Venison Ragout

Both ragu (Italian) and ragout (French) are meat stews with a name derived from the root ragouter which means "to stimulate the appetite." The Italian version is usually made with white wine and is served over pasta. The French version uses red wine and is typically served with potatoes.

My version of Ragoo use vension roast for the meat. I served it over mashed potatoes. I also make my own Creole seasoning for reduction of salt and better flavor.

Venison Ragout

Makes 6 servings

2 pounds venison roast (or 2 lbs lean beef) cut into 2-inch cubes

½ cup flour
1 T Creole Seasoning
 (recipe below)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 medium-size onion, chopped

1 medium green bell pepper, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cups beef broth or stock

1 cups dry red wine

1 cup canned diced tomatoes, with juices

1 bay leaves

1 T dried parsley flakes


Sprinkle the flour with the seasoning and stir to combine. Dredge the meat. Reserve the flour. Heat the oil and butter in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the meat evenly on all sides. Remove meat from pan. Reduce the heat to medium and add the chopped onion, bell pepper and garlic. Cook, stirring, until the vegetables are soft and golden, 8 to 10 minutes.

Stir in the reserved flour and cook 5 minutes to start the roux. Gradually stir in the broth and red wine, and bring to a boil. Add the tomatoes and bay leaves. Return the meat to the pan. Cover and cook over low heat for 1 ½ hours.

Add the parsley and serve over mashed or roasted potatoes.

Creole Seasoning Recipe

1/3 Cup Kosher Salt

1/3 Cup Paprika

1/4 Cup Granulated Garlic

4 Tbsp Onion Powder

1/3 Cup Freshly Ground Black Pepper

3 Tbsp White Pepper

2 Tbsp Cayenne Pepper

2 Tbsp Dried Thyme

2 Tbsp Dried Basil

1 Tbsp Dried Oregano

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight jar or plastic container.

The Company Burger

I'm continuing my food adventures down Freret Street. This time was a stop at The Company Burger. It is a pretty spartan place, with minimalist decor and concrete floors but they grind their meat and make their own pickles, so I was ready to be impressed.

I ordered the single cheeseburger that comes with bread and butter pickles and red onions. The bun was warm and toasty and the burger was very flavorful, although the slice of American cheese was almost too small. I tried my friend's turkey burger and it was astonishingly good.

We split onion rings (thin sliced and perfectly salted), French fries (crisp outside, soft interior) and sweet potato fries (yummy). I found out their bottle Cokes come from Mexico (where they still use real sugar) and ordered two. Very refreshing!

The ordering line is smooth but the wait at lunch for a table can be long and cut-throat. We finished our meal and had to endure the stink eye from several hunger diners as we wrapped up our conversation. Worth returning to but maybe I'll go next time outside of the lunch rush.

Drago's for Lunch

I met up with some friends at Drago's Seafood Restaurant in Metairie. I personally prefer that location over the one at the New Orleans' Hilton but I was also meeting up with people who were driving in from Lafayette, LA and, after lunch, catching a flight to Atlanta.

We started with a dozen charbroiled oysters that tasted a lot like more, so we followed them up with another half dozen.


I settled on the fried shrimp plate for my main course. While the side salad that came with it was mainly iceberg lettuce, the plate came with over a dozen lightly battered and delicious fried shrimp and a whole lot of French fries. I quite enjoyed my meal. My companions enjoyed their lump crab meat salads. They did say that the cup of gumbo they shared lost a bit in comparison to the version they had after their swamp tour in Cajun country.

All in all a fine dining experience, with the waiter checking in regularly and making sure drinks were quickly refilled.

Circles and Squares

This is a big football weekend here in New Orleans. The beloved Saints play the Detroit Lions on Saturday for the NFL playoff game and then the BCS Championship game between Alabama's Crimson Tide and Tigers of Louisiana State University is played on Monday. The city is filled with rapid football fans. It is also the beginning of Carnival Season (kicks off on Twelfth Night - January 6-- and runs until Mardi Gras - February 21).

In preparation, I made a big batch of my version of Chex Mix which I call Circles and Squares. I'm not a fan of the peanuts and pretzels, so mine is all Crispex and Cheerios.

Here is the recipe:


Circles and Squares

1 box Crispex cereal (15 oz) about 12 cups
1 box Cheerios cereal (8.9 oz) about 6 cups
6 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ teaspoons seasoned salt
¾ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder

Stir cereal in a large roasting pan to mix. Combine rest of the ingredients together and pour over the cereal, stirring well to coat evenly. Bake 1 hour in a 250 degree oven, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.

Mint Limoncello Champagne Cocktail

Ringing in the New Year with a new drink:

Mint Limoncello Campagne Cocktail

½ cup fresh mint leaves
¼ cup limoncello
2 T sugar, plus more for dipping
lemon peel strips from 1 lemon
4 tsp fresh lemon juice plus lemon wedge
1 cup champagne

Place mint, limoncello, 2 T sugar and lemon strips in blender. Blend until mint is finely chopped, about 10 seconds. Strain into a jar. Refrigerate until midnight.

Run lemon wedge around rim of champagne flutes. Dip into sugar. Divide limoncello mixture between flutes. Top with champagne.

Toast!

Dove for Dinner

We come to the end of 2011 and enjoyed a dinner of dove that were shot over the course of the year by my father.

To prepare, wash dove very clean and sprinkle with Creole seasoning. Melt 1 stick of butter in 1 cup of water or chicken broth. Bring to a boil and toss in dove. Steam for thirty minutes. Remove dove from pan. Add to broth 2 Tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, 1 lb of mushrooms, 1/2 cup of sherry. Serve as is or thicken with flour. We served the dove with a wild rice blend.

We had eight people to dinner, so we tripled the recipe. We also had to remind everyone to not bite down too hard--there is always the chance that there will be buckshot in the bird. At the end of the night, we just had over 30 dove carcasses to dispose of:

Mama's Red Beans

When my Mama makes red beans and rice, she doesn't fool around!


Here is her recipe (the batch from the picture above was a doubling of this double recipe)

2 lb dried red kidney beans
8 quarts water
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
4 tsp minced garlic
4 bay leaves
4 tsp salt
4 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp dried whole thyme
1 tsp ground red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried whole oregano
1 lb andouille sausage
1 lb bulk sausage (if you like hot red beans, use hot, otherwise use mild)
1 cup finely chopped fresh parsley


Wash beans then place in a large pot. Cover with water 2 inches above beans and let soak overnight. Drain Beans and return to pot. Add 8 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook, uncovered, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Melt butter in a large skillet. Add onion, celery, green bell pepper and garlic. Saute until tender. Stir sauted vegetables and spices into beans. Cook, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Add additional water if necessary.

Bake sausages at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, drain well. stir sausages into bean mixture. Cook, uncovered, 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaves and stir in chopped parsley. Serve over rice.

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

I'm not usually a fan of using box cake mixes; at least not for their intended purpose. Here is a recipe for Red Velvet Crinkle cookies that start with a box of Red Velvet Cake mix.


1 Box Red Velvet Cake Mix
6 T unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp corn starch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the melted butter, cake mix, eggs & vanilla until fluffy & smooth.

In a shallow bowl, sift together 1/2 cup powdered sugar & 1/2 tsp. corn starch. Roll cookie dough into 1 inch balls and then roll in the powdered sugar mixture. (If you run out of powdered sugar, sift together an additional 1/2 cup powdered sugar & 1/2 tsp. corn starch).

Place cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, space them about 2 to 3 inches apart as the cookies spread out quite a bit.

Bake for 9 minutes exactly. The cookies will not look done, but they will set up more as they cool. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheets for 1 minute and then place cookies on a cookie sheet to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Ancora Pizzeria and Salumeria

Ancora Pizzeria and Salumeria is part of the Freret Street resurgence. Located just a block or so off Napoleon, they serve authentic Neapolitan pizzas. What does that mean? These pizza's are cooked in a wood fired pizza oven imported from Naples that gets up to 850 degrees and cooks the pizza in 45 to 80 seconds. With that fast of a bake, the toppings have to be minimal and crust super thin. That also means that every item must be at the peak of flavor. What is so good about Ancora is that they are.

We started with drinks (Charlotte had an adult root beer float and I had an Italian sidecar) and a meat plate with a mix of house-made cured meats. While I'm not a fan of headcheese, everything else on the board was delicious and almost too rich. I could have used a piece of bread with the slices but, as the pizza was coming, I just enjoyed the meat.

We ordered the Margherita pizza with tomato, fior di latte and basil. The tomato was bright, the cheese was in slices, so it didn't cover quite enough but was perfectly melted and the basil added a terrific flavor. I really enjoyed the crust--lightly chewy and puffed on the edges. Because the pizza's are so thin and only about 11 inches, had there been any more of us at the table, we would have needed to order a second pizza.



We had glasses of Italian wine with the meal--Charlotte with a rose and me with a Feudi di San Gregorio red. The wine list is set up with pairs for each pizza and her choice was good and the waiter steered me well on his recommendation.

We missed out on the chocolate dessert and ended up just getting the cookie plate. All right but nothing particularly noteworthy (although I'll skip the anise flavored one next time).

There weren't that many other folks in the place but there was a bit of ambient noise. It would probably be pretty loud on a busier night. The bartender and both waiters swung by the table regularly to check in and refill the water. Everyone was friendly and quick with suggestions, especially when we told them that we hadn't ever been in before.

Salu - small plates and wine bar

I was among the ladies who lunch today or, more accurately, lesbians who lunch. We went to Salu, the newest restaurant to take over the corner at Magazine and Pleasant Street.

I started with a very delicious margarita and then moved on to applewood smoked bacon wrapped dates. Frankly, the sauce was a little much and nearly hid the bacon but the marscapone cheese was a lovely touch. My lunch came with a Cesar salad and it was pretty good--grilling half a head of romaine gave it a slightly nutty flavor and the roasted garlic-anchovy vinaigrette was pretty tasty without an overpowering fishy taste.

For the entre, I had BBQ pulled pork. The corn fritters they came with had no flavor, so I had them bring a second loaf of fresh bread and I made myself a sandwich. I also had the patatas americanas (fried potatoes) with garlic aioli that were a highlight of the meal.

As I was out with good friends, I also ate off of all their plates. The seared tuna with papaya salsa was decent, the smoked ham and manchego croquettes had a delicious smokiness, and, unfortunately, the duck and manchego flautas with salsa fesca, smahed avocado and cumin creme fraiche were just a few too many flavors at once.

The wait staff was friendly and quick with refills and extra Splenda and patient as we waited for all the people in our party to join us. As we left, the floor manager asked about our meal and experience. With that sort of care, I believe that this place might have a future at this location.

I want to thank again my friend, Mickie, who bought my lunch as a celebration of my winning the Rainbow Awards for Debut Lesbian Novel. You rock!