Have you thought of how connected we are to what we eat and how what we eat connects us to others? I have, and I would like to discuss it.
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Culinary Connectivity: How a bag of flour can connect us all
Pimento Cheese
There won’t be a long write up here. There has been an ongoing discord on social media that no one reads the intro stories about how recipes were passed down through generations, and that people just want to know how to cook what you’re going on and on about. So I’m not going to write any short novel, I’ll just give my recipe for pimento cheese.
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Thawing out my food writing, and getting back into the frying pan
I lost my passion for writing about food.
If I am being honest with myself that is the short and sweet of it. I found myself in a space where I had no confidence in what I was putting out into the world. I had lost the ability to create new recipes, I had lost the ambition to write on a consistent basis, and my food podcast I started never really gained traction hurt me. All of these things, and more, led me into a deep dark mental space and I was not healthy enough to pull myself out of it.
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A Game of Our Own: Father, Daughter, and a Shared Love for the Game of Golf
“Daddy! Daddy! Look! Girls play golf too!”
As Fathers’ Day approaches and my daughter’s love for the game of golf continues to grow, somehow even faster than she is, I felt the urge to write about our shared passion for this wonderful game. One of the great joys of being a father for me has been sharing the immense joy that golf brings to be with my daughter, and we’re still just scratching the surface of this shared love.
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My Favorite Restaurant in New Orleans
Spoiler alert, it's not in the French Quarter and if you don't live in New Orleans it's likely somewhere you've never heard of.
I can't count the number of times that I've been asked what my favorite restaurant in New Orleans is. It's extremely difficulty, if not impossible, to answer that question. On any given day it could be five different restaurants dependent upon the mood that I am in and the vibe that I am going for. Second spoiler alert... I do have a favorite restaurant. I'll highlight a few others first though.
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My Tribe: Finding My Tribe in an Internet Message Board
“I am just grateful I found my tribe”.
- Kevin Van Valkenburg, a member of my tribe
I met him four days prior heading the opposite direction as we began our trip together riding the rental car shuttle at Raleigh Durham airport to pick up our ride for the next few days. Now there he and I were after four days of hundreds of golf swings, countless jokes both face to face and in group texts, and many many libations prepared to say goodbye and more importantly “see you later”. Who is he? Well he’s The Cheetah Man to me. He, like the rest of the internet strangers who were a part of those wonderful four days of golf in Pinehurst, North Carolina is a member of my tribe.
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Food and Love and Family
Most of the food that you see me post on my social media on here or on my blog are efforts at me recreating the meals that I grew up on. The basis of the name of my blog, Food is Love Made Edible, is that I believe that food is one of the many ways that we can express love without saying “I love you.” With a trip to my local grocery store and the knowledge passed down to me by mom and aunts I can recreate the flavors of my childhood in my kitchen for myself and my family.
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BBQ Redfish on the Half Shell
At many of the higher end restaurants in New Orleans you'll find BBQ fish on the half shell on the menu. BBQ fish? Huh? In fact what this is is a filet of fish with the skin and scales lefts on that is seasoned with lots of butter and herbs and grilled over open flame, and don't worry there's no BBQ sauce. When it is served to you it will be served flesh side up; with the the hardened skin/flesh of the fish resting on the plate.
The recipe that follows is a variation of a recipe that one of my former bosses gave me. He is a serious outdoorsman, and after the numerous times I'd ordered at lunch with him and a successful fishing trip in the marshes of Port Fourchon, LA he shared with me how to make BBQ redfish on the half shell myself.
BBQ Redfish on the Half Shell
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 2 servings
- Prepare your grill to to a high heat.
- Filet redfish while leaving skin and scales on.
- Make a marinade of olive oil, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, dried thyme, garlic salt, and juice of 4 lemons.
- Rub the marinade into the flesh side of the filets.
- Melt the butter until it's soft and mix in the juice of the remaining lemons and the chopped parsley.
- Once the grill is up to a high heat place the filets flesh side down over direct flame and cook for 4-5 minutes.
- After the filets have cooked flesh side down for 4-5 minutes flip them over and baste with the butter made earlier while cooking the filets for another 2 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 Red fish filets, skin and scales left on
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon cayenne
- 2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 tablespoon garlic salt
- 6-8 lemons
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ cup chopped parsley
- 1 cup butter
Instructions
- Mix together the smoked paprika, cayenne, dried thyme, and garlic salt.
- Generously rub the flesh side of the filets down with Worcestershire sauce and seasoning mix. Juice a few a few of the lemons over the filets. (You can do this while the fish are on the grill if you'd like to.)
- Drizzle olive oil over filets and rub all the ingredients into the flesh of the fish.
- Melt butter in a small sauce pan over medium low heat. Remove the pan from heat and stir in parsley, juice of 2 lemons, and 1 tablespoon garlic salt. (If you have a small cast iron pot/pan you can do this on the grill. It will really impress your guests!)
- Fire up your grill and get a good high heat going.
- Place the fish flesh side down directly over the heat. Now you just have to be patient, don't touch the filets for 7-8 minutes.
- Serve fish with garlic butter sauce and ENJOY!
Notes
Make sure that you use enough olive oil on the flesh of the fish. If you do not it will cause the the flesh of the fish to stick to the grill.
If it is hard to find redfish (red drum) you can substitute red snapper or black drum
Courses Main
As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Have a blessed day,
Benjamin
My 6 Month Journey Through Spain... Wines: Month 1, Oct. 2020 - The Journey Begins
It's October 21st and I'm sitting here on my front porch enjoying a bottle of Raul Perez on an uncomfortably warm Fall evening I decided I should journal my way through the 6 month Spanish wine journey. Why am I on a 6 month journey through Spanish wines you may ask? Well it starts with a golf podcast, well kind of a golf podcast.
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Baked Blackened Salmon
Cajun preparation of a cold-water fish? Sure, why not?
I’d be lying if I told y’all that I am a massive fan of salmon. Outside of sushi or poke I often find myself to not be amazed by salmon when I eat it. I have often blamed the salmon itself for this, but I believe now that I have been strongly mistaken in doing this. The recipe you see here and some salmon hot dogs and hamburgers I will discuss a bit later have helped to open my mind up to giving salmon a second chance and eating it more often.
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Fresh Hibiscus Tea Anyone?
I had the pleasure of taste testing some hibiscus tea from a black owned tea company based out of Baton Rouge, LA. I won't lie and say that I am a huge fan of tea, and understand all the nuances of what makes a tea good or bad. Honestly, many of you reading this are likely more well qualified to give review on tea than I am. I hope that y'all won't judge my amateur thoughts or opinions on the subject of tea too critically, and rather you appreciate my review of Fresh Hibiscus Tea as much as I enjoyed the tea itself.
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Juneteenth Cookout - A Collection of Recipes from Black Chefs & Food Bloggers Celebrating Black Food Culture
I’m participating in the 2020 Juneteenth Cookout Takeover. This initiative was established to encourage the celebration of Juneteenth – a jubilee of freedom to commemorate the end of slavery – and to amplify the food traditions of black culinary creatives.
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The Interesting History of Okra, its African Roots, and How it Made its Way to America
I want to take a moment to look at the influence of black people in the creation of American cuisine. In this particular moment I want to briefly discuss the history of okra. I understand that there are things going on right now in the world much more important than this, but I feel like for many people cooking is a mental escape like it is for me. So I wanted to take a few moments to talk about a vegetable that has a very interesting history.
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The Perfect Classic Ole Fashioned
I really don't have much to say here, but I hope that you find this cocktail enjoyable.
I enjoy a very classic no frills Ole Fashioned. I don't like simple syrup, muddled oranges and cherries, or anything other extras in my glass. To me an Ole Fashioned only needs four ingredients. Those being bourbon, sugar, aromatic bitters, and an orange peel.
Taking a bit of time and care when combining these four very simple ingredients gives you in my opinion the prefect cocktail.
The Classic Perfect Ole Fashioned
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 1 Cocktail
Ingredients
- 3 oz. bourbon
- 1 ½ teaspoon cane sugar
- 4 dashes bitters
- Orange peel
Instructions
- Add 1 ½ tsps of cane sugar and 4 dashes of bitters to a cocktail shaker or mixing glass.
- Stir together for 30 seconds to begin to dissolve sugar into the bitters.
- Add 3 oz. of bourbon to the cane sugar and bitters and stir for 60 second until you can see that the cane sugar has all dissolved.
- Add a handful of ice to the mixture and continue to stir for another 30 seconds.
- Pour the cocktail over a rocks glass filled with ice cubes.
- Express the orang peel, this is just a fancy way to say squeeze it and spray the oils out, over the top of the cocktail, rub the peel around the edge of the glass, and enjoy!
Notes
If you have the ability to make large square ice cubes I'd recommend using one of those when serving your drinks instead of regular ice cubes.
Courses Cocktails
Cuisine Cocktails
As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Have a blessed day,
Benjamin
My Favorite Netflix Food Documentary Binges
Netflix has a done a wonderful jobs when it comes to documentaries about food. Whether it be about chefs and their restaurants, what exactly makes us eat the foods we eat, or about traveling to places we may have never thought about before for new food experiences. In this blog post I wanted to highlight a few of my favorite Netflix binges when I am in the mood to watch something about food.
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Gumbo: With Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey
What to do with all that leftover Thanksgiving turkey? Eat days and days of dry turkey you've heated up in the microwave? Make cold and honestly boring turkey sandwiches? To me personally those both sound like dreadful options. So what do I do? I turn it into a pot of leftover Thanksgiving turkey gumbo.
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How to Cook a Roux
Cooking a roux is an art. Yes, there are ingredient ratios to follow (1:2 oil/fat to flour) and a cooking method that will give you the best results; but really it's all about paying attention to the pot and working the roux until you've mastered how to cook it. The fastest way to burn a roux, especially when you're learning how to cook one, is to stop stirring it and walk away from the pot. Stirring your roux constantly is one of the easiest ways to keep it from burning.
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Brown Sugar & Molasses Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin
Pork, pork, and more PORK! Who doesn't love a little swine? The pig is one of the most magical animals that walks this earth. What other animal can you take one cut of meat from and enhance it by wrapping it another cut meat from the same animal? Thinking very quickly about it, none!
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Smothered Okra with Chicken and Smoked Sausage
Have you ever eaten a meal that brought tears to your eyes? Only one meal does that for me; smothered okra. There is no meal that makes me think of both of my grandmothers more than smothered okra. The taste and smell immediately bring me back to visiting them both here in Louisiana as we grew up in Alabama. It’s something that I can only describe as the true way that food is truly love made edible.
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Baked Brioche French Toast
What do you when you have leftover brioche buns from hamburgers you made the night before for dinner? You take a couple of them and you make baked brioche french toast. Whether that be a couple for you or you and your significant other or you and a friend. It's really amazing how mixing a few ingredients together and throwing them into the oven come together as an amazing meal.
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Crawfish Eétouffée
If there was one bite of food that immediately brings me back to sitting on the kitchen counter watching my mom cook it's a spoonful of crawfish étouffeé and rice. The smell of the simmering pan of étouffeé is a smell that is so ingrained into my head just sitting here typing this blog post now I can smell it. This meal is a part of me. It is a part of my family. And I hope that you appreciate that spoonful of crawfish étouffeé as much as I do.
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The Tweet That Sent Twitter into an Uproar About Portion Sizing and Food Culture in the Black Community
Let me start by saying that I aim no judgement at anyone involved on either side of this Twitter conversation. I am merely trying to look at the overall conversation a couple days later and figure out exactly what transpired, and why it did.
Food culture is one of my favorite things to talk about. Whether that be the changes in food culture people desiring to eat more naturally (farm to table), or chefs looking to bring back heritage recipe with meats and produce, or chefs looking to change food culture through their restaurant menu. You don't expect food culture to be changed through a tweet, but just a few days ago I believe that's exactly what happened.
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What they Don't Tell Husbands/Significant Others about Pregnancy and Childbirth
To make sure you understand the content of this post I feel it's important to say that I started this post on Tuesday June 5th and finished it on Sunday July 1st. I also apologize for any grammatical errors in this post; parts of it were very emotional for me to write and I may not always have been at my best with my grammar.
Sitting here in the hospital six days post birth of our daughter looking at my wife connected to numerous IV lines and wires I'm in a bit of a shocked state. We ended up back here in the hospital the evening of postpartum day 5 of due to my wife feeling light headed and having shortness of breath. After arriving at the hospital the nurses and doctors ran numerous tests and determined that she had very elevated blood pressure and signs of Preeclampsia. Once I heard all this my heart started to race and I was terrified, but as a husband I kept my emotions hidden to be strong for my wife. I had to be her strength as I could see how terrified she was at this moment. It was my time to step up as a husband and a father and take care of my wife and my daughter (Who I really felt like I wasn't ready to take care of; I had never taken care of a child before and now I had this 5-day old child who outside of feeding I had to solely take care of) I had to set my emotions to the side. Not until our friend Rashida showed up to the hospital and I left the hospital to run home and grab a couple things did I burst into tears and let my emotions go.
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Prosciutto Wrapped Tequila Lime Shrimp with Avocado Crema
I first made this dish last year sometime last year and I really wasn't too much of a fan of it. I had kind of set the recipe aside and then I saw a tweet from Nola.com about an amateur cooking competition where you could win your weight in shrimp from Rouses. The competition calls for an original recipe that is centered around shrimp. When I started thinking about what recipe I could enter into the competition I didn't think of this one at first, but when going through my older Instagram posts I saw the picture I posted of the first time I made prosciutto wrapped shrimp and I knew that this would be the right recipe to enter.
Summertime is BBQ and grilling time! Sunny weekends are the perfect time to invite a bunch of friends and family member over and light up the grill. The majority of our grills will be occupied with the usual burgers, sausages, and chicken wings. If you're in Southern Louisiana you may get lucky and find some charbroiled oysters. Make some room though! Cause these prosciutto wrapped tequila lime shrimp need to find their way to your grill. From the grill they should head over to the avocado crema for a quick dip and then straight to your mouth.
Like many of my recipes this one came from me walking through the grocery store and grabbing random ingredients. I got a couple pounds of shrimp and then had to figure out what to do with them. Bacon? No. But, I want some bacon wrapped shrimp... What about prosciutto? Yep! That sounds good. Then of course I had to figure out what to season them with. Remembering I had a bottle of tequila I figured why not grab a couple of lime and some cilantro and throw it all together in a marinade. Over a couple iterations of making the dish I added ground coriander and red chili pepper flake and badaboom baba bam we had a winner!
They're really not a winner until you wrap them in the prosciutto though.
The first time that I made this dish I did it in my cast iron pan on the stove. I ended up switching over to my charcoal grill outside in the yard and it made the texture of the prosciutto and shrimp much better, and it's really just easier to cook over an open flame (in my personal opinion).
Thinking of what I could do to take the recipe to the next level my first thought was to come up with some sort of dipping sauce. I wanted a light cool sauce that would compliment the heat and saltiness of the grilled prosciutto wrapped shrimp. The first time that I made the avocado crema it was missing something. I wasn't sure what it was, but something just wasn't there. Then I added a blistered jalapeño to the mix and let me tell you what! It was awesome! I guarantee! (Justin Wilson voice)
The crema goes great so many other things like chimicurri flank steak and salsa chips.
When you combine the prosciutto wrapped tequila lime shrimp with the avocado crema you get the perfect little bite!
Prosciutto Wrapped Tequila Lime Shrimp with Avocado Crema
Prep
Cook
Inactive
Total
Ingredients
- 2 lb. jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 6 oz. Prosciutto
- Juice of 3 limes
- ¼ cup tequila
- 1 tablespoon red chili pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ cup cilantro, minced
Avocado Crema
- 1 avocado
- 1 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
- Juice of 2 limes
- 1 jalapeño, blistered and seeds removed
- ¼ cup cilantro
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- If you buy whole shrimp remove the heads, peal the shrimp, and remove the back vein.
- In a small bowl mix the shrimp together with the tequila, lime juice, coriander, red chili pepper, and cilantro. Set the shrimp and let them marinade for about 20-30 minutes. (During this time make the avocado creme, recipe below.)
- Halve each of the pieces of the prosciutto longways and wrap each of the shrimp with one prosciutto half.
- Skewer 4 shrimp onto a skewer. Repeat until you have skewered all the shrimp.
- Heat your grill to high heat. (I get my charcoal grill to about 400F.)
- Place the shrimp skewers onto the grill directly over the heat source and cook for about 10 minutes. Flipping the skewers every couple of minutes. Once the shrimp are firm and the prosciutto has become crispy they are done.
Avocado Crema
- Blister the jalapeño. This can be done over an open flame such as a gas stovetop, grill, or in the oven.
- Slice the jalapeño in half and remove the seeds.
- In a food processor mix together all of the ingredients until smooth.
- It's as simple as that. Enjoy!
Notes
You can make this recipe on the stove in a pan (preferably cast iron) over medium high heat. There's no need to skewer the shrimp to cook them in a pan.
Courses Appetizer
As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Have a blessed day,
Benjamin
The Simplest Roasted Chicken Breast and Brussels Sprouts
My wife LOVES heavily roasted, nearly charred, Brussels sprouts! When I say she loves them I mean she loves them I mean that wherever we go out to eat if she sees them on the menu she's ordering them for us to snack on. So when she walked in the house as I was first making these Brussels sprouts and she smelled them roasting in the oven she got really excited.
In the past six months or so I have become enamored with one pan/pot dishes; for multiple reasons. The first of those being that you just use less dishes when you do all your cooking in one pan. So really I'm helping save the planet when I cook everything in one pan and don't have to add on extra dishes to wash. The second reason for me liking to cook everything in one dish is that it allows the flavor aspects of all the ingredients to meld together in the cooking process.
One of the reason why the Brussels sprouts are so lightly seasoned in this recipe is that the fat from the chicken collects in the pan and almost fries the Brussesls sprouts. And it just makes them taste so good!
The Simplest Roasted Chicken Breast and Brussels Sprouts
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 3 servings
Ingredients
Chicken
- 3 split chicken breasts (A pack at the grocery store will typically have 3)
- 4 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary, minced
- 4 springs fresh thyme, leaves removed
- 1 sprig fresh sage, minced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 2 teaspoon kosher salt
Brussels Sprouts
- 1 pound Brussels sprouts
- 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Mix together olive oil, rosemary, thyme, sage, and garlic for the chicken the chicken and set aside.
- Cut the bottom stem off of the Brussels sprouts and split them in half.
- Toss the Brussels sprouts in the balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.
- Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper and place on a large baking pan skin side up. Pour herb and garlic mixture over the top of the chicken breast.
- Pour the Brussels sprouts around the chicken and place the pan into the oven.
- The chicken and Brussels sprouts are done when the skin of the chicken is nice and golden brown and the Brussels sprouts are a good crispy dark brown, about 40 minutes.
- It's really just that east. Now enjoy!
Courses Main
As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Have a blessed day,
Benjamin
Cannellini Bean and Chicken Sausage Stew
On a drive back home to New Orleans from my wife's parents' home in East Texas I made the decision that I would do a zero carb week. It sounded great at the time, and even through the following Monday where I had yogurt for breakfast, a turkey avocado spinach wrap for lunch, and rotisserie chicken and a salad for dinner. Tuesday after lunch though is where I was hit with the thought of what was I going to have for dinner for the rest of the week. Lunches are pretty easy cause I can grab a wrap or salad in between customer calls, but dinner would take a bit more thought if I didn't want to keep eating out or hot prepared food from Whole Foods.
A couple month ago I made White Beans with Spinach and Sausage from KeyIngredient.com. The recipe was very good and I knew it was something that I would want to make again. Just in the same I knew it was a dish that I wanted to make my own; so this recipe is very much inspired by Key Ingredient's recipe.
Combine the white beans recipe that I had made before with me walking trough the Whole Foods down the street from our house and you end up with me grabbing a couple cans of cannellini beans, a bag spinach, some chicken broth, and some chicken sausage. (I wanted to go a bit healthier route with my recipe so I chose to use chicken sausage.)
The chicken sausage that I used in this dish is The Original Brat Hans Spicy Cilantro Chicken Sausage. Using this sausage I've found that I don't have to heavily season the dish due to the seasoning that is already in the sausage. If you're going to use a more mild chicken sausage you'll need to liven up the pot with some red chili pepper flake, dried cilantro, and other spices.
Cannellini Beans and Chicken Sausage
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 6 servings
Ingredients
- 24 oz. Brat Hans Spicy Cilantro Chicken Sausage
- 2 cans Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large handfuls of spinach
- 2 cups chicken broth
- Fresh cracked black pepper
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Slice sausage into ½ in. to ¾ in. pieces.
- In a large pot heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add chicken sausage to the pot and brown on all sides, 10 or so minutes.
- Once sausage has browned add the garlic to the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until garlic becomes fragrant.
- Reduce heat to medium low and add chicken broth and cannellini beans to the pot. Cover and let the pot simmer for 25 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and add the spinach to the pot. Slowly stir the spinach into the beans and sausage; the spinach will wilt as you stir it in.
- Season with black pepper
Notes
I use Spicy Cilantro Chicken Sausage from Whole Foods, but you can sub for any other chicken sausage you like.
Courses Main
As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Have a blessed day,
Benjamin
Red Snapper with Lemon Cream Sauce
So many of my dishes come together from me walking around Whole Foods trying to figure out what I want for dinner. On the particular day that I first made this dish I was walking through the grocery store and saw a beautiful red snapper filet staring me in the face. That red snapper filet reminded me of a blackened snapper and asparagus dish that I used to make when I was in college. I used to make an aioli to go with the the snapper, but decided to swap it up with a lemon cream sauce for this dish.
Sauces when done right can really make a dish, and this is very simple lemon cream sauce is one that i am pretty proud of. Over the course of the four years I have been seriously cooking I have found sauces to be the most difficult cooking skill to learn. I've looked into taking cooking classes before, but I've made it this far without every taking one so why start now? If I can teach myself how to make my own cocktail syrups I can teach myself how to make my own sauces.
This sauce goes really well with my Garlic & Herb Asparagus recipe.
Red Snapper with Lemon Cream Sauce
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 2 servings
Ingredients
Red Snapper
- 2 6-8 oz. red snapper filets, skin removed
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- ½ tablespoon dried rosemary
- ½ tablespoon dried thyme
- Salt & pepper
- 2 tablespoon butter
- Olive oil
Sauce
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon butter
- Juice of 4 lemons
- Salt & pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Melt 2 tablespoon of butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat.
- Add minced garlic to the pan and cook until garlic begins to brown and becomes fragrant. Reduce heat to low and add heavy whipping cream. Stir often to make sure that the cream doesn't burn at the bottom of the pan.
- Season fish filets on both sides with oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and salt and pepper.
- Heat a couple tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet (non-stick if you have one) over medium high heat.
- Add the filets to the pan, what would be skin side down, and cook for 3 minutes. Flip the filets and cook for another 2 minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven.
- Juice the lemons in the sauce pan and continue to stir the cream. After 10-12 minutes the cream should begin to thicken as the water evaporates out. Your sauce should get to point where
- After 5 minutes remove the fish from the oven and add 2 tablespoon of butter to the pan. Tilting the pan towards you over medium heat baste the fish filets for a couple minutes with the butter.
- Serve the filets with lemon cream sauce and enjoy!
Courses Main
As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Have a blessed day,
Benjamin
Buttermilk Biscuits with Fried Chicken and Tabasco Honey
This recipe is rooted in the numerous times that I have eaten chicken biscuits out at restaurants, the fried chicken my wife makes that I can't get enough of, and the buttermilk biscuits that I make at home that have become a staple of our household. I started making my own biscuits at home from scratch about year a go and I now could never imagine buying canned biscuits ever again. Now I can't take full credit for this recipe. The fried chicken portion of this recipe belongs to my wife. "What's yours is mine and what's mine is yours" doesn't apply in this case for my wife and I haha.
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Eating, Enjoying, and Surviving Mardi Gras in New Orleans
Mardi Gras in New Orleans is like nothing else I have ever experienced. From the parades that seem to go on forever to the balls to the seemingly endless party Carnival season is truly an amazing time of year. Carnival season kicks off with the Epiphany, or Kings' Day, and ends with Mardi Gras. For those who may not know the Christian connotations of Mardi Gras it is a day of celebrating and feasting before the Lenten fast begins. Mardi Gras can be translated to Fat Tuesday in English.
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Mushrooms with Coppa Ham and Sage over Parmesan Polenta
Even when I try and make vegetarian dishes they often end up having meat in them. Over the past couple years I have been expanding my diet; mushrooms being one of the things that I've recently started eating more of. I've found of one of the best ways to try new foods is to pare them with things that you are comfortable with; for example ham and polenta being two things that I use very often. You could of course make this recipe without using the ham, but where's the joy in that?
In my time learning different ways to prepare mushrooms I have learned that flavor of shiitake mushrooms (which I normally use) really comes from what you season them with. In this recipe the coppa enhances the meaty flavors of the mushrooms while the sage really brings out the mushroom's earthy notes. By no means am I a mushroom expert at all, but hey it's my blog so I'll give my opinion haha.
Doing some research on whether or not you can eat the stems of shiitakes I came across one blog that mentioned used them in stock, soups, etc. That led me to adding the stems from the mushrooms to the water and chicken stock that the polenta was going to be cooked in. Not sure if they really brought much flavor in their own right to the polenta, but hey what could it hurt?
This recipe was definitely a learning experience for me. Both continuing to learn about mushrooms and about new ways to bring flavor to a pretty bland ingredient like polenta. The bowl you see in the picture below was empty within minutes... So you can expect to see more mushrooms in the future.
Mushrooms with Coppa Ham and Sage over Parmesan Polenta
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 2 servings
Ingredients
Mushrooms
- 8 oz. shiitake mushrooms, halved and stems removed
- 2 oz. coppa ham, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bulb shallot, minced
- ¼ cup chicken stock
- Sprig of fresh sage
- Sprig of fresh rosemary
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Salt & pepper
Polenta
- 1 cup polenta
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups chicken stock
- Mushroom stems
- ½ cup parmesan cheese
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoon butter
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Once you have all of your ingredients prepped add the water and chicken stock to a small pot. Add the mushrooms stems to the pot and place the pot over high heat.
- Add the coppa ham to a pan over medium high heat and cook until the ham starts to crisp up. Once the coppa is done remove it from the pan and set aside.
- By now the water for the polenta should be boiling. Remove the mushrooms stems pot of water and chicken stock and stir in polenta. Lower heat to low and cover.
- Lower heat to medium and add the butter to the pan.
- Add mushrooms to pan and cook for 4-5 minutes; stirring occasionally. Remove mushrooms from the pans and set aside with the coppa.
- Add shallot and garlic to the pan and brown for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken stock, rosemary, and sage to the pan and reduce heat to low.
- Once the polenta has finished cooking (15-20 minutes) stir in the butter, garlic, black pepper, and parmesan cheese to the polenta.
- Remove the sprigs of rosemary and sage from the pan and increase heat to medium. Add mushrooms, coppa, and a bit of chopped sage to the pan to incorporate all the ingredients together.
- To serve spoon polenta into a bowl and top with mushrooms.
Courses Main
As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Have a blessed day,
Benjamin
Bourbon Milk Punch
With the holidays upon us you'll have more days off at home; which means you'll have more days where you can start your day off with a cocktail rather than just coffee. Wouldn't it be nice if you were over at a relative's or friend's house and when they offered you a drink with breakfast they offered you something other than coffee or a mimosa? Well you can now be that person that everyone talks in great admiration about, "He/She made us this awesome bourbon milk punch to go with breakfast!"
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Ginger Soy Shrimp
I eat a lot of shrimp, and I east a lot of sushi. The crossroads of which being a shrimp and avocado appetizer that one of my regular lunch spots had on special a few months back. The unfortunate thing about restaurant specials is that they don't always make it onto the regular menu. The best solution to this problem I've found is to experiment making it on your own.
One of the reasons I eat so much shrimp is because can do many things with it. Just like Bubba said:
On this particular occasion I guess you could say that we are going to sauté it. I'm no professional chef so I am often unaware of the exact terminology of the methods of cooking that I am doing. As long as the food you're cooking comes out good does it really matter what you call what you did to make it?
This dish is really all about the sauce. The shrimp themselves are seasoned fairly moderately so the sauce controls much of the flavor of the dish. From my experience the shrimp will pick up some of the sauce from finishing cooking in the pan. To really get the full effect I recommend pouring the remainder of the sauce over (after running it through a fine strainer).
This recipe is one that I genuinely feel like anyone and everyone can make on their own.
Ginger Soy Shrimp
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 2 servings
Ingredients
- 1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 tablespoon Creole seasoning
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup ginger, minced
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Mince garlic and garlic and set to the side.
- Heat olive olive oil over medium heat in a small sauté pan.
- Add shrimp to the sauté pan and cook for two minutes. Flip shrimp, cook for another two minutes, and remove shrimp from pan. Reduce heat to medium low.
- Add soy sauce and balsamic vinegar to the pan and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add garlic and ginger to the pan and cook for another 5 minutes.
- When the sauce begins to thicken add shrimp back to pan to coat shrimp in the sauce; 30 seconds or so on each side.
- Remove shrimp from the pan and serve with extra sauce pored over top.
Courses Appetizer
As always thank you for taking a few moments from your day to read over this and I hope that you are able to try this recipe sometime and that you enjoy it. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.
Have a blessed day,
Benjamin
Smothered Chicken Thighs
Smothered chicken is something that we ate in my home growing up at least once every other week. I didn't realize until I moved out on my own and started cooking for myself regularly why that was so. The reason is very clear cut. It's cheap and relatively easy to make.
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Bourbon Maple Chicken
Recipe ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere. Many of my recipes come from recipes that I grew up eating or from meals that I have had while dining out. This bourbon maple chicken recipe actually came from an episode of Iron Chef America. I love watching cooking shows and getting ideas for things to whip up in the kitchen. The episode of Iron Chef America that I was watching just so happened to feature one of my favorite things in the world... Bourbon.
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Cod with Caper Brown Butter
What do you do when you want to cook dinner, you don't want to go get groceries, and you don't want to order from Uber Eats? You experiment. I must say that some experiments come out better than others, and in this case my grabbing of ingredients that I had in my kitchen worked out pretty damn good.
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Kinda Mom's Red Beans and Rice
What would be your last meal?
It's a question I'm sure you have been asked or heard asked many times in your life. It's something that is often tied to prisoners on death row; i.e. The Green Mile and loaf of corn bread brought to John Coffey. So I again ask you the question. If you only had one more meal left to eat before you left this life and you could request anything you wanted what would you choose? It's pretty simple for me; my mom's red beans and rice.
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Asparagus Soup
For the majority of people who are reading this and do not know me personally; know that this recipe is out of my normal repertoire. My usual meal centers around some sort of protein. Whether that be a nice steak, some nice plump shrimp, etc. This asparagus soup recipe is definitely not that. It's a much lighter, and I suppose healthier, recipe that I am sure vegans AND the rest of us will all enjoy.
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Red Wine Braised Short Ribs
Like most of the recipes that you see on here they are some of my favorite things to cook. Only makes sense or why would I post them on here for y'all to try. We all have people who we look up to and the original creator of this recipe is definitely s someone that I look up to. The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummand, is someone wh0 I watch on Food Network all the time. It's like she's talking to me specifically when she is cooking; I mean she really is talking to me directly when she's in her kitchen.
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Shrimp & Grits
There are certain dishes that just scream Southern and Creole. One of those dishes, as well as one of my favorite dishes, is shrimp and grits. It just warms the body and the soul. Feeling cold or down? Make a quick run to the grocery store pick up the ingredients (listed a little further down) and whip yourself up some shrimp & grits.
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Roasted Yard Bird
Roasting a yard bird, better known as a chicken, is something that most anyone can do. I first came up with this recipe a year or so ago and lots of through trial and error I've gotten to what you see today. The error being stuck with a chicken that really doens't taste good at all, but making myself eat it because I don't want it to go to waste. I hope that I have taken the error away from your kitchen with what you have before you now, and I hope that you are able to try this recipe and that you enjoy it as much as I do.
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Apple & Pecan Stuffed Pork Loin
I cooked my first stuffed pork loin about a year ago, and it has now become one of my favorite things to cook. Something I was at first intimidated by has now become something I can pretty much cook in my sleep. With a little bit of work you can as well. As with any recipe I post I want it to to be as simple as I can make it so that anyone can make it in their own home and enjoy it.
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Thee Old Gold
To all of my Alpha Phi Alpha brothers out there this drink is in particular for y'all. When I was thinking of a name for this drink Thee Old Gold popped into my head and it just felt right. Running it and a few other names past some of my Alphabama brothers they seemed to like it as well so here we are... The black the black the black and OLD GOLD!
Thee Old Gold is a drink that I came up with after having something very similar served to me on a few occasions. I've never known the exact ratios that different bartenders used when making their version of the drink, but I must say I wasn't at all disappointed that I had to drink cocktail after cocktail to get it to my liking.
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