Adventures with anrkst.

It smells tremendous when you lift the lid. There's a satisfying "crunch" when you cut thru the potatoes too.


The sous loves him some mashed potatoes so he murdered 2 huge bowls of this almost as fast as we could eat 1.


So there you go. An easy recipe you could do almost anywhere. LadyAsh says it was absolutely in the top 3 I've done. Y'all stop by and tell me what you thought of it.

 

Looks really good.

 

Oy! Run up the colors!.....Lets do something...outrageous. Whatta ya say?

 

This vision is going to require shrimp, almost 2 lbs of jumbos, peeled/de-shelled and marinated in some cayenne, paprika, lemon juice, and olive oil.







It always get oversized, fast. The sous gets brought in as assistant for knife work.

 

"Shells n tails" shrimp broth. Pinch of salt, dab of butter, lil black pepper, couple of drops of Tabasco. Boil vigorously in about 1/2 gallon of water for 7-8 minutes then strain it out.



Some other things we will need for this. About a quart total of my seasoned homemade chicken stock, 1/2 stick of real butter ( yellow bowl), 2 cups of seasoned flour with the other 1/2 stick of butter, 1 large pablano pepper ( remove seeds), about 4 link sausages sliced ( these have jalapeños), and of course olive oil...

There's a 4 quart Tupperware here somewhere...veggies from the freezer collection. 2 cups corn, French style green beans, and okra. 1 cup each of green peas and asparagus.

 

A dangerously hot 14 inch cast iron pot.


To which we will add more spicy indigestion inducing goodness...


And piles of delicious mushrooms...


Just in case you didn't think it was spicy enough!


Dang. Almost forgot the pablano!

 

Next some vegetation. This still had ice in it so even after draining it will need to simmer a bit, boil off some of the water. The potatoes and carrots are off camera bathing in the hot shrimp broth. They will appear here shortly...


When were down to just a little bit of liquid left, add some diced tomatoes, juice and all. You can use more if you like a bit more "tomatoey" ...

Here is the ( every dang time) missing photo. The phone rang, it was my photographers office, so visualize the potatoes,carrots, and about 1/2 the shrimp broth going in at this point.

Years and years ago, back in my younger and more bad tempered days, I ripped a phone out of the wall wires and all, took it outside and threw it across the road into the woods. Good thing I've mellowed in my old age huh?

 

Time to throw down with the seasoned flour. My photographer was back...she's not convinced this is going to work. (I keep telling her "Whose the cook here?"


When the flour browns and the butter is all incorporated add chicken broth...

 

A LOT of chicken broth.

 

Then most of a good dark beer...


Then the rest of the shrimp broth...this is gonna be gooood.

 

Now just start pouring everything back into that roux, low heat but keep stirring...gently. Just don't let it burn.


5 minutes. There's only one way to tell if it's right. Does it need salt? Pepper?, Tabasco? Nope this is perfect.


Time to stand to and put the culinary skills on the line. Will the crew like it? (The true test.) We shall see, it's for sure about 42 lbs of smokin hot!

 

Awesome as always!
On the picture after the one with the shrimps - is this jujube fruit?

 

Service done right.


Beloved said this should serve over rice. ( One does not disagree with the tiny size master chief inside the walls eh. )
She did up that part is her super cool magikal microwave rice pot...


So there you go my Bretheren..Sisteren, crew, mates, kin....other assorted pirate scum.

Shrimp Etouffee...cooked outside..over open fire...in cast iron...in the holy motherland of TEXAS! Hooya. Amen.

 

Nope. No fruit there. Those are baby Dutch red potatoes. My beloved likes her potatoes cut into small pieces and those hold together the best. The golds or purple ones will cook away to mush sometimes, especially in "lots of liquid" recipes like soups, or long cook times like pot roasts.

 

Go ahead pilgrim.....draw.

 

I wanted something simple. What I found (thru research) was Tuscan Chicken. How simple is it? You could take 5 cans ( mushrooms, mixed vegetables, small new potatoes, chicken stock, and cream or tinned milk) and a retort pouch of chicken, and literally make this in any pot with no refrigerator required. As such it's for sure on my list....

My old phone finally croaked out. So I'm working with a new I phone and being sort of "dinosaurian " I'm still playing with it, trying to figure out the handling, bear with me alright?

I also see in looking at these pics (editing) that a lot of what I do looks...similar. Photos shot in the same way and the same place, ect. I'm one of those "Just the facts" people, The subtleties of taste and texture are what I look for. I bet if we looked thru the magik window of time at what frontier cabin dwellers ate over a year's time, we would see much the same degree of...well, sameness. I'll try to work on this, make it more interesting. Deal? Let's begin shall we?

 

I had this chicken. The 2 baby blues were legs n thighs, the other was breasts, these were from the Godzilla birds that ravaged Tokyo in the 30's I think. A qt/liter of my homemade seasoned stock. ( you could use the canned or boxed stuff, it's not that bad and you can spice it to your taste.)


These will be needed too. A thickener, milk ( non dairy was required), and a little oil for browning.


Freezer stash. Corn, green beans, asparagus. Canned mixed vegetables would work...dehydrated too. Just soak them for a loonng time.


I had fresh, I used them. Here are the carrots ( found in the mixed veg cans) potatoes can be had in cans, mushrooms too.

 

I pre-heated my 14". This was about 15 low 20 on top. This was a pile of bird, that's a 4 at prep bowl...


Yep, this is where it's at, the ssssss, the smoke, aroma. Livin brothers. Livin.

 

I ran the chicken about 5 minutes, flipped it, and 5 minutes more. Not cooked, not even close, just seared and sealed. Then it's pulled out to rest.


Then the mixed vegetables along with just enough chicken broth to float it, I didn't measure it but it's only an inch or so deep.


Then more veg, more broth. Hot and boiling....


When I'm done, this will be rich and savory...