Shrimp Po'Boy

Its just about time for the Annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival but with so much to do this summer, a trip down just wasn't in the cards. However we had to find a way to celebrate. New Orleans is know for a few things but Good food and Great music are two of the things that really speak to me. I decided that even though it was a rainy afternoon we didn't have to settle for the same - old lunch, shrimp po'boys are fast to make and since shrimp keep so well in the freeze its easy to keep most of the ingredients on hand.

Without the friend shrimp (or some other seafood), you wouldn't have a po'boy but don't underestimate the power of the bread in this sandwich. For us, we were lucky enough to hit the local store as a fresh delivery of brioche rolls were just being unloaded from the cart. I couldn't resist the soft buttery, flaky pillows of bread even though they are not traditional for a po'boy (a crusty french baguette seems to be favored down in NOLA). When toasted and smeared with a healthy dose of remoulade, pickles and lettuce, the crisp bread is the perfect contrast to the shrimp.

Use the same recipe as the Soft Shell Crab Po'Boy here

1/27/10 - Paella....any way you pronounce it!

Today I was getting ready to make Paella for the first time I had a good laugh when I searched for a recipe. I am usually a fan of Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa) and I saw that she had a pretty popular recipe posted on the Food Network site from her Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook. Of course that was one of the recipes that I searched on and I came to this interesting discussion on Ina's accent / pronunciation of certain words (Martha Stewart is not spared either). Pie-ella or Pie-aye-ya doesn't matter to me and to be honest and now that I have said this word about 100 times to myself while cooking I don't even know how I say it anymore!

As always I didn't follow this recipe exactly - as some mentioned in the comments lobster seems a little rich for such a strongly flavored dish and well I didn't have any on hand. I did however have more than enough clams and muscles! So many in fact that I had to actually take another pan out to cook them all. In order to make this dish light but satisfying I decided to cut down on the amount of rice that I used but added quite a lot of seafood. My paella included 1/2 of an andouille sausage (which was spicy!), muscles, clams, scallops, haddock and shrimp...so delicious. The flavor of the sausage might have moved this paella into the cajun style of cooking rather than traditional spanish so I guess this is more of a fusion type dish.

Cajun Paella
1 c paella rice (many other recipes call for basmati or other long grain white rice)
3 c chicken broth
1/4 white onion - diced
1/4 red bell pepper- diced
1/4 green bell pepper - diced
3 cloves of garlic - crushed
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp saffron
1 tbsp smoked paprika
salt & pepper
1/2 andouille sausage - diced
1/2 lb haddock -diced
1/2 lb scallops - bay or diced
1/2 lb jumbo shrimp - shelled
12 little neck clams
12 muscles

1) in small pan heat chicken broth and saffron
2) in a frying pan or paella pan - add oil and sweat onions and peppers
3) add garlic - careful not to burn it
4) add rice to mixture - coat with oil - mix for about 7 min till completely coated
5) add 2 c of the chicken broth - stir to evenly distribute - allow to cook 15 min without stirring or disturbing
6) in a separate stir fry pan add the remaining broth and allow to reach boiling - add the clams and muscles and cover to steam
7) add diced fish, shrimp and scallops to the top of the rice mix - cover and let cook 10 min
8) shut off heat on paella pan and allow to sit for 10 min
9) remove open clams/ muscles and discard any that did not open
10) gently mix seafood into rice mixture, add paprika, salt and pepper (crushed red if you like) and serve
11) serve a spoonful of rice mixture topped with the clams/ muscles