TGIFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No. Not Thank God It's Friday- this post it Thank God It's Football Season! I love football season. I have loved it since my first game which was ironically on my 18th birthday way back in 20... well that part really doesn't matter. The point is I have loved every aspect of collegiate football and without fail. Yes, thanks for asking as a matter of fact I do judge people base on who they root for. I also without apology judge them harder if they root for a college that either they, their siblings, children or spouse did not attend. Truth y'all. It's all I speak,

Well now that the pleasantries are over with, I can also tell you that I also enjoy the tailgate aspect as much or quite possibly more than the actual game at hand. And for this years inaugural game we decided the best way to christen this event would be with a good ole' fashion Louisiana Boil. It was also our way of pouring one out to honor Lady Bird who cannot be here this season because she is attending Med School at fabulous Tulane in NOLA. I know- I am deeply jealous as well- but no worries folks! We have a crew all ready to go visit her when we find an awesome deal on a flight. I'll keep you posted for when that little adventure happens.

So back to the boil. I'll have you all know I had every intention of photographing every aspect of this boil, but as any good southerner knows: when the firefly sweet tea vodka starts a flowing- just go with it and let the night happen (I think that is in some famous quote book, but not likely. It should be).

This recipe was largely adapted from this website: What's Cooking America?

I only had a 2 gallon pot, so I made this in two batches. This was what I used:
For the actual boiling liquid:
2 garlic bulbs (1 used per batch)
3 oranges (1.5 used per batch)
2 lemons (1 used per batch)
4 light beers (2 used per batch)
water (~3/4 gallon per batch)
Crab boil seasoning (same bag for both batches)
8 bay leaves (4 per batch)

I let these items come to a boil. I will now list the ingredients as a per batch basis. If you have a larger pot then double this or do like I did and make it twice. First you add 9 new potatoes. These need to cook for at least 10 minutes, or until they are fork tender. I had frozen corn from my produce box so I added to the mix 3 ears that were shucked, pre-boiled and were cut in half. Next I added good ole' slice andouille sausage. 2 large links cut into 1/2 inch pieces and added into the pot. These cooked for 5 minutes.

Next I added 1.5 pounds of whole crawdads. As the kind folks at Earp's seafood kindly told me: this aint crawdad season (not to get political, but even it it was I am sure the oil spill would have something to do with the lack of quantity). Apparently crawdaddy season is from January from April. Hello? Who eats crawdads during this time of year? Those critters need to get with the program.  So... all they had were fresh frozen crawdads, which were fine by me. I let them cook in the mix for 5 minutes. Lastly I added 1 pound of frozen shrimp (hey the crawdads were frozen, so who really cares at this point?). These cook for 3 minutes MAX.

I remove everything by cooking everything in a strainer that fits snuggly in my pot. Technically you're supposed to lay everything out over newspaper- but we put each batch into a bowl instead and feasted. Once in the bowl we sprinkled some Old Bay on top for extra seasoning. It was a hit. No crawdad left behind, thanks Dubya. As it should be. Who knows what will happen at the next home tail gate season? We shall see. But this was definitely a hit, one worth repeating. When you have strangers coming up and asking you what smells so good, you know you have done something right!

Mexican Vacation Hot Sauce Eat’em Up Review

 GUEST BLOG ALERT! MY BROTHER, MATT, WAS KIND ENOUGH TO SUBMIT THIS FOR YOUR CULINARY PLEASURE! ENJOY!

-SSC

My sister Sara went on vacation to Old Mehico and was thoughtful enough to bring me back a treasure from the south.  It was a selection of 3 hot sauces from “sauces del Gary” which after researching the ancient translation means Sauces of the Gary….Ahhh, wait huh?  So after reassuring myself that there was no ulterior meaning to this brand name I set to partake of these as I have a minor affliction, and that is anything spicy! 

It was a nice Sunday morning and I thought what better way to start the day off than to ingest 3 potential harbingers of gastrointestinal distress, I had spare time.  Also knowing that said thoughtful sister also writes a food blog, why not document my foray into the flaming abyss through the magic of the inter webs.  Without further ado I whipped up a sweet 3 egg omelet with cheese as the platform for my most scientific research. 

 First up was the Salsa Picante El Diablito Habanero (Green).  This little ditty translates to Sharp Sauce of the Habanero Frog.  Okay maybe not exactly but it has something to do with habanero peppers and a frog.  What is odd is that with all of the talk of the name here I completely did not even think to read it before eating and assumed it was a regular green pepper sauce.  The key word I missed was habanero which on the pepper scale, or Scoville scale, is right below the Naga Jolokia (the hottest pepper in the world commonly called the cobra pepper) and law enforcement grade pepper spray.

Nerd Break – Skip if not fascinated by hot stuff

Peppers are hot because of a chemical called Capsaicin.  It is the active component of all chili peppers and obviously is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact. Capsaicin and several related compounds are called capsaicinoids and are produced as a secondary metabolite by chili peppers, probably as a defense mechanism against certain herbivores and fungi.  Pure capsaicin is a hydrophobic, colorless, odorless, crystalline to waxy compound.  Ironically research conducted at the university of California, San Francisco has shown that this chemical mimics the sensation of burning in nerves (duh) by binding to certain proteins in pain and heat sensing neurons.  The neurons get overwhelmed by this influx of protein and shut down.  Chronic exposure to capsaicin can deplete the neurons of neurotransmitters leading to a reduction in the sensation of pain and the blockage of neurogenic inflammation i.e. it becomes a pain reliever….just not to your tongue. 

End Nerd Break

Back to the review.  Luckily I am used to hot stuff and have huge pectoral muscles as a normal man would have been rendered incapacitated by such an oversight.  Actually after the initial influx of unexpected heat it mellowed nicely and was a very balanced flavor.  It did not completely mask the flavor of the food but rather added to it.  Hot Sauces that are hot just to be insanely hot are fine to try and say you did it but are the equivalent of a side show freak.  Sure you will pay your $5 bucks to see them at the fair but you aren’t going to bring them home with you.  The other thing you have to watch out for is the cumulative effect that can be experienced hot sauces.  The first bite may be okay but number 5 and you are starting to have visions from the pain.  This sauce did get a little hotter but was still very edible.  I really liked it and am excited to try this in a recipe as well as a condiment.

Next Up was the Salsa El Diabilito Botenero.  Botanero is a type of restaurant according to the inter webs so I don’t know exactly how that pertains to the sauce but I do know it does not have the word habanero in it.  This sauce was a very traditional Mexican hot sauce and while it looks bright red (natures warning sign) it was mild to hot and eggcellent on my eggs.  Maybe the Botanero was a meant as a description for a “house” hot sauce that would commonly be found out on the table as I think this would suit a lot of palettes.  It added kick but was very flavorful and had a nice hint of roasted chilies which is my preferred base rather than a sweeter style such as Texas Pete.

Finally we come to the Salsa Picante El Diablito Habanero (Red).  Might not have wanted to save this one for last but, “fortibus fortuna favet” fortune favors the brave!  This one is hard to decipher as it was the 3rd on and the heat was definitely on in my pie hole.  It did seem to be the hottest but still very palatable.  It was no doubt a habanero sauce but still not anywhere near the insane level.  This was another solid offering as it did not completely drown out the taste but had nice heat.  This would be a great mid tier hot sauce with Frank’s being low and Dave’s insanity being the high.

Overall it was a great breakfast that won’t leave me crippled in the bathroom asking the hot sauce gods for forgiveness.  All three of these will soon be gone from my cabinet as I plan to use these quite frequently.

What do you call a nosy pepper?

JALAPEÑO BUSINESS!

I love a stupid joke. But seriously I am dying with what to do with all these peppers. I received some squash last week, so how about tri-peppers with squash? Now watch my pepper stash dwindle! 

Aside: And no I did not choose the box with more peppers, I decidedly chose the one without. 

Here we go! Tonight I channeled my inner Bobby Flay and came up with this little dish!

Here are tonight's contestants: squash, poblano pepper, banana pepper and jalapeño pepper. I had some lemon already cut because being that it is summer the citrus population in the house has a tendency to find their way into seasonal ales. More recently they have been spotted floating in brews poured from the Oberon Bell's mini keg Todd purchased from Total Wine. 

Chop these four and throw them into a bowl with salt pepper and EVOO.  Since I used lemon I thought this needed some spicing up.

CONFESSION: I googled "herbs that complement lemon." Gasp! Why? I couldn't remember if it was thyme, rosemary or oregano that went best. Turns out I was 2/3s right! So thyme and rosemary went in with the mix along with my trusty friend Trader Joe's roasted corn. 

While this cooked I decided to pair it with sea scallops. And then I decided I needed a sauce, preferably one that could use up some more produce. This is where I needed some good ole Bobby Flay in my life. Senior Flay loves toning down spicy with some sweet. Lord knows I have jalapeños coming out of my ears, naturally that was the pepper of choice, and I had some left over coconut from a cake I made. Perfect! (PS the cake got some pretty rave reviews: get this it was a pineapple, macademia nut coconut cake. Yum and it smelled like I would imagine Hawaii would).

Here we go. Few handfuls of sweetened coconut, splash of EVOO, 1/4 c vegetable broth, 2 chopped jalapeños and a few shakes of some habanero hot sauce. Sim sim simmer away.

Toss into the food processor and let it run until smooth. And when I say smooth I men until the hunks of coconut are no longer visible. In hindsight, I realize using coconut milk would have been a better choice, but you have to use what you have. The result is below.

Cook your sea scallops with a little EVOO, salt and pepper. 

Put your sauce down with your scallops on top.

  

Add your squash and tri-peppers and serve with sliced avocado. The avocado will cool down some of the heat, in a similar fashion to how the coconut offsets the jalapeños. Such a bright and colorful plate, almost too good to eat.

Final thoughts for the evening. I almost feel like I should rename this blog: cooking for the carnivore. Truth be told, I feel like I have to get extra creative so that my other half gets enough flavor in hopes he won't notice that there is not much meat being cooked nightly. Don't get me wrong, last night he spent half of the night slow roasting himself a half rack of pork ribs to get his meat fix and openly gaffed that the fact that the price of bacon is steadily rising. I can't remember the last time we bought bacon, honestly.  Not to mention I feel like I pass a truck full of sows or barrows on their way to the slaughter house daily on I-40.... so I know it's not a supply issue. And North Carolina IS the #2 pig producing state behind Iowa, so keep buying the pork? I am very conflicted with that last statement.... more on that in future posts!

Tomorrow's blog: Coop's on the loose! Blount street homes and why I love Oakwood.