Friday, September 1, 2023

I should have included one more ingredient.

Here is another case where I stopped constructing a dish one ingredient too early. There probably is no such thing as the perfect meal, since preference and opinion are always factors in evaluation, but did you ever make a dish and, as you were enjoying it, think, “If I had added ----- to the recipe this dish would have been even better than it turned out. How could I have not realized that earlier?”


 

We already know I love okra. I have shared that fact more than once. I have also shared my love of both Cajun and Creole food. Today’s offering is a nice Creole dish.

Let me stir up some controversy right away by sharing an opinion. Cajun cooks like a roux and usually do not cook with tomato. Creole cooks often omit the roux and use tomato in their dishes. Since it contains tomato when a roux could have been used, I would categorize this dish as Creole cuisine.

Cajun


Creole

I am one of those who love the taste of tomatoes added to my okra dishes. I cook lots of things with a roux but I think okra combined with tomato makes a great dish, so I do that pairing a lot.

Here is one I made last week that was great, but could have been better.

 


Okra with Sausage, Chicken Bits, and Tomato

 

Ingredients:

2 cups Frozen cut okra. Fresh cut is great, but I had none.
1/4 Onion, sliced
1/2 cup Celery, diced
3 Roma Tomatoes, quartered
8 ounces Cajun Sausage, diced
4 ounces Chicken Bits, (I used cut up tenderloins)
1 Tablespoon Slap Ya Momma Cajun Seasoning
1 Tablespoon Lawry’s Garlic Salt
2 teaspoons Black Pepper
Pam spray

 

Directions:

I cooked this as a single pan, oven roasted meal. You could also cook it on your stove top. We have an oven broiling pan that I use to cook steaks, chicken, pork, fish, or whatever and although this dish was roasted and not broiled, the pan also works well for this kind of cooking. The dish could also be cooked on a sheet pan, skillet casserole dish, foil pack, or whatever.

I set up my oven pan in layers and cooked it that way. I started by spraying the pan with a little Pam before adding a layer of frozen sliced okra. 


Back in the day, you could get pretty good frozen cut okra at Jitney Jungle, or even the Mad Butcher. I shop local and got mine just down the street at a grocer that once was a Jitney Jungle location. They probably have frozen okra wherever you like to shop.




The next layer of my dish was onion, sliced, diced, or chunked to whatever size you like.

 


Then celery and tomatoes, cut to whatever size you like. I used produce market tomatoes, but garden grown, or canned diced tomatoes also get the job done. If using canned, I would drain away the liquid before adding them to the pan. Less liquid added makes the finished dish dryer and I like that.

 


Over the years, we have purchased several different brands of sausage. Louisiana is too far away to go to one of their classic Cajun Sausage markets, so we buy local and suffer through what we are able to find here. The taste of this one is great and it is easy to find, so we use it. I cut it into fork sized pieces before layering them on top of everything else.

 



I didn’t take a photo of my preparation after I added the 1/2 to 1 inch bits of chicken, but it is there.

There are three seasonings I like in my Cajun and Creole dishes. Slap Ya Momma has a flavor I like, and Lawry’s Garlic Salt adds both flaked garlic and salt to the dish. I used quite a bit of both. I also like black pepper and included it.




As I said earlier, I cooked my okra dish in the oven at 350 degrees F for about 40 minutes, until the okra was tender.

 




Here it is, plated after stirring. Time to eat.




What did I regret leaving out of my dish? What was my mistake?



My sincere thanks go out to the King of Fishes for allowing me to post here and for accepting me as I am, with inattentive spelling, little editing, and sometimes unpopular opinion. Hopefully all is spelled and punctuated properly here. If not, let me know and I will correct it, or add a comma, or semicolon.

 

Thanks for looking at my post.

I bid you peace.

 

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Once again, I have passed this onto my wife who is an excellent cook. Hopefully soon this will appear on our table.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a fun one! I have a challenge for you:

Come up with a rockin recipe for stuffed peppers! They are either too bland or the iteration with fajita seasoning is just weird. Everything about stuffed peppers screams should be great, however always falls flat

Anonymous said...


I just take it for granted that bacon tastes good in anything. I recently gave up Wright brand bacon for the Costco brand. Darned good bacon. I've never tried the Slap Yo Mama stuff and make my own Cajun seasoning using Paul Prudhomme's standard recipe. He used red (Cayenne), white and black pepper in his.

Love your column, Bear. More, please.

Anonymous said...

Someone please explain what a "ZeroBear Polybear" is or represents?

anon said...

What sausage brand, Country Pleasin Andouille is pretty righteous.

Anonymous said...

@1:21

it represents a handle for a dude who has some pretty great recipes. We wouldn't care if he called himself captain douche as long as he keeps bringing it week in week out

Anonymous said...

Please get back to Southern dishes. Slimy Okrie ain't Southern. Ever.

Anonymous said...

That looks wonderful. A favorite of mine just about any way you do it. The oven method looks interesting.
My garden will have tomatoes, okra and cucumbers in it as long as I have a little patch of dirt.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a nice dish for those that like okra.

FWIW, some history gained from personal knowledge; I do not claim to be an absolute authority, only personally acquainted with the history by virtue of being "Creole" in its original meaning. Obviously, calling an okra dish "Creole" today is perfectly acceptable to describe a broad style of cooking but original "Creole" cuisine did not use it. A gentle correction: early "Creole" cuisine and recipes did use what is commonly called a "roux," i.e., a flour and fat thickening agent, and ranging in color, because French and Spanish cooking used it (French more than Spanish - see the origins of bechamel, veloute, Espagnole, as well as mornay, etc.). Original "Creole" cuisine would not have used okra because it was not really grown by either white Creoles or their city slaves/servants nor available to them in the markets. It was grown to a small degree "out in the country" but really only eaten by a small number of "country" or plantation slaves. Most, white or black, free or not, saw it is a less-desirable "sustenance food." I think many would acknowledge it is an acquired taste, and many do not desire to acquire a taste for it.

As the term "Creole" morphed from meaning whites of pure Spanish or French heritage born in the new world to encompass mixed-race people, especially the offspring of original Creoles and gens de couleur (libres)/"free people of color" and their children, cuisines and terms merged but "city folk" Creoles (original or mixed-race) still didn't grow or use okra, including soups or "gumbos," having declined to acquire the taste for it.

As an aside, "okra" comes from a word in one African language, "okuru," and "gumbo" comes, at least in part, from the word for okra in a different African language, "ki-ngombo" (and "gombo" has become a French-language term for okra). The Choctaw word for "filé" (powdered sassafras leaves) is "kombo," to which the Creoles (original and mixed), slaves, gens de couleur, etc., were introduced and put into some soups as both a thickener and a flavoring. The most likely explanation is that the word "gumbo" came from being used to describe slightly different soups with similar general descriptions but in different languages using words that sounded alike to those who didn't speak any of them and not really familiar with the difference between similar soups with okra or filé (but not both). Now of course it's a generic term used for all sorts of soups whether they are "okra gumbo," "filé gumbo," or otherwise. Even today, many Creoles, again both of original and mixed heritage, do not use or like okra in "gumbo" or at all, and we use filé in gumbo (I'm firm-footed in that camp - no okra for me).

See "part 2" for a recipe for "Gombo Creole"

Anonymous said...

Part 2:

For any that care, you can find several old Creole cookbooks in the public domain, such as Mme. (Madame) Begue's Old Creole Cookery, The Picayune's Creole Cookbook, and a couple of others. Mme Begue's late-ish 1800s recipe for "Gombo Creole/Creole Gumbo" from an 1900 edition (in French and English, and in which okra makes no appearance in this or any other recipe or dish):

Gombo Creole: Coupez en morceaux une jeune volaille et faites frire. Ajoutez un oignon en tranches, une cuilleree de farine, deux douzaines de crevettes, deux douzaines d'huitres et queiqucs petits morceaux de jambon. Faites roussir le tout, ajoutez un litre et demi d'eau et laissez cuire doucemcnt pendant une heure. Mettez du persil hache, du sel et du piment. Avant de servir et pendant quc le gombo bout, liez vivement avec une petite cuilleree de file en poudre. Retirez du feu et servez avec du riz.

Creole Gumbo: Clean a nice young chicken, cut in pieces and fry in hot lard. Add a large sliced onion, a spoonful of flour, two dozen boiled shrimps, two dozen oysters and a few pieces of ham, Fry all together and when brown add a quart and a half of water,and let boil for an hour. Season with chopped parsley, salt and strong pepper. Just before removing and while boiling stir in quickly a teaspoonful of the powdered file. Take away (from heat) and pour in tureen. Serve hot with rice cooked dry.

Stuff About ZeroBear PolyBear said...

ZeroBear PolyBear is a little guy who has lived with the wife and me for almost 50 years now. We consider him a member of the family and he feels the same about us - calls me Da and the wife, Mumzey. He is the product of a mixed relationship. His mother was a beautiful bathmat and his father a dashing sleeping bag. The term poly refers to what we consider his "innards". ZeroBear might use the term "Litissicals", which may be an incorrect term and/or spelling, but it is his, so what can you say. I will tell you, he is the absolute Pinochle of toxic petroleum adaptation into the bear body. He looks fairly normal for a PolyBear, dusty white, somewhat chunky, beady eyes, yellow leg, and a smug superior to you smile.

Thanks to his use of Mumzie's credit card one weekend when we were out of town, he holds many graduate degrees from a well-known diploma mill in California. They include BS, MS PhD, GRE, MD, QE, JPD, SOB. After a night riding with DA through a loose part of town, he "Passed the Bar" (AKA Lucille's Shady Rest) and uses the term ESQ whenever his signs any document that could be used as evidence to send him to jail again.

Any donations of support to his bank account can be sent to Sloppy Joe's Bar and Grill, Camen Islands. Do not fear getting into trouble for foolishly supporting his efforts to become the richest PolyBear in the country. Joe will quickly transfer any money donated (or bit coin, gold or silver, bearer bonds, whatever) to ZeroBear's offshore account, which to his knowledge has never been traced by any governmental agency.

Now you know. Feel better? I didn't think so.

Anonymous said...

Thank you ZBPB
I’m going Krogering at The Crossgates Krogers to get the ingredients to make this tonight!

Anonymous said...

"ZeroBear PolyBear is a little guy...Sloppy Joe's Bar and Grill, Camen Islands...ZeroBear's offshore account..."

He's Paddington's black-sheep cousin!

"Feel better?"

Yes. I like all sorts of interesting bears, particularly Paddington and Pooh (and of course, Tigger, too!), and still have my books about them from childhood as well as one of the first stuffed Paddington bears complete with Wellies. Yes, I have looked after this bear.

Much like Michael Nesmith's mother having invented Liquid Paper, here's another bit of information primarily only useful for trivia night: Jeremy Clarkson's (Top Gear, The Grand Tour) parents made the originals. I mention that because I suspect Clarkson and ZeroBear are more kindred spirits than Clarkson and Paddington and I suspect they would get along famously.

Robert W Neill Jr, Land Broker said...

What is the best Cajun sausage brand to use? If not available locally, what kind could be picked up in NOLA to bring back?

Anonymous said...

"What is the best Cajun sausage brand to use?"

Poche's (Breaux Bridge) and Rabideaux's (Iowa, near Lake Charles) ship. Poche makes andouille, tasso, chaurice (on the spicy side), etc. and Rabideaux pork and venison is good. Yes, there are other good places in the area but those are ones we like. OTOH, if you're going to have okra in the dish, Alpo, Nine Lives, or roadkill would work, although it would be a waste of meatish-like substances (wink-n-grin).

Seriously, though, in NOLA go to Dorignac's on Vets or any Rouse's and get what appeals to you. Rouse's makes house sausages that are pretty decent and they are easy to find all over the NOLA area. Just a suggestion, but some decent ham roughly chopped, some ground pork, some green onions, a generous amount of fresh garlic (well minced, smashed, or pureed), and some Slap, Tony's, Zat's, or homemade Cajun spice (all to taste) and sauteed together would work about as well as sausage if none is handy. If you have a way to smoke things, make a loaf and smoke it before sauteing. But again, you're mixing it with okra so it's going to be hard to make it taste even worse.

Here's my favorite okra recipe:

1. Don't buy okra.
2. Never, ever pick okra or get within 100 feet of a patch of it. If offered the "opportunity" to do so, roll around in fiberglass insulation removed from home flooded by raw sewage and then soaked with cat urine and gasoline instead. It'll be more pleasant (and the insulation would probably taste better, too).
3. If offered home-grown okra already picked, cheerfully accept, honestly thank, offer calamine lotion and IV of grain alcohol in trade, and...
4. Call any of the lunatics you know who like okra.
5. Give okra to lunatic.
6. If you are one of the only people in the south who does not know at least one lunatic who actually likes snotpods, wrap in about 14 feet of construction-grade visqueen (per pod), seal with at least a roll of good duct tape (per pod), label as hazardous waste, and put in trash. DO NOT put in compost bin - that shit is as sneaky as it is slimy.

NB - OK, so tonight, I am having a whisky (wink-n-grin).

Stuff About ZeroBear PolyBear said...

Here comes the apology. Two people have asked me to recommend the best Cajun sausage, and I can't do that. I have been around Cajuns and such much of my life and I know there are no winners and no happiness in such discussions. My recommendation is to eat what you like. I certianly would not drive all the way to lower LA to purchase it.

I bid you peace.

Anonymous said...

@4:16/4:17 - It is disputed whether okra originated in West Africa or in Southeast Asia. It is a member of the tallow family of plants, as is cotton, and a common ingredient in Indian and Asian food. It is clear that Africans brought it to the Americas, and we have been grateful ever since.

I usually buy Country-Pleasing andouille sausage. Stay away from any of that uncured, non-nitrate sausage like they sell at Whole Foods and elsewhere. If you're gonna eat sausage, treat yourself the real stuff.

A ring lady said...

I am from the Coast and we always had "stewed okra and tomatoes". In fact, I'm making some today. I will be using my Mother's Magnalite (essential item in Louisiana cooking) pot. Slowly cooking an onion with the okra until they are soft and then adding 2 fresh tomatoes with some garlic. Let simmer very slowly until all the flavors have combined. I season with s&p, and creole seasoning. I love fried okra, but slow cooking okra brings the flavor up to a rich nutty taste. I just introduced this dish to a north MS friend and she can't get enough. Recipe (if you want a detailed version, I don't use one) are in some of the old LA cookbooks.

Anonymous said...

I made a type in my earlier post. Okra is a member of the mallow, not tallow, family of plants.

Anonymous said...

You offered another typo in the 7:39 post. It's OK about the Tallow/Mallow mistake. I always thought Okra tasted like candle wax when my momma used to make us eat it.

I won't even get into the requirement to eat prunes and beets. Nasty stuff.


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