Slow Cooker Shrimp & Sausage Gumbo

I'm starting to realize I never actually make gumbo the traditional way--starting with a roux, getting to that perfect golden color, then adding in all my ingredients and slow simmering to perfection... Maybe that's because I have a wee one who has recently become mobile...or just because I'm a little lazy sometimes.  Nope...let's blame the baby.

I whipped this up for my church group one afternoon--I did all the prep work the night before, and threw the ingredients into the crock and refrigerated overnight, then the next morning before church I put the crock into the crockpot & set to High.  By the time our group met up for lunch it was ready to go!  It was a big hit--by the time they were through with it, there was nothing left to take home.

This worked really well for a big group--we brought the gumbo, rice, and pickled okra (to garnish).  Another person brought potato salad (a German-Louisianian tradition), another brought salad, bread, dessert, etc.  It was a fabulous meal with good friends (particularly when you have friends that will hold your baby while you eat).

INGREDIENTS: (makes 8-10 servings)
1 lb andouille or smoked sausage (Johnsonville's New Orleans Style works well if you can't get andouille links)
2 cups sliced pickled okra (I usually use fresh or frozen, but we had a GIANT jar of pickled okra that needed to be used up.  It worked really well in this recipe.)
1 medium onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning
(1) 14 oz can of diced fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained
1 cup dry roux
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1-2 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 lb medium shrimp, raw, peeled and tails removed
2 green onions, sliced
4-5 cups cooked rice (about 1/2 cup per serving)
pickled okra to garnish

DIRECTIONS:
Place sliced sausage, okra, onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, Cajun seasoning, tomatoes, dry roux, and chicken broth in the Crockpot & stir.  Cook on High for 4 hours, or Low for 6-8 hours.  

Throw the Worcestershire, Tabasco, shrimp and green onions in for the last half hour of cooking. You can add additional hot sauce or Cajun seasoning at this time as well, to your taste preference.

Serve with rice, potato salad, and pickled okra for garnish, along with a slice of french bread to sop up all the broth.

My Other Gumbo Recipes:
Pressure Cooker Gumbo
Gumbo Risotto
Duck & Sausage File Gumbo

What I've Been Cooking Lately

While I haven't had a ton of time to blog lately (the posts you've seen have been compiled over several weeks, pieced together here & there), I have still been cooking.  When I went back to work we quickly realized we needed to do some meal planning so we didn't starve to death or end up eating pizza every night.  Having a meal plan written down for the week helps us to figure out who's cooking what, which nights we won't need to cook anything and can just eat leftovers, and helps us to make sure we have enough leftovers for lunches.  

I've been ever-so-slowly working my way through my Recipes to Try on Pinterest. I try to keep a running list of what recipes I want to try next alongside my menu plan for the week, so I can cross things off as we use them and then add new recipes based on what's on sale or what we need to use up in the fridge. So, here's what I've tried recently, and my thoughts/tweaks to those recipes:

Easy Weeknight Chicken Parmesan - This was the recipe found inside a can of Progresso  Fire Roasted Tomato Recipe Starters in our pantry.  I've used a few of these Recipe Starters and have thus far been underwhelmed.  They all have a pretty "prepackaged" flavor.  I added a ton of garlic and basil to this sauce, which helped.  We used the excess sauce to make a pasta side dish.

"Chicken parm you taste so good..."  Thanks, Manning.

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup:  This one was practically perfect as-is. I made it for my church small group and everyone requested that I send them the recipe. I did use more cumin (probably closer to 2-3 teaspoons) and used smoked salt instead of regular--what can I say, I like my Mexican dishes a little smoky!

Crockpot Spaghetti Squash & Meatballs:  This is possibly the easiest meal I've ever made, and it was really tasty.  You literally cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, plop the two halves into the crock, then pour in a jar of sauce and toss in some frozen meatballs, set to high for 3 hours, then go back to playing with your kid.  Perfect.

Crockpot Mashed Potatoes:  This one ended up being a flop for me, but I think I accidentally used too much milk--I also think it would have worked better with russets instead of red potatoes.  Reds have a tendency to not be as fluffy, and when I OD'd on milk the end result was a gluey mess.

Crock Pot Beef & Broccoli:  This one was also a flop.  The meat completely fell apart after having been cooked for 8 hours on low, so we essentially had shredded beef & broccoli over rice.  The sauce also didn't really ever thicken up, and was sweeter than I would have liked, so we added extra soy and sriracha. 

Baked Crispy Sweet Potato Wedges:  While not as crispy as I had hoped, these were still delicious.  Great as a side with burgers or brats.

All grilling best when completed by The Hubs with his young apprentice.

Hummus Crusted Chicken:  The hummus "crust" never really got crunchy, but it DID keep the chicken nice and moist and even my father-in-law, who doesn't like hummus, said this was a really tasty dish. I used Sundried Tomato Basil Sabra hummus, and seasoned both sides of the chicken with Cajun seasoning before adding the hummus.

Baked Garlic Paprika Chicken:  This was tasty. I recommend using smoked paprika.  Also--I was lazy and didn't heat the oil & spices together--I just tossed them in a gallon Ziploc and then added the chicken to the bag, tossing to coat.  Still a delicious result.

Biscuit Waffles 'n Gravy:  Technically only "pinspired" by Pinterest, and the trend of waffling everything these days.  We stuck some Grands biscuits in the waffle iron, and my Hubs made his famous sawmill gravy.  The biscuits were a little tough, but tasty--and no fork required, you could just pick them up & eat them.  Good schtuff.

Cajun Black Bean Soup:  My soup did not end up as creamy as I would have liked--I could never get the puree to be thin enough, so it just had some bean chunks in it. I did use Camellia brand black beans. However, flavor-wise this was delicious.  Also--before you start this recipe, note the long cook time.  I didn't and we ended up eating dinner at about 8pm that night. :)

Mushroom & Kale Ramen:  This was a nice spin on regular ramen.  I used baby portabellas instead of shiitake, but it was still a yummy bite. I also added a bit of fish sauce because...well, because it's in our fridge, and it makes me feel fancy.

Ravioli Lasagna:  We didn't really follow any recipe exactly, but the recipe under the link is close to what we made.  I used frozen cheese raviolis from Aldi, 1 lb of sliced smoked sausage links, 1 jar Italian sausage pasta sauce, and tons of mozzarella & Italian cheese blend.  Just layered the ingredients and baked for 40 minutes at 350F.

PF Chang's Style Lettuce Wraps:  These were super-tasty & really easy to throw together. I will definitely be making again.

Herbed Chicken & Pasta:  This dish had great flavor but ended up being WAY too salty for our taste. I think if you could find a low-sodium version of the soup mixes it might help, or just eliminate one of the mixes (either the garlic mix or the onion soup mix).

There's a few other things I've made recently but they were tinkered with enough (or are Cajun enough) to warrant their own post, so I'll save those for later.  You know...when I have time. :)

Tex-Mex Crockpot Chili

This recipe was inspired by a restaurant we saw on Diners, Drive Ins & Dives. I forget the restaurant, otherwise I’d look it up & post here.

I dunno about you, but typically when I make chili, I brown the meat first, and then add everything to it.  But on the show, the chef just added everything into a big pot—raw ground beef & all, and then cooked it low & slow all together.  Guy said that it really helped all the flavors to permeate into the ground meat.

And well, we had a chili cookoff coming up at work, so when better to test it out? And I will tell you—this recipe came in second. (To be fair, the one that took first place had steak & caramelized onions; even I loved it.)  And technically, it would have tied for first if a certain someone *cough*MyBoss*cough* hadn’t forgot to vote before we closed the polls.  But I’m not bitter, I just enjoy the fun of cooking & sharing my food with people.

Why a chili cookoff? Because every spring, our local Sertoma group organizes one of the largest Chili Cookoffs in the Midwest, and our internal cookoff is how we decide what chili our team will make at THAT cookoff.  Our Queen City Sertoma chapter primarily raises money for the Boys & Girls Club of America, so hey… cooking plus fundraising for kids?  I’m in.

Honestly, there were so many delicious chilis, I didn’t even vote for my own!

 

INREDIENTS:

1 bell pepper, diced

1 lb lean ground beef

1/2 onion, diced

1 can black beans, drained

1 can pinto beans, drained (optional)

2 cans fire roasted tomatoes, diced

1 can sweet corn

1 tbsp minced garlic

3 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp black pepper

2-3 tsp cumin

1 tsp Cajun seasoning

1 tsp ground chipotle chili

1.5 tsp salt

 

DIRECTIONS:

Um…pretty simple.  Dump everything in a 6 qt (or larger) Crockpot, stir, cover, & cook on High for about 3 hours.  Check periodically & stir more.  Then walk away and do other “important” things…like catch up on your DVR’d shows since you just got back from a week vacation. (No worries, I’ll post about that later.)

Once the meat is cooked (2-2.5 hrs in), start checking for taste & add more seasonings as needed. If it’s a little spicier than you prefer, you can add a little sugar to help balance it out….or just serve it with optional sour cream & cilantro. 

This is probably my new favorite chili recipe.  YUM!

 

NUTRIFACTS: (Makes 6 hearty servings…or about 30 tastings)

  Calories 317.9

  Total Fat 17.0 g

  Saturated Fat 6.5 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.3 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 7.1 g

  Cholesterol 56.7 mg

  Sodium 635.2 mg

  Potassium 663.3 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 23.7 g

  Dietary Fiber 6.7 g

  Sugars 2.7 g

  Protein 19.4 g

Twelve Point Jambalaya (Deer & Andouille, Crockpot)

So…apparently it’s deer season. I miss out on this information these days, because my hubs doesn’t hunt, and I sure enough don’t hunt (I make it a point to not wake up before the sun does), and I don’t work in an office full of hunters anymore.  Down in Louisiana (The Sportsman’s Paradise), you saw deer season coming.  Your usually clean-shaven coworkers started coming to work with a face full of scruff that over the course of a few weeks developed into a rather bushy beard.  You would find them congregating around the proverbial water cooler talking about their rifles, their ammo, their hunting leases, what they’ve been spotting on their remote cameras near their deer stands.

O, noble deer…we wish to eat you.

And then, one day, you show up to work at the normal time… and only the females are there.  Until about 9-10 am, and then all the guys start straggling in.  Sometimes with camo & safety orange gear still in tow.
Nowadays I only know it’s deer season when random photos of dead deer start showing up on Facebook.

This recipe is dedicated to my friend Clayton, who will likely be needing it soon.

Now, even though I don’t hunt, we have friends who do, and these friends are kind enough to share some wild game with us.  Which gets me excited, because it means I can bust out the John Folse wild game cookbook.  And in honor of deer season, we have delicious Deer & Andouille Jambalaya.  I altered this from a “Dove & Andouille” recipe & was really happy with it.

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb ground or cubed deer meat
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 lb sliced andouille sausage
1/8 cup olive oil
1 cup onions, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1/8 cup minced garlic
3.5 cups chicken stock/broth*
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt & pepper to taste
hot sauce, to taste
2 cups uncooked rice/barley**
*Due to the necessity for some Kitchen Improv, we replaced the chicken stock with 1 can condensed Cream of Chicken soup + 2 cups water, and were actually really impressed with the result.  It gave the jambalaya a really nice creamy texture, almost like risotto.
** More Kitchen Improv- we were running short on rice so I did 1 cup brown rice, 1 cup pearled barley.  Still delicious.

DIRECTIONS:
In a large skillet or saucepan, brown your deer meat in the olive oil.  Then stir in the andouille, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Add your uncooked rice/barley to the Crockpot.  On top of that, add the meat, onions, celery, bell pepper & garlic.  Then add the chicken stock/broth/whatever, mushrooms, green onions, parsley, and stir well.

Cover, and let cook on High for 3-4 hours or Low for 5-6 hours until the rice is cooked and the stocked is absorbed.

Makes about 8 servings.  And to all you hunters out there: Stay safe, and feel free to drop off a couple pounds of ground meat at our house.
NUTRIFACTS:
Calories 384.6
  Total Fat 16.9 g
  Saturated Fat 5.3 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 3.1 g
  Cholesterol 88.5 mg
  Sodium 695.7 mg
  Potassium 566.4 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 31.0 g
  Dietary Fiber 5.2 g
  Sugars 0.9 g
  Protein 26.7 g

Cajun “Debris”: Roast Beef Poboys, and a filthy lil’ potluck party.

This month, my company celebrates its 20 Year Anniversary.  And as the head of the Potluck Planning Committee, this seemed like a fantastic opportunity for a luncheon get-together.  So I sent out a mass email to my coworkers, asking for dishes to represent the work we do, and/or how long we’ve been doing it.  AKA—since the 90s. 

This is by far one of the most fun potlucks we’ve had.  I was SO impressed with the cleverness and creativity of my coworkers.  There are tons of pics at the end of this post so you all can share our nerdy-food-geekery.

As for my entry, of course I wanted to do something Cajun.  But what? 

Well, last year, we did a huge amount of work after the Joplin Tornado.  Spill cleanup, disposal of regulated materials (aka sifting through debris at a commercial retail store to recover pharmaceuticals, bullets, alcohol, cleaning supplies, fluorescent bulbs, etc.), demolition, debris removal…

DEBRIS!  My Aha Moment had occurred.

In New Orleans, a big, fat, drippy, gravy-coated shredded roast beef poboy is frequently referred to as a “debris” (DAY-bree) po-boy.  The name comes from the gravy, which is made from reducing the pan drippings from the roast beef (including the delicious little bits of roast beef, or debris, that fall off as you’re cutting the meat).  Mother’s Restaurant in New Orleans is quite famous for their amazing debris poboys & biscuits:

I found a good recipe online for making my own NOLA-style debris, but that recipe called for braising the meat.  I wanted to use my Crockpot.  And so I did.  And it still turned out just fantastic.

Ingredients:

1 large roast; whatever’s on sale.  Chuck roast used to be the cheapest, but lately I’ve seen it hovering around $4/lb.  Rump roast seems to go on sale here more often for closer to $2.  Aim for about 3.5 lbs of meat.

3 garlic cloves, quartered

Cajun seasoning

Black pepper

Cayenne pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 small carrot, diced

1 cup beef broth

1 cup chicken broth (we used bouillon cubes for both of these with good results

Water, if necessary

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp hot sauce (Louisiana Gold)

1 tsp dried thyme

1 bay  leaf

1 Tbsp Cajun Brown Gravy Mix (or flour and some extra Cajun seasoning, if you don’t have this mix)

 

Directions:

Cut small slits into the roast, and insert the garlic slices.  Then season liberally (both sides) with Cajun seasoning, black pepper, and cayenne—use in proportion to your & your family’s tastes.  I.E. – if they don’t like spicy food, you can omit the cayenne.

Heat a large skillet with the olive oil over medium heat until it begins to smoke.  Swirl the oil to make sure the bottom is coated.  Then—add your giant slab o’ meat to the pan.  Start to realize that what the store called a “roast” seems to look an awful lot like the Ol’ 96’er.

 

 

You see the similarity, no?

Brown El Slab O’ Carne on all sides, then set aside.  Add onions and carrots to the pan, season with salt & pepper, and sauté until onions start to caramelize.

Then, place the onion mixture in the bottom of your Crockpot.  Add the beef on top of that, then pour the broths over that.  If the broth is not level with the meat, add a little water.  Add your seasonings, cover, and Set on Low for 8-10 hours (overnight works perfectly).

When you wake up the next morning, you will have a slab of meat that will fall apart with little to no effort.  Dispose of the bay leaf, then fish your meat out of the crock.  It will probably crumble—that’s TOTALLY okay, since we’re shredding this stuff anyway.  Use a fork and some tongs, and in less than 5  minutes, you will have THIS:

Toss the fatty bits.  They’ve done their flavor duty—no one wants to nom them in a sammich.

Now—transfer the liquid from the Crockpot into a large skillet, and add your brown gravy mix.  This will help thicken up the gravy a little faster.  Set the skillet to medium heat and stir occasionally until the liquid is reduced by half. 

Then fish the carrots out (because they look odd in gravy),  place the shredded meat back in your Crockpot, and cover with the gravy.  Toss to coat.  If your gravy gets a little too reduced, no problem, just add a lil’ bit of water. 

 

Serve with a side of split rolls (because these are mini-servings—if you’re planning to serve as a meal, use French bread) and you have: Joplin “Debris” PoBoys!

(Note my note.  I like to edu-mah-cate my coworkers. It’s culture, y’all.)

I had planned on getting some shredded lettuce and making jalapeno mayo to go with these, but time got away from me.

And now, I’d like to showcase some of the other amazing dishes that my coworkers came up with!

First, we have Babsy’s “oil spill” hummus.  Is this not the cutest thing ever?  She made that little “drum” herself, too.

 

Then, on the left we have “sludge on a shingle”, complete with its own hazardous waste manifest.

 

 (The “Odor: Garlic” made me LOL.)

 

And just in case there’s a spill of some delicious dipping oil, we have absorbent pads!

 

We also had some very hazardous Kool-Aid to drink:

 

And for Dessert: some “DNAPL” pie, and a cake with an old photo of our CEO on it, back when she used to have to get down in the dirt like us.

 

 

As per usual with potlucks, I MAY have overeaten.

Most delicious “wastes” ever!!!

 

All in all, a really fun luncheon.  Our owner loved the cake and even told us the story behind it.  Sometimes it’s hard for me to imagine our boss, who is always very fashionable and put together, out there in a hard hat and Tyvek, but here’s proof!  It’s great to work in this sort of environment, with fun & equally nerdy coworkers and bosses who’ve been in the trenches (both literally and metaphorically) themselves.  Here’s to another 20 years!!!

The Marginator’s CrockPot Wings

When I worked at Martin’s Wine Cellar down in Metairie, my manager’s name was Margie.  Actually, it still IS Margie, since she still works there & hasn’t changed her name.  Our loving nickname for her was The Marginator… Of course, this is coming from a gaggle of gals who have a song dedicated to rare roast beef, which comes in a 20 lb package, vaccum-sealed in it's own “juices” (aka, blood), and makes a HUGE mess when you have to open it, and was thusly named “The Big Nasty”. 

ANYWAY.  Margie hired me with no real experience in gourmet foods, wines, or cheeses, with the exception of an addiction to Food Network.  And by the time I left a year later, I knew WAY too much about 200 different kinds of cheeses, 8 types of pate (all gross), about 20 gourmet deli meats & sausages, 6-7 types of olives, and was our resident expert in crafting entirely kosher holiday baskets.

I have tasted 89% of these things.

Margie also passed along several recipes to me, which incorporated food items we sold in the store.  This bestowal of knowledge was partially for recommending to customers, and partially just because they were delicious and we got a pretty sweet employee discount.  I sincerely miss that discount these days.

This is my favorite Marginator recipe by far.  It’s extremely easy and has tons of flavor.  And I figured I’d share since Football Season is here and wings are a pretty popular football food.  The Hubs & I don’t do much tailgating, but now that I get free admission to Missouri State games with my new fancy schmancy student ID, we might have to attend a couple. :D

Another thing I really like about this recipe: A lot of wing recipes are either fried or breaded, which adds a ton of unnecessary fat.  But you can use your broiler to get your chicken all crispy on the outside with NO added fat.

Ingredients:

NOTE: I do this recipe in “parts”, rather than specific measurements, because it’s entirely dependent upon how many wings you’re making.  Just use equal amounts of each of the sauce ingredients.  For example: if we’re making about 4 servings worth, I use 1/2- 1 cup of each. 

1 part your favorite BBQ sauce (we love KC Masterpiece Smoky)

1 part honey (as always, I recommend Acadiana Honey, or, if you don’t have that available, buy local.  I guarantee there’s a honey producer at your local farmer’s market.)

1 part Pickapeppa Sauce

Fresh or thawed chicken wings & drummies (4-6 pieces make a serving)

 

Directions:

Turn your oven’s broiler on, and spread your wings out on a foil-lined baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet in the oven, with the shelf a couple notches below the broiler.  Broil on both sides for about 10 minutes each—this gets the skin really nice & crispy, and seals in a ton of flavor.

In your CrockPot, mix together the sauce ingredients (Note: I occasionally add a few splashes of Cajun Power garlic sauce if I have it in the house), and then toss your chicken into the pot.  Mix so that the chicken is coated.

Cover, and let cook for 5-6 hours on Low, or 2-3 hours on High, or until the chicken is no longer pink.  Stir once about halfway through cooking to recoat the chicken.

Serve with some ranch & veggies on the side! 

 

NutriFacts (per serving):

Calories 641.5

  Total Fat 22.0 g

  Saturated Fat 5.6 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 1.0 g

  Cholesterol 244.6 mg

  Sodium 923.4 mg

  Potassium 241.7 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 38.9 g

  Dietary Fiber 0.1 g

  Sugars 34.8 g

  Protein 67.0 g