Chicken, Shrimp, Andouille Gumbo

Deedy and I worked in the kitchen together making this gumbo I got from bon apetit. The original recipe was for 16 people, we cut it in half. I think what we cut it down too would feed 16 people. Holy smokes this makes a lot of food. The pot we used was close to overflowing. Fortunately, it's incredibly tasty. Word of warning....it's pretty spicy! As much food as this recipe makes, and the little amount of Cayenne, garlic, and onions, this thing was pretty hot. It was great on a cold winter day, although Deedy thought it was peaking her ability to eat it.

I loved it :)

If you make this, make sure you've got a big pot. Great for a party with lots of people. Make sure to have plenty of rice on hand to serve this with.

Ingredients

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all purpose flour
6 large onions, chopped (about 12 cups)
6 red bell peppers, seeded, chopped (about 7 cups)
8 celery stalks, chopped (about 3 cups)
16 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chopped fresh thyme
6 bay leaves
2 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes with juice
4 8-ounce bottles clam juice
4 cups low-salt chicken broth
4 pounds andouille sausage, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
3 pounds skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 16-ounce packages sliced frozen okra

4 pounds peeled deveined medium shrimp
Minced fresh Italian parsley
Steamed rice

Directions

Heat oil in heavy 13-quart pot over medium-high heat until very hot and almost smoking. Add flour and stir constantly until mixture is dark reddish brown, about 5 minutes. Add chopped onions, chopped bell peppers, and chopped celery and cook until onions are soft and brown, stirring frequently, about 20 minutes. Add garlic and cayenne and stir 2 minutes. Add wine, thyme, and bay leaves; bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes with juice, clam juice, broth, sausage, and chicken; simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Add okra and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Do ahead Gumbo base can be made 2 days ahead. Cool slightly. Chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep chilled. Bring base to simmer before continuing.

Add shrimp to pot and cook shrimp until just opaque in center, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Season gumbo to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with minced parsley and serve with steamed rice alongside.

Jumbo Shrimp with Chive Butter

We tried this recipe last night from bon apetit. It was pretty tasty, definitly on the lemony side. The nice thing is it's easy and quick.

Ingredients

1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
6 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
36 uncooked jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined, butterflied
Whole chives

Directions

Preheat broiler. Place mustard in bowl; whisk in lemon juice, then melted butter. Add chopped chives. Season with pepper.

Arrange shrimp, cut side up, on broiler pan. Brush with some of butter mixture. Broil until just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Arrange on plates and garnish with whole chives. Serve, passing remaining butter separately.

Makes 6 servings.

Baked Scallops and Mushrooms in Garlic Sauce

Deedy's favorite dish is anything with Scallops. We've made this recipe several times and it's always turned out good.

Ingredients

3/4lb sea or bay scallops
1/2lb medium mushrooms
3 tbls olive oil
1/4 cup flour
1/4 dry white wine
3 tbls bread crumbs
2 tbls onion, minced
1 tbls parsley minced
2 cloves garlic
pinch of dried red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Rince scallops in cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and reserve stems and caps. Brush a shallow 9" diamter baking dish with 1 tablespoon of olive oil; phreheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss the scallops with the flour and arrange them with the mushroomcaps, in a single layer in the dish. Pour the wine into the dish, along the edge. Finely chop the mushroom stems and mix them with the bread crumbs, onion, parsley, garlic, pepper flakes and salt and pepper. Sprinkle this mixture over the scallops and mushrooms. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil, Bake until the mushrooms are soft and the scallops are cooked through, about 30 mninutes. Serve warm, or cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.

London Broil

This is one of our favorite BBQ's for a nice slab of beef.

Ingredients

2 lb London broil or your favorite cut of beef

2 tbs freshly ground pepper
2 tspn kosher salt
1 tbsl italian seasoning

Directions

Fire up the grill. I use mesquite wood chunks to put on top of the charcoal for that extra smoke flavor Soak the wood chunks in water for an hour before cooking.

Mix the pepper, salt, and seasoning together. Cover both sides of the steak with the mix seasonings. When the coals are ready and when the wood chunks are smoking on the grill, sear the steak on both sides directly over the coals. I did this for a little over a minute a side.

After that, cook the steak with indirect heat.

Steak will cook for about 1/2 hour at indirect heat. Flip every 10-15 minutes.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Got this from my mom who got this from my sister...

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

2 - 14 1/2 oz of chopped stewed tomatoes
2 - 14 1/2 oz of chicken broth
1/4 c chopped cilantro
1 c salsa (med)
1 clove garlic minced
2 tbsp margarine
4-5 bone/skinless chicken breasts (boiled and cut into bite sized
pieces)

Directions

In crock pot saute garlic in butter on high
Add remaining ingredients
Cover, cook on low 8-10 hrs

8 oz monterey jack cheese
Tortilla chips
Avacado slices
Light sour cream

In individual bowls place chunks of cheese in bottom of each bowl
Ladel soup in bowl
Add avacado slices
Crumble tortilla chips
Add a dollup of sour cream

Tomato and Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Deedy has made this chicken a couple of times and it has an incredible flavor with the sun dried tomatos.

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2/3 cup California-Sun Dry Sun Dried Tomato Spread
1/2 cup seasoned dry breadcrumbs
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375f and spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Coat chicken with tomato spread, pressing with your fingers so that it sticks to the chicken. Stir together breadcrumbs and cheese, coat chicken heavily with mixture and place on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining breadcrumb mixture, then bake for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Rob's Garlic Bread

I like garlic. Lots of garlic. Especially on bread. This is a garlic bread recipe I concocted that uses a ton of garlic and goes great on the grill.

Ingredients

Sourdough Bread
Bulb of garlic - chopped
Olive oil
Butter
Shredded parmesean cheese
fresh basil, or you can use dried.

Instructions

Heat olive oil in pan. Cut bread in half, length-wise. Lather the bread with butter....lots of butter. When the olive oil is hot, saute the garlic until just golden. Take off of heat and let garlic cool for a minute, not too long. Put the garlic on the bread. Yes, the butter will melt. Spread the garlic on both halves of the bread. Cover with cheese, then top with chopped basil.

Wrap bread up in tin foil. Okay, alumninum foil, but I still call it tin foil. Leave top open. Put bread on BBQ for about 10 minutes or until crust gets crusty.

You can broil this as well, but I've never had luck with the broiling. Baking the bread at 350 works good if you do it for 10 minutes or so. Make sure the cheese is melted and the bread is crusty.

Slice and eat.