Bacon Gouda Grit Fritters & Pepper Jelly Dipping Sauce

So last week I shared a recipe for grits & grillades.  Well, when I made that...I made a lot of extra grits.  Why? Because it was Potluck Time at work!  We try to do these quarterly (which, really, it's probably a good thing they're not more frequent otherwise we'd all have some serious health issues), and they're usually somewhat themed.  This one was "Spring Cleaning"--as in, what can you throw together from what's in your fridge/pantry that needs to be used up?

I'll admit...I chose this theme explicitly so I could make this recipe, because it requires cold grits as the base.  I've had this recipe in my Pinterest for-ev-er, so it's really a two-fer...I would need to make some OTHER recipe that involved grits, and then use the leftover grits to make these fritters, and then BAM--two blog posts.

Delicious, delicious gluttony. 

Also--the original recipe calls for pan-frying these.  But I did the first four as a test batch fried and burnt the crap out of my arms...plus they were trying to fall apart a little bit, so I figured the less I had to move them around, the better. I opted to oven-fry them instead (also easier since I prepped them the night before, but actually cooked them AT work right before the potluck so they'd be hot). And, you know, a little healthier too.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup quick-cooking grits
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
• 1½ cups (6 ounces) shredded smoked Gouda
• 1 diced green onion
• 6 slices low sodium bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 large eggs + 1/4 cup water
• 1.5 cup Panko crumbs
• 1.5 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
• Misto olive oil spray
• ½ cup Red Pepper Jelly
• 1 tablespoon Creole mustard
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

Cook grits & broth according to package instructions.  Then add the cajun seasoning, gouda, green onion, and bacon and mix well.  Lightly grease a 8x8 pan and then pour the grit mixture in and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

When ready to prep your fritters, create a work station--in one bowl, combine the egg (beaten) and water, and the panko+breadcrumbs in a second bowl.  Then grab your grits and roll into small balls (I opted to create all my fritter-balls first, THEN batter them to streamline things).  

Roll each ball in the egg mixture and then toss in the breadcrumbs and place on a greased cookie sheet.  If you're not cooking right away, you can freeze these to help keep the breading crisp.

To oven-fry, preheat your oven to 425F, then spray the tops of the fritters with olive oil (this helps them to crisp up and brown).  Bake for 15 minutes, then flip, and bake for 15 more minutes.

While they're baking, you can make the dipping sauce.  In a small bowl, combine the pepper jelly, mustard, and vinegar, and microwave for about 20-30 seconds until smooth.

Serve the fritters while warm (seriously--they're no where near as good when cold or even room temp) with the pepper jelly sauce.  

Oven “Fried” Pickles & Okra!

I LOOOOOOOVE pickles.  I’m told my mom gave me cold dill pickles and raw potato pieces to teeth on when I was young.  When we went camping, I would use a hot dog bun to make myself pickle & potato chip sandwiches, since it was the only thing I could “cook” for myself.  Apparently it’s a genetic thing, since my entire mom’s side of our family also loves pickles.  My grandma would buy Vlasic jars by the case.  No joke.

And because this is AMERICA, we also love FRIED FOOD.  Ergo, I love fried pickles.

Ooh, you know what else is good fried?  Okra. It’s a staple side dish in Louisiana!  Just give me some fried okra & a bottle of ketchup, and I’m a happy camper.

But anymore, my stomach really can’t handle all that grease.  Nor can my waistline.  Not to worry, though.  With a crunchy, kicked up breading, we can make some out of this world “FeauxFried” (aka oven-fried) pickle chips & okra.  How does a big pile of crispy okra & pickles sound?  Sound even better at only NINETY-FIVE CALORIES a serving?  Yeah, I thought so.  The nice thing about pickles & okra is that they’re already low calorie.  So you get some calories from the breading, but once you knock out all that frying oil, you’re golden!

Golden brown & delicious, that is.

Ingredients: (makes two servings, but you can easily upscale this recipe for more servings)

About 20 Dill pickle chips (we had a bunch of large kosher dills & just sliced them up ourselves)

1 cup sliced okra, fresh or thawed

1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup Louisiana-style fish fry cornmeal

1/4 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 large egg

olive oil spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450F.  Lightly spray a cookie sheet with olive oil spray.

Allow your pickle chips & okra to sit for a while on a paper towel to help absorb some of the excess moisture.

Then mix together the bread crumbs, fish fry, paprika, and parsley in a container with a lid.

Mix the egg & the chili powder together in a separate bowl and beat well.  Drop the pickle chips & okra into the egg wash & coat completely.  Use a fork to lift out of the egg mixture and let the excess drop off.  Then drop into the breading mixture & toss (with lid on) to coat.  Press additional breading on if they don’t get fully coated.

Place the breaded pickles & okra on the cookie sheet. 

Lightly spritz them with olive oil (this will help them brown nicely and get even crunchier) and place in the oven for 10 minutes, then flip them over, lightly spritz with olive oil again and then place back in the oven for another five minutes.

Serve with light ranch dressing and chow down!

NutriFacts: (makes two servings of 10 pickle chips & 1/2 cup of okra each)

  Calories 95.8

  Total Fat 2.4 g

  Saturated Fat 0.6 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.8 g

  Cholesterol 68.5 mg

  Sodium 1,019.7 mg

  Potassium 264.2 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 15.1 g

  Dietary Fiber 3.8 g

  Sugars 4.3 g

  Protein 5.1 g

Boudin Balls: Baked or Fried, with Homemade New Orleans-Style Remoulade

Wal-Mart never ceases to surprise me.  And not in the “OMG People of Wal-Mart” kind of way (at least, not ALWAYS).  But it does regularly amaze me the things I can find in Wally World.  Last week, it was nori wraps for sushi at $2.50/pack (regularly $5 at the local specialty store).  This week, it was boudin.
Or, boudAIN, as the package calls it.

Sorta like Anthony Bourdain…but tastier & less cannibalistic.

At only $2.27, I had to try it.  Typically I’m skeptical of “Cajun” labeled products that aren’t from Louisiana…but Zummo’s is made in Beaumont, Texas, which is in “Cajun Texan country”, near the TEX-LA state border.  In the early 19th century, many Louisiana Cajuns began migrating across the Sabine (the river that serves as the TEX-LA border) to work the rice fields in southeastern Texas and for the promise of jobs with the new Southern Pacific railroads in this area.  This is yet just another reason that Texas is awesome: depending on where you are, you can get delicious authentic Mexican, Tex-Mex, or Cajun food.

What IS Boudin, you ask?  Ummm…well, it’s kinda all there in the picture.  It’s heavily seasoned cooked rice, ground pork, and pork liver, combined and then stuffed into a sausage casing.  I know, I know…pork liver’s gross.  Organs are gross.  But boudin is DELICIOUS.  So just act like it isn’t there.  You won’t notice it, I promise.

What to make with boudin?  Well, it can be oven roasted (like my blog-friend Genet did here) or it can be smoked, boiled, and then sliced up as a nice finger food.

OR…you can roll it in breadcrumbs & fry it.  Because we. like. fried. everything.  Boudin balls are common commodity in the average Louisiana gas station.  Greasy & delicious, like most fried foods they make you super happy while you’re eating them, and then instantly regret it afterward.

Typically, when making boudin balls, you would make the boudin fresh, roll it into a ball, then batter & fry it.  But alas…I don’t have the time (or stomach) to make fresh boudin.  So…we’ll be rolling with the premade stuff. 

Oh…and we’re oven-frying.  To save ourselves from that “After I just ate fried food” feeling.

Trust me…it’s a totally acceptable alternative.

But, since we’re slacking off a bit on making our own boudin, I figured I should probably step it up and make our own dipping sauce, right?  That’s why I’ll also be sharing my NOLA remoulade recipe with you.  Remoulade is AMAZING.  HUGE flavor with not a ton of calories when made right (49 calories in 2 tbsp).  Run out of boudin to serve it with?  Put it on your next sandwich and have a Hallelujah moment.  For realz.  It is also AMAZING with cocktail shrimp.  Or fried shrimp. Dip your french fries in it.  Drizzle over grilled fish.  The sky is the limit!!!

Ingredients:

• For remoulade: [will make (8) 2 tbsp servings]
• 1/2 cup light mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip)
• 3 tbsp cocktail sauce
• 1/2 tbsp yellow mustard
• 1/2 tbsp Creole mustard (if you can’t find Creole mustard, you can double up on the yellow, but the Creole gives it a much more rounded flavor)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp hot sauce
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 green onion, diced
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
• (For the best flavor, make this sauce the night before so the flavors can fully combine.)

(Note:  if you'd prefer to buy remoulade, I like Louisiana Fish Fry's version.)

For boudin balls: [will make (6) 3 piece servings]

• 1 package (14oz) boudin (boudain) links, casing removed and cut into 1-1.5 inch pieces
• 1/4 cup Louisiana fish fry (or, 1/3 cup cornmeal + 1 tsp Cajun seasoning)
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 egg, beaten + 1/2 tsp paprika

Directions:
To make your remoulade:  Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl & whisk thoroughly.  Let set for 3 hrs or overnight for maximum flavorosity potential.

For the boudin balls:
Preheat the oven to 425F.
Mix the bread crumbs & fish fry together (FYI—if you use the Louisiana fish fry, it’s already seasoned, so don’t add any extra salt.)
Roll the boudin pieces in the paprika egg wash until coated.  Then drop (one at a time) into the bread crumb mixture & toss to coat thoroughly.

Place all the boudin pieces on a lightly spritzed cookie sheet, then lightly spritz the boudin balls with oil (using a Misto or Pam).  This will help them get a nice golden brown.

Bake for 15 minutes, then turn them over, spritz again with oil, and bake for another 8 minutes.  Then turn your broiler on for 2-3 minutes to finish.  Remove when nicely golden.

FRIED OPTION: Since my husband had never had regular boudin balls, I decided to make these two ways.  I oven-fried the majority, but I also pan-fried four of them in oil, so he could have a comparison.  If you decide to pan-fry some, cover the bottom of a small pan with olive oil & heat over medium until the oil starts to smoke.  Then carefully place 1-2 balls in the pan & watch for them to brown, and turn every 10-seconds or so until browned on all sides.  Let rest on a paper towel, and then place in the oven for 10 minutes at 425 to ensure that they’re cooked through.  The results will look like this (darker than the oven-friend versions:

Serve 3 balls with 2 tbsp of the remoulade & garnish with green onions.

(Okay, okay, I admit they look a little like toasted coconut marshmallows, but I promise—they’re DIVINE.

Suggested accompaniment: salad and a good beer (we went with Baraboo Woodpecker Wheat)

NutriFacts:
Calories 265 for boudin balls/ 49 for remoulade
  Total Fat 12.0 g / 3.8 g 
  Saturated Fat 2.6 g / 0.5 g 
  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.4 g / 1.4 g 
  Monounsaturated Fat 0.5 g / 1.8 g
  Cholesterol 79.3 mg / 2.5 g 
  Sodium 863.8 mg / 170 mg 
  Potassium 30.3 mg / 16 mg 
  Total Carbohydrate 36.5 g / 3.5 g 
  Dietary Fiber 2.0 g /0.2 g
  Sugars 2.1 g / 2.0 g
  Protein 11.7 g /0.3 g

Broiled Chicken: A Harry Potter Recipe!

This entry goes out to my good friend Amy (yes, of AmyCakes), who is the biggest Harry Potter fan I know.  

I got an [unofficial] copy of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook:


And I have been looking for a chance to try something from it.  We had some chicken quarters I needed to use up, and this recipe seemed plenty easy.  It comes from the Goblet of Fire, when Harry brings Sirius (who’s been hiding out) broiled chicken drumsticks to eat.

And easy it is!  But one recommendation—perhaps save this for a colder month.  Apparently  using the broiler of your oven in June heats up a house like CRAZY. Having your oven running at 500 degrees F for 30+ minutes will apparently raise the internal temp of your house to about 100 degrees F.  Whoudathunkit?


INGREDIENTS:
1 lb chicken pieces (we used quarters, which take longer to cook, so I recommend drumsticks, breasts, or thighs)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning (original recipe calls for salt, but this is the only way I can Cajun-i-fy Harry Potter.)
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 cloves garlic, minced

DIRECTIONS:
1. Wash the chicken pieces, and them pat dry with paper towels.




2. Whisk together the remaining ingredients, then coat the drumsticks in the oil mixture and place them in a deep pan (we tried with a cookie sheet, but the pan warps a lot and drippings pop out, which makes a bit of a mess).

(You can leave the skin on or remove it—we did half with skin & half without, and it tasted great both ways.)

3. Broil for 10 minutes on each side, then check with a meat thermometer immediately—make sure they have an internal temperature of at least 165F. (Since our pieces were larger, it took about 15 minutes on each side, plus a little extra roasting time on a lower rack, so it wouldn’t burn.)  The oil may cause a lot of smoke, so have your stovetop fan running. (And maybe pull the batteries out of your smoke detector momentarily.)


4. Serve with your favorite side dishes!  For us, it’s peas & mashed potatoes w/Cajun gravy.  If you're a fan of brew with your meal, go for a good English ale like Newcastle or Boddingtons (or, to be more Potter-ish, a good butter beer if you can find one.)

Enjoy outside, since it’s crazy-hot inside. :D

NutriFacts: (per 4oz serving of chicken)
Calories 159.4
  Total Fat 12.1 g
  Saturated Fat 1.9 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.3 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 8.1 g
  Cholesterol 42.7 mg
  Sodium 630.7 mg
  Potassium 139.3 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 0.9 g
  Dietary Fiber 0.2 g
  Sugars 0.0 g
  Protein 11.6 g

St. Paddy’s Day Recipe: Irish Egg Rolls!

At my office, I’m the head of our Potluck Planning Committee (I know, it’s SO “The Office”, right?)

(Angela: “I'm just trying to figure out why you're trying to sabotage things.”)

 

Although our meetings are much more succinct and less catty.  It’s more like, “there’s a holiday coming up, let’s do a potluck.” “Okay!”

Anyway…our potluck is today, and we did an Irish food theme (or green food, since every office has at least one person who’s going to bring a veggie tray because, “hey, it’s green”).  I asked the hubs what I should make, he did some research, and threw down the gauntlet: Irish Egg Rolls.

Irish Egg Rolls?

…okay, sure, why not?

Apparently he saw it as an appetizer at an Irish pub, and hey, I like egg rolls (Chili’s Southwest Eggrolls?  Hex yeah!), and I like a challenge, so that’s what we did.

The original recipe (shown here) calls for frying them, but we didn’t want all that extra grease, so we baked them instead, and they still turned out crisp and delicious.

Since I have a big office, we also doubled the size of the recipe to use up the full package of egg roll wrappers (15).

Ingredients:

8 ounces chopped corned beef (I recommend getting it freshly sliced from your grocer’s Deli)

1 tbsp bacon grease (aside from a little Pam and whatever’s in the corned beef, this is your only fat, so like I always say—might as well get as much flavor from your fat as you can.  If you’re anti- bacon grease, you can totally just use a pat of butter or a tbsp of olive oil)

2 cups shredded cabbage

2 cups diced cooked potatoes (about two large russet potatoes, diced, seasoned w/salt & pepper), peeled & boiled)

2 cups shredded carrot (took about 5-6 whole carrots, washed, peeled, & then shredded)

1/2 cup thinly sliced onion

1/2 cup sliced green onion

salt and pepper (or Cajun seasoning—it’s my go-to season-all), to taste

15 (7 inch square) egg roll wrappers

 

Directions:

Boil the potatoes, then drain. Set aside for the moment.

Heat the bacon grease in a large skillet (we used a wok, ironically) and add the cabbage, onions, carrot, and seasoning, and sauté over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes.

(I do so love colorful food!)

Then add in the corned beef & potatoes and toss, sautéing for another 5 minutes until the cabbage starts to wilt a bit.  Check for flavor & season again if needed.

Next, set up an “egg roll wrapping station”.  I did my rolling on a plate, with a small condiment bowl of water next to it. 

Scoop 1/2 cup of filling onto the first wrapper:

And then wrap the egg rolls according the instructions on the package—it’s pretty easy.  Just fold the bottom corner up snugly:

 

Then fold in the sides, then wet the top bit of the triangle with the water:

 

(Please ignore the fact that I’m flipping off the camera—it was accidental, I promise.)

And then roll the rest of the way up, and place on a lightly sprayed cookie sheet.

P.S. Heat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Once all your rolls are wrapped, lightly spritz the rolls with cooking spray—this will help them brown & get crispy & brown like as if they were fried.

 

Then bake on the middle rack for 18-20 minutes, flipping them halfway through—(I forgot to do the flip, but they still look pretty good, although the bottom looks SO perfect):

(Tops, without flip halfway through baking)

 

Serve with a Dijon or spicy brown mustard for dipping (we’re using Tabasco spicy brown mustard, because hey, this is a “Cajun” food blog, so it’s gotta be in there somewhere!)

(This shows the bottom.  Look how gorgeous & perfect that is!  So please remember to flip them.)

 

NutriFacts: (1 serving = 1 egg roll)

(Please note that in the original recipe, calorie count for one of these fried was 278 calories)

Calories 158.2

  Total Fat 3.4 g

  Saturated Fat 1.0 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 1.4 g

  Cholesterol 19.8 mg

  Sodium 516.1 mg

  Potassium 120.2 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 25.4 g

  Dietary Fiber 2.0 g

  Sugars 0.6 g

  Protein 6.5 g

 

Have a great St. Paddy’s weekend, everyone!!!

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesday

Audience Participation!

I realize everyone reading this might not be former FoodNetwork addicts like myself, but does anyone remember the show “Calorie Commando” with Chef Juan-Carlos Cruz?

We’ll look past the fact that Chef Cruz is now in jail for trying solicit homeless guys in a murder-for-hire scheme (sheesh)…because aside from that venture into CrazyTown, I loved this show.  Watchers would write in with their favorite not-so-healthy dishes and good ol’ Juan-Carlos would whip up a recipe to make a healthy version of that dish.  Be it lasagna, bacon cheeseburgers, cheesecake, or chicken fried steak, Juan-Carlos had the answer.  And he’d bring the watcher who had suggested the item onto the show to taste his re-creation of the dish to let them decide if it was a decadent enough replacement of their supposed favorite dish (though, I mean, really, you’re on national TV.  Who’s going to say, “Sorry, Juan-Carlos, this tastes like crap”?)

Anyway.  That show was on back when I first started cooking a lot, a college senior exploring life beyond frozen & boxed dinners.  And it’s that show that has inspired me to constantly look for ways to “health-up” the dishes I already love.

Plus, now that the holidays and our winter ski vacation are out of the way, my household has snapped into “pre-beach season” mode… meaning the hubs & I are back to using our nutrition trackers, (trying) to get our butts to the gym 3 times a week (he’s better at it than me…I’m a big-time rationalizer, and have been known to think, “well, if I power-walk while I’m thrift store shopping, it counts as exercise…”) and cutting out the decadence.  So I figure if that’s going on at our house, then we’re probably not alone, and maybe some of you are slipping into that mode as well.  But hey—we’re human, and we like to eat what we like to eat, right?  I love me a good salad…but doggonit if those fries and cookies aren’t tempting.

So, I’m channeling my inner Juan-Carlos (the “healthy chef” Juan-Carlos, not the “hey bum, would you kill my spouse for a thousand bucks” Juan-Carlos) and asking YOU, the reader: 

 

What would YOU like to see appear in a future post on The FeauxCajun Kitchen? 

It doesn’t have to be a Cajun dish. 

Leave your response in the Comments Section, and check back often to see if your craving is featured!!!

 

Thanks!!!

Louisiana “Truck Stop” Chicken

Hey there kids, here’s one of those Kitchen Improv recipes.  This recipe gets its name because, well, most of the ingredients were, in fact, purchased at a truck stop in Louisiana. 

As you know, I have a tendency to smuggle my favorite Louisiana products back to Missouri with me when I visit down South.  During my last adventure, I stopped at a truck stop near Franklin, Louisiana, on my way from Lafayette to New Orleans, and I picked up a bag of Zapp’s “Voodoo” Chips and some pork rinds.

The Voodoo chips are my favorite Zapp’s blend—the story goes, someone in the Zapp’s kitchen accidentally knocked several spices off a shelf, and when they tasted what had spilled, it was pretty darn tasty!  And they recreated the happy accident & started selling them.  It’s sort of a blend of salt & vinegar, BBQ, dill, and….well, probably everything else.  It’s delicious, that’s what it is!

I could easily nom down a bag of these chips in one sitting by myself, but the pork rinds were purchased more for my husband.  We ate about half the bag, and then I had an apostrophe.

“Lightin’ has just struck my brain.” “Well, that must hurt.”

 

I know back during the Atkins phase, using pork rinds as an alternative for breading on chicken was pretty popular.  And I’ve seen potato chips used as breading before as well… so why not mix them together?

Ingredients:

2 oz bag of your favorite potato chips (The more flavor, the better)

2 oz bag of pork rinds

1 tsp Cajun seasoning

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 egg

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Pulverize the pork rinds & chips using your favorite method (we used a food processor, but a blender would also work, or if you prefer a non-mechanize method, you can put them in a large freezer bag & smash with a rolling pin.)  Add Cajun seasoning & mix well & place in a large bowl or lipped plate.

Crack egg into a bowl & beat until well blended.

Create a work station to keep things organized & cut down on messes:

Dip the chicken in the egg wash until well coated—then let excess drip off.  Drop chicken into the chip/pork rind breading mixture & toss to coat fully.  Then transfer chicken to a roasting pan with a wire rack.

Bake for 30 minutes or until no pink remains.

Serve with your favorite non-truck stop side dish (we went with steamable pasta & broccoli).

Makes 4 servings.

NutriFacts:

Calories 234.8

Total Fat 11.1 g

Saturated Fat 3.6 g

Polyunsaturated Fat 2.8 g

Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g

Cholesterol 75.3 mg

Sodium 421.2 mg

Potassium 386.2 mg

Total Carbohydrate 7.3 g

Dietary Fiber 0.7 g

Sugars 0.0 g

Protein 25.1 g

Shared on The Sweet Spot