a large pot that there were ample leftovers the next day–I estimate the batch we made would have fed about 16 people; the recipe below is for 8-10 so that you don’t have Etouffée coming out of your ears. Before you start cutting down the recipe even more though, please consider this: it’s so amazing that even if you’re just feeding 2 or 3, you can freeze the rest and thus ensure that when the craving hits you again (and it will hit you hard) it is immediately on hand.

This is probably the most delicious recipe on this blog to date. The Mush is really good . . . the caramelized salmon is also superb . . . but this recipe is crowd-friendly and I guarantee everyone will love it. Unless they’re lactose and gluten intolerant, in which case you need to make a separate little stirfry for them.

Poor Luke. I hope he doesn’t know what he’s missing.

This recipe is so good that:

1. My 14-year-old cousin Brianna adored it. She normally only eats Chicken Noodle Soup and string cheese, so this is saying a lot.

2. Both my sister Heidi and I had this dish served at our weddings. Yup.

Before we jump in, let’s get in the mood for a hot stew-like concoction by examining pictures of the rainy day on the lake.

I deserted any pretense of subtlety and electrified the blue in this water using a fun tool in Photoshop: “Selective Color.” If you own Photoshop but haven’t used it, get with the plan, Stan.

Mmmm, I’m getting hungrier by the minute.

One more explanation and then I promise we’ll get to the good stuff. The step-by-step pictures. You see, I had just changed my lens to my zoom lens in order to capture the raindrops on the lake from a safe distance. Then I came back to the main house to cook. If you remember the post about our lodgings during Family Vacay 2010 (click here to read), you’ll recall that I was staying in a separate smaller cabin, where my other lens was housed. And I was not going back out into the rain to change that lens, golldarnheckanannywhillikins. Therefore, all these pictures were taken with a zoom lens that required me to be very far away from the pot I was attempting to photograph, which proved to be quite awkward. Do I regret my choice? If I say yes, my Mom might say “I told you so,” so I’ll stick by it. But that’s why the pictures are a little . . . a little not so awesome. But the food was!

Now that I’ve got you on board with how amazing this is going to be, let’s begin. There is a long list of ingredients, but most of that list is just composed of spices, plus you really just toss everything into a pot anyway. It’s not difficult—please trust me. To prove this I will walk you through it step by step.

Ingredients

(Serves 8-10)

1 1/2 sticks butter

3/4 cups flour

1 bunch chopped green onions

2 stalks celery

1 large onion

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper (I added a yellow one too)

6 cloves garlic

1-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

½ tsp dried thyme

1 TBS tomato paste

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp white pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp chili powder

Pinch ground coriander

Pinch ground cumin

Pinch ground cloves

Dash Worcestershire sauceDash Tabasco sauce

1/4 c dry sherry

3 cups chicken stock

3 cups shredded aged cheddar

8 oz heavy whipping cream

4 chicken breasts

Cooked white rice, to serve

First, chop all your stuff: the celery, peppers, onions, and garlic. You can chop up your chicken now as well if you feel like it, though it doesn’t go in until the end.

Shred your aged cheddar–please make the extra investment and buy some good quality aged cheddar, because this is a key flavor and I promise it will make a big difference.

Melt the butter in a large, large pot. When it’s melted, add the flour. Don’t be like me and take a hideous blurry picture because you’re too lazy to change your lens.

Stir over medium heat to create what’s called a roux. Keep it cooking until it gets to be a golden brown and releases a nutty scent. This took me about 10 minutes. Check out the change in color from the pale yellow above to the rich golden hue below:

Add the chopped green onions, onion, garlic, bell peppers, and celery.

And we’re done! Doesn’t it look appetizing?

Just kidding! Cook those veggies about 6 minutes, until softened.

Add the tomato paste and all the spices. Cook for another few minutes, stirring to combine.

Add the can of diced tomatoes. Cook for another few minutes.

Add the Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, dry sherry, and chicken stock.

Bring ‘er to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for a good 30 minutes. It should thicken a good bit–that’s the magic of the roux happening.

Add the cheese, heavy whipping cream, and chicken. Simmer over low heat until the chicken is cooked through, about 6-7 minutes.

Mmmm. . . raw chicken floating in a stew pot. Give ‘er a stir and submerge that pink uncooked flesh, for the sake of decency.

If it’s not quite thick enough, create a cornstarch/water slurry and add that in. Or add more cheese. Or something. Looks about ready to me . . .

Serve it over white rice, and garnish with green onions and an extra drizzle of dry sherry. I guarantee you will go back for more.

 

Enjoy!

The pieces of chicken are soooo tender . . . sooo flavorful . . .

Now you just have to get a wonderful father and hot husband to do the dishes, and your evening will have been perfection.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Chili-Cheese Etouffée

Garlicky Stuffed Portobellos

Today, a brief and culinary pause in the Erica/Dave wedding story–but be back tomorrow for all the pictures of the bride getting dressed. All very decent, I assure you.

I recently experienced a cooking failure making stuffed portobellos. I oversalted them, and there was wa-ay too much garlic–can you believe it? I never thought I’d use the phrase “too much garlic”, but considering I woke myself up at 2am due to my own overpowering garlic breath, it seems appropriate. These are the culprits:

They look so innocent . . . even delicious. But you’ll have to take my word for it: they were not.

“If you don’t succeed, try, try again” I whispered to myself as I walked to the El to catch the train to work. “If you don’t succeed, try, try again,” I murmured as I transferred to the Belmont bus. “If you don’t succeed . . .”–but you get the idea.

After all this self-motivation business, I dug in and determined to give it another try. I sat before my computer screen and fantasized about taking a bite of the fabulous, meaty mushroom that we’ve all come to love: what flavors did I want in my mouth? Garlic, definitely . . . a little wine . . . some mozzarella . . . something meaty, something red . . . and thus this recipe was born. I typed it up and tested it on my parents when they popped down to Chicago for a visit. I bring you the results. You will love them.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

5 Portobello mushrooms, wiped clean

1 TBS olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 pre-cooked bratwursts, chopped

3-4 slices fresh mozzarella, torn

1 roasted red pepper, torn

5 TBS white wine

10 tsp heavy cream

5 dashes salt

5 dashes black pepper

First I should explain–I used 5 mushrooms, but put “serves 4” because there’s always someone who wants a little more. Technically though, you could do 1 mushroom per person. That is, if you’re a mushroom miser.

Let’s begin: heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the stems from the Portobellos, chop the stems, and set them aside. Chop your brats as well. I found these brats next to the hot dogs–they’re precooked, which saves some time. And they’re reeeaal good.

Lay the Portobello caps on a baking sheet, rounded side down. Mix the olive oil and minced garlic, spread it over the portobellos with a pastry brush, and sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper.

Pour 1 TBS wine and 2 tsp cream in each mushroom cap.

Heat a pan over medium-high and add the chopped bratwursts and chopped mushroom stems. Cook 7-8 minutes or until browned. They will start out looking pale and sickly:

. . . but with my dad’s tender care . . .

. . . they browned quite nicely. Good job, Dad.

Now let’s grab the fun stuff:

Tear the mozzarella slices and roasted red pepper, and lay the pieces in each mushroom.

Top with the bratwurst/mushroom stem mixture.

Put the whole shebang in your 400 degree oven for 12 minutes, then serve ’em up. Mmmm . . .

Serve with Tangy Lemon Spinach (recipe coming soon) and white rice.

Lessons learned from initial failure and subsequent success:

  1. Do not oversalt. Do not oversalt. You can always add salt, but once it’s in there it’s too late. Record yourself saying this on a looped track and play it as you sleep for maximum absorption.
  2. Experimentation will not always result in astounding success.
  3. Experimentation will inevitably result in astounding success when white wine and cream are involved.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Garlicky Stuffed Portobellos