Showing posts with label Cajun recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cajun recipes. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing

Spicy and delicious, this Cajun chicken eggplant dressing can be a side dish or dinner! Either way, if you like eggplant, you are going to love it. 

Food Lust People Love: Spicy and delicious, this Cajun chicken eggplant dressing can be a side dish or dinner! Either way, if you like eggplant, you are going to love it.

This was one of my mom’s favorite dishes and one I absolutely detested growing up. For too many years she’d make me put some on my plate, just to try it, until she suddenly said, “Hey, the more for me!” and quit forcing me. Hallelujah! 

When I finally learned to love eggplant through the Italian gateway dish/drug of eggplant parmigiana,  I started cooking Mom’s old eggplant-based favorites and, sur-PRISE, sur-PRISE, sur-PRISE, as Gomer Pyle used say, I loved them all!

Side note to my overseas/younger readers: Gomer Pyle was a character in a terribly hokey 1960s tv show I watched as reruns when I was a kid in the '70s. One of his standard lines "Sur-PRISE, sur-PRISE, sur-PRISE" - emphasis on the last syllable - was always uttered with a big wide eyes, possibly followed by another of his favorite interjections: SHAZAM! He was innocent, easily amazed and we loved him. In case you want to look it up, he was on The Andy Griffith Show.

If you love eggplant like I love eggplant, you might like to try my Cheesy Eggplant Pork Roast Rolls, my Caprese Stuffed Roasted Eggplant or Mom’s other huge favorite, Cajun Shrimp Eggplant Casserole. All delicious but the Caprese Stuffed Roasted Eggplant is especially lovely if you need a pretty main dish for the vegetarians in your life. 

Isn't it amazing how our taste buds and aversions to texture can change as we grow up? 

Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing

You can make this dressing with your preferred chicken parts but know that chicken with skin on and bones helps make the dish more flavorful. If you choose bigger pieces, like thighs, just make sure you cook them till they are tender. On the cooked rice, I like long-grained basmati rice but my Cajun grandmother would have used short grained, grown locally in southern Louisiana. You do you. 

Ingredients
2 1/2 lbs or 1134g chicken wing parts (use the tips to make stock!) 
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
ground cayenne
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil
1 medium onion, peeled and finely minced
1 medium bell pepper, de-seeded, stem removed, finely minced
2 stalks celery, finely minced
2 medium eggplants (about 2 lbs or 900g in weight)
3 cups or 400g cooked rice
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon cayenne (use less if you don’t like things spicy), plus more to taste 
Freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

Optional: chopped parsley for garnish

Method
Season the chicken with salt, black pepper and a good sprinkle of cayenne then pan-fry in the canola oil, uncovered, in your Dutch oven until golden brown on all sides. Remove to a plate and set aside. 


Add the onion, bell pepper and celery to the pot and sauté over a low heat until the vegetables are soft and the onion is translucent. I find putting the lid on helps this go faster but don’t forget to stir frequently. 


Peel the eggplant in strips, leaving some peeling on for color, then cut them into cubes. You can leave all the peels on but the color of the dish will be markedly darker. My mom used to say that when her grandmother made it, the eggplant turned even the chicken kind of black. I cannot verify this as I always peel mine thusly. 


Once the onion mixture has softened, return the golden chicken pieces to the pot. (For the eagle-eyed, I just removed the pot from the stove for photos. My stovetop doesn't have great lighting.)


Pile the eggplant cubes on top and season with the salt, cayenne and a few generous grinds of black pepper. 


Add a half cup or 120ml water to the pot and put the lid to your Dutch oven on snugly. Cook over a high heat for a few minutes, until you start to see a little steam trying to escape, then turn the heat down to simmer. 

Cook for about an hour, checking periodically to see if you need to add a little water, if it looks dry. With a proper tight-fitting lid, the eggplant releases enough liquid that this shouldn’t be necessary but best to check. 

This is after about half an hour. 


This is after a full hour. You will notice that I did not stir so the chicken remains submerged. 


Take the lid off the pot and add in the cooked rice. Now you should mix well. 


Cook, covered, for about five minutes or until the rice is heated through. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t start to stick to the pot. 

Taste the dressing and add more salt, cayenne and black pepper if needed. Mine is usually good for salt but we like more pepper. Again, you do you. 


Pile the dressing in a serving bowl and garnish with a little chopped parsley for color. My grandmother would never have missed this step! Every savory dish she cooked was finished with a little parsley. 

Food Lust People Love: Spicy and delicious, this Cajun chicken eggplant dressing can be a side dish or dinner! Either way, if you like eggplant, you are going to love it.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the fourth installment of our Alphabet Challenge for 2024. Today’s recipes are brought to you by the letter D. Many thanks to our challenge creator Wendy of A Day in the Life on a Farm. 




Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far:
A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs
B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly
C: Cecilie's Favorite Coleslaw
D: Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing - This post!



Pin this Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing!

Food Lust People Love: Spicy and delicious, this Cajun chicken eggplant dressing can be a side dish or dinner! Either way, if you like eggplant, you are going to love it.

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Sunday, January 18, 2015

Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and dumplings mean different dishes depending on where they originate. In southern Louisiana, it’s fluffy drop dumplings, cooked in a roux-based simmering rich brown gravy with stewed chicken, just like my grandmother used to make.

Food Lust People Love: Chicken and dumplings mean different dishes depending on where they originate. In southern Louisiana, it’s fluffy drop dumplings, cooked in a roux-based simmering rich brown gravy with stewed chicken, just like my grandmother used to make.



When one lives in a place where bargaining is standard practice, there is a hierarchy of pricing guidelines and most folks assume I’m a tourist. So, when I am out and about in a local market and someone asks, “Where are you from?” I always answer, “I live here.” And then, if I am truly interested in buying the thing, I start chatting with the vendor. “I live here” puts me squarely in Resident Expat sector, which usually gets me a decent price but not as low as it could be if I cajole my way up the Friendliness/Bargaining Savvy Continuum. If you know what I mean. Here, I’ve drawn you a handy chart.

Sadly, I've met folks from a few countries who could qualify as "ugly Americans."



It’s only when someone pushes further, that I might say that I am from the United States. If you prod even more, you’ll get “The South.”  We have to be having a real conversation for me to get into, “Well, I was born in Louisiana but I lived more years in Texas, but Louisiana is still kind of home because that’s where my grandparents were. Actually, I’ve lived overseas even more years than I have lived in the US.” Whew.

But when it comes to cooking, the first hometown favorites that come to mind are my grandmothers’ traditional Cajun dishes, like chicken and sausage gumbo,   courtbouillon, maque choux, smothered pork chops, smothered cabbage with pork, eggplant casserole with shrimp or crawfish etouffee, just to name a few. I’ve shared all of those already, as you can tell by the links, so I was wracking my brain for another of my grandmothers’ dishes that I haven’t shared for this week’s Sunday Supper hometown favorites theme. Perhaps smothered round steak or cabbage rolls or crawfish fettuccine casserole? And then it hit me!

A couple of years ago, when we were living in Cairo, it was chilly, my heater was broken and I was cold and lonely. I needed some comfort food. So I called my mom on Skype and discussed the ins and outs of my grandmother’s chicken and dumplings recipe. I made it that day and even took photos but I never shared it here. It's the perfect dish for this week’s Sunday Supper Hometown theme, and it's kind of chilly here in Dubai, so I made it again. The roux-based gravy is wonderful, the chicken is tender and falling off the bone. And the dumplings! The dumplings are light and fluffy, so wonderful that my husband went back for seconds of just the dumplings with extra gravy. As my grandparents would say, “Talk about good!”

Chicken and Dumplings

Any recipe that includes a copper-penny-colored roux is a good recipe in my book. If you'd like to see photos of the evolution of your roux from blonde to dark copper, check out this post: https://www.foodlustpeoplelove.com/2015/09/how-to-make-roux.html

Ingredients
For the chicken stew:
1 whole chicken
Sea salt
Black pepper
Cayenne
Olive oil
4 tablespoons flour
1 medium onion
2 long stalks celery

For the dumplings:
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1 large egg

Note: My grandmother would have undoubtably finished this dinner with a sprinkling of chopped parsley. I plumb forgot.

Method
Cut your chicken up into at least eight pieces and season liberally with salt, black pepper and cayenne. If the breasts are large, I cut them in half again to get 10 pieces. I go pretty heavy on the cayenne because we like things spicy but use your best judgment for your family’s tastes.



Heat a good drizzle of olive oil in a frying pan and panfry the chicken until it is golden on both sides.



While the chicken is browning, dice your onion and celery.



Once the chicken is browned, remove it from the pan and set aside.  Add the four tablespoons of flour into the pan and stir until it is completely combined with the oil in the pan. Use a wooden spoon to loosen all the lovely browned bits that are stuck to the pan.



Cook the flour/oil mixture, formally known as a roux, over a medium heat, stirring almost constant, until it reaches a lovely dark copper color. Make sure not to let it catch and scorch or your gravy will taste burnt.



Add in the chopped onion and celery and continue cooking for several minutes until they soften.


Slowly add in a couple of cups of water and stir. Keep stirring until you have a lovely brown gravy without lumps of flour.

Add the browned chicken back into the pot, along with any juice that is in the plate it was resting on.

The gravy should come most of the way up the sides of the chicken. Add a little more water, if necessary.

Cover the pan and turn the fire down to simmer. Leave to simmer for about 45-55 minutes, checking occasionally that the water doesn’t completely evaporate and adding more if necessary. About halfway through the cooking time, turn the chicken over.



When the chicken is tender and cooked through, lightly whisk your egg with your milk and then combine your dumpling ingredients in a mixing bowl, stirring until just mixed.



Remove your chicken from the pan and set aside. Cover it so it stays warm.



Use a tablespoon to spoon the dumpling batter into the simmering gravy, leaving room between the dumplings so they can puff up as they cook. The batter comes off the spoon more easily if the spoon is wet so rinse it with water first and between scoops. Put the lid on for a few minutes.



Remove the lid and turn the dumplings over and replace the lid for another minute or two.



Transfer the dumplings to a plate and keep them warm until ready to serve, while you cook the remaining dumplings. They will soak up some of the gravy so you can add in a little water and stir well between the two batches if you need to.

Serve the chicken and dumplings with the remaining gravy from the pan. And my grandmother would always have had a vegetable or two alongside.

Food Lust People Love: Chicken and dumplings mean different dishes depending on where they originate. In southern Louisiana, it’s fluffy drop dumplings, cooked in a roux-based simmering rich brown gravy with stewed chicken, just like my grandmother used to make.


Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Chicken and dumplings mean different dishes depending on where they originate. In southern Louisiana, it’s fluffy drop dumplings, cooked in a roux-based simmering rich brown gravy with stewed chicken, just like my grandmother used to make.
So fluffy inside!


I am so excited about this week’s Sunday Supper because I know I am going to learn about dishes from so many different places around the US and the world through the loving, perhaps even a bit nostalgic, eyes of my fellow Sunday Supper colleagues and our wonderful host Coleen of The Redhead Baker. What a fabulous list, don’t you agree?!

Breakfast
Drinks
Appetizers and Snacks
Main Dishes
Side Dishes
Desserts

Pin the Chicken and Dumplings!



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Sunday, May 11, 2014

Cajun Shrimp Eggplant Casserole

Spicy eggplant and shrimp casserole is a traditional dish in any Cajun kitchen. It took me a while to come around to loving it but now it's a true family favorite.



My daughters will tell you that a lot of my recipe instructions start with frying bacon and garlic. They like to say ALL but then, they are given to hyperbole and come by that tendency naturally from all the storytellers in our family. As my father always says, “Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?” His own father, their great-grandfather used to say that he didn’t trust a man who could tell a story only one way. So you have to take us all with a grain of salt. 

But it is the gospel truth when I tell you that most Cajun recipes start with we call the holy trinity: onions, bell pepper and celery. This one is no different.

This week, along with the rest of North America and many countries around the globe, Sunday Supper is celebrating mothers so I wanted to make a dish that my mom loves. When I was a child, this shrimp eggplant casserole was one my mom thoroughly enjoyed and my grandmother made it often when we were visiting. I hated it!  Frankly, I hated all things eggplant. I think it was a textural thing. 

I had already had my second child and was 30 years old before I was introduced to eggplant Parmigiana.  Finally, an eggplant dish I liked! But that encouraged me to give some others another try and I am pleased to say that my mom’s favorite is now one of mine too. I don’t know that I make exactly like my grandmother did all those years ago, but I begin with the Cajun holy trinity, and bacon, and that’s the best start.

Happy Mother’s Day to my great traveling companion, positive thinker, faithful role model and unendingly generous mother! I love you, Mom, and wish we were celebrating together today.

My family bookends. They support me from both sides and I am blessed.


Cajun Shrimp Eggplant Casserole

Every Cajun cook has a recipe for a version of this spicy eggplant casserole with shrimp. This one is my attempt to replicate my maternal grandmother’s, in honor of her eldest daughter, my own dear mother.

 Ingredients
1 medium onion
1 medium green bell pepper or capsicum
3 stalks celery
4 cloves garlic
3 medium eggplants or aubergine (about 2 lbs or just less than 1 kg)
Sea salt
5 slices sandwich bread (I use whole grain because that’s all I ever buy.)
1 cup milk
1.5 lbs or 680g shrimp, already peeled and cleaned
2 slices bacon
Olive oil
1 1/2 cups or 135g grated Parmesan, divided
2 eggs
2 small chili peppers, minced, or 1 teaspoon chili paste or cayenne
Few good grinds of black pepper
1 cup or 125g dried breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons butter
Parsley for garnish, optional

Method
Finely chop the onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic.



Peel the eggplant and cut it into cubes. Put them in a large bowl, cover with cool water and sprinkle with fine sea salt.



Cut your bread slices into pieces and soak them with the milk.



In a large pan, big enough to eventually hold all your cubed eggplant, sauté the shrimp with a drizzle of olive oil, until just pink. Lightly season with sea salt. Remove from the pan and set aside.



Now fry the slices of bacon with another drizzle of olive oil until crispy and remove them from the pan. Chop them into small pieces.



Tip the onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic into the bacon pan and sauté until they are all soft. Drizzle in a little olive oil if the pan seems dry.



Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease a large casserole dish with a little olive oil.

Drain the eggplant in a colander and add it to the bacon pan. Cook the eggplant until it is softened as well. This takes about 10 minutes but you can put a lid on the pan to speed it up a little.



In a very large mixing bowl – I use my largest salad bowl – combine your soaked bread, 2 eggs, bacon, chilies, shrimp and half of the grated Parmesan.  Stir until very well combined.



Add in the sautéed eggplant and a few good grinds of black pepper and stir well.


Pour the whole bowl into your prepared casserole dish and spread the contents out evenly.



Mix your breadcrumbs with the remaining Parmesan and sprinkle this to cover the eggplant mixture.

Cut the butter into little slices and dot them around the top of the casserole.



Bake in your preheated oven for about half an hour or until the casserole is golden brown and bubbling.

Sprinkle with a little chopped parsley when serving, if desired.



Enjoy!

Does your mom have a special dish she loves? Does your family have inviolate Mother’s Day traditions? I’d love to hear about them so please leave me a comment. Meanwhile, check out all the lovely dishes and desserts my Sunday Supper group is sharing today, along with our talented host, Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake.

Mother's Day Breakfast:
Mother's Day Appetizers, Soups and Salads:
Mother's Day Main Dishes:
Mother's Day Desserts:






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