I’ve been thinking back fondly on our Cajun adventure and decided to put my own twist on the famed Crawfish Étouffée. I normally don’t like to gush about my own cooking, but I’d happily put my bowl of mudbugs up against many of the dishes I tried in the Crescent City. In short, I make a mean ass Étouffée and here’s how it’s done.

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped yellow onions
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell peppers
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons cayenne
• 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• 1 1/2 cups fish stock (you can substitute chicken broth, shrimp stock, lobster stock or even water)
• 1 pound crawfish tails
• 1/2 large lemon squeezed
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves, plus more for garnish
• Cooked long grain white rice

Preparation:
1. In a large, deep saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring, to make a light roux. Keep stirring until the mixture begins to take on the consistency of peanut butter. You’ll know it’s ready for the veggies when you smell a nutty flavor. (Note: These rouxs are often referred to as “peanut butter rouxs”). Add a teaspoon of cayenne and some of the Cajun seasoning.

2. Add the onions, celery, bell peppers, green onions, garlic, bay leaves, salt, and pepper to the roux. Keep cooking and stirring until the vegetables are soft, about 7 or 8 minutes.

3. Add the sherry and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the stock and crawfish tails and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Squeeze in half of a lemon and the additional cayenne and Cajun seasonings. Simmer for another two minutes.

4. Stir in the parsley and remove from the heat. Add a cup of rice to a bowl and ladel the spicy deliciousness overtop. You can adjust spices to your taste at this point. I like to add a little fresh flat leaf parsley overtop for garnish and extra color.

It really is fantastic and I’ve liked my own version of this recipe much better than some that I’ve had in the most authentic of restaurants. If you aren’t a fan of the spicy flavors, reduce the amount of Cajun seasoning and the cayenne. Have it with an ice-cold beer. You won’t be sorry.

If there’s one thing that I really love about the onset of warmer weather is the availability of some of my favorite herbs and vegetables and getting my own stuff right from our garden. While our little patch isn’t there just yet, we have been seeing some great ingredients in our local fruit and vegetable market.

This recipe is a flavor bomb of delicious green veggies and is incredibly quick. If you make the gazpacho ahead of time, you only need to season mahi-mahi fillets and give them a quick grill for 5 to 6 minutes per side and you’re at the table depending on what sides you’re looking to serve with it. Here’s how this one’s done.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped English hothouse cucumber (about 1/2 large)
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped green onions
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 to 3 cloves of peeled and smashed garlic
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
• 2 chopped seeded serrano chiles (i remove the ribs as well before chopping)
• 2 7-to 8-ounce mahi-mahi fillets
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3 ounces small red and yellow cherry, pear, or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
• Ground black pepper to taste

Preparation:

Combine cucumber, onions, cilantro, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and chiles in processor. Use a combination of on off turns or grinds and chops, blending the mixture until finely chopped. The consistency should be a wet, loose paste that has the consistency of a thicker soup.

Transfer to bowl. Season with more vinegar, if desired, and salt and black pepper.

Sprinkle fish fillets on both sides with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and cumin.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish and cook 5 minutes. Turn over, cover, and cook until fish is just opaque in center, about 5 minutes.

Use a serving spoon to create a pool of gazpacho on two plates. Top each with 1 fish fillet. Scatter tomatoes atop and around fish and serve.

And that’s all there is to it. This is a really refreshing, tasty dish that blends a good mix of heat and power punch of delcious green veggies. Let me know if you try it. If you use the amounts above, you’ll undoubtably have leftover Gazpacho sauce that will be a fantastic quick lunch or salad dressing. Enjoy!

These vegetarian enchiladas are packed wtih everything from black beans, to bell pepper to red onion, black olives and two different kinds of cheese. I use soft taco sized shells to fit a little more in. I’d be surprised if you needed to eat more than one in a single sitting. They’re very filling, have lots of great textures and can be done in 45 minutes to an hour depending on how quick you are with your knife.

Ingredients

• 3 bell peppers of your choice (I used red, orange, and yellow)
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro chopped
• 1 8 oz can black olives sliced
• 1 8 oz can black beans
• 20 oz enchilada sauce of your choice
• 3 tablespoons cayanne pepper
• 6 soft taco sized tortillas
• 1/2 cups quesadilla cheese
• 1 oz mexican blend cheese

Preparation
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, place beans, olives, peppers, onions and enchilada sauce in a large sauce pan. Simmer vegetables for 15 to 20 minutes. Add Cayanne pepper for a spicier filling. Once filling has finished, add half of your cilantro to the mix and begin preparing to fold your enchiladas.

2. Grease a large baking pan with cooking spray and lay out warm tortillas on a large plate or platter. Place quesedilla cheese on each tortilla and begin adding enchilada filling to tortillas. Fold and place folded side down in your pan. Reserve about a 1/4 of your filling to top the folded enchiladas for baking.

3. Top finished enchiladas with reserved filling and the 1 oz of Mexican cheese. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until cheese and tortillas begin to brown. Top with remaining cilantro as garnish. Serve with refried beans or Spanish rice.

Send me a note or leave a comment if you give them a try. Enchiladas at home are really easy and these cheesy, veggie filled flour shells are absolutely delicious.

I know it’s not gluten free, but I was feeling brave and had some Mission Carb-Lite tortillas. No problem to report.

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 1 large pre-cooked turkey and chicken chorizo link cut into rounds and quartered
• 1/2 an orange bell pepper – diced
• Black and Manzanila Olives – sliced
• 1/4 Spanish onion – diced
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• A splash of milk
• 1/4 cup of your favorite Mexican blend cheese
• Two burrito sized tortillas
• Two tablespoons fresh salsa
• Fresh cilantro to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
1. Heat olive oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add diced onion, bell pepper and salt and pepper. Cook until onions become translucent.
2. Add olive and chorizo to the pan with your veggies and cook until your sausage is warmed through.
3. In a separate pan, crack eggs and mix with splash of milk. Heat over medium high until first of the eggs begin to solidify. Turn off heat and begin to scramble the eggs, adding chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. Once most of your eggs have scrambled add the cheese.
4. Combine your ingredients in a tortilla shell, top with a spoonful or two of your favorite salsa. If you have it, a couple leaves of fresh cilantro make this a real treat.

It’s spicy, it’s hearty and it’s probably the best thing I’ve had for breakfast in a very long time.

Personally, I thought the Lobster Bisque (the brand name escapes me) was fantastic. Big chunks of lobster, good color and lots of Italian herbs.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound large shrimp (de-veined, peeled, tail on)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 tablespoon rosemary (dried is fine)
• 2 teaspoons hot red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

Preparation

1. To a medium sized skillet, add olive oil and garlic. Saute over medium heat until golden.

2. Add rosemary, pepper flakes, and shrimp, and cook, stirring. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and transfer to serving dish. If you like, add two tablespoons of butter at the very end and allow it to melt in. This creates more of a “sauce” that you can drizzle over your plate. And if I were eating bread still, I’d douse a good crusty piece in it too .

3. Squeeze half lemon over shrimp.

That’s it, couldn’t be easier. Still, very tasty and super fast for when you’re pinched on time.

When I was still laying in bed Sunday morning I was dreaming of buffalo wings and then drifted to pizza. And where I ended up was just combining the two together. I had seen some of the delivery joints offering pizzas similar to this, but I was sure they weren’t using Danish Bleu or the scallions that I had in mind. Believe me, you can get this done in 45 minutes, which we both now is about how long you’re going to wait for delivery during peak hours during football Sundays.

Ingredients:

• 1 large boneless chicken breast
• 1.5 large scallions diced
• 1/4 cup Danish bleu cheese
• 1 large Boboli pizza crust (you can always make your own, but I love these when pre-game is on!)
• 1/4 cup Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce
• 1 stalk celery diced
• 1/2 cup pizza sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese

Preparation:
1. Slice chicken into thin pieces and toss them in salt and pepper. Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450 degrees.

2. In a medium sized skillet, saute chicken for a few minutes. Don’t cook it all the way through as it will finish in the oven.

3. Remove pan from heat, allowing chicken to cool. Slice vegetables and add sauce to crust. Add mozzarella cheese and scallions and put the celery aside (Vita reminded me that warm celery is just gross).

4. Put chicken into a zip lock bag or bowl and toss with 1/4 cup of wing sauce. Add chicken and crumbled Danish Bleu to your pizza. I like to drizzle olive oil on the outside edge of the crust and then add garlic salt to the oil. It adds another dimension to the crust.

5. Bake for 12 minutes.

It’s excellent, extra spicy and really, really good. Vita loved it, and I think you guys probably will to. If you do give it a whirl, let me know.

a.) Incredibly bad for my health
b.) Very meaty and delicious
c.) Very strong in flavor
d.) All of the above

While the aforementioned call was in effect last night, I went against my cravings for a Benito’s Pizza and opted to cook myself something from category “c,” a Spicy Penne Pasta Puttanesca.

The beautiful thing about this dish is that you can make it at any time of the year because it’s made with a sugo alla puttanesca sauce. From what I’ve learned, Puttanesca a modern sauce, that is particularly useful because it’s not dependent upon seasonal ingredients, which means you can rely on what’s in your cupboard or local market shelf rather than the garden.

Apparently the name comes from prostitutes from Naples, who would place cooked pots of the sauce in the windows of bordellos to entice the men to come inside. I can see why the name stuck, because the aromas in this dish are certainly enticing, especially if you’re big on garlic. I LOVE my version of this Italian dish. Check it out.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brine-cured black olives, pitted and cut into slivers (you can use Kalamata olives to)
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 3 to 4 anchovy fillets finely chopped (go with the ones packed in oil)
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano
• 1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (unfortunately I only had curly)
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes, preferably “no salt added” (the olives and anchovy paste will add plenty of flavor, believe me)
• 8 ounces Penne or whatever pasta you choose (I just prefer Penne)
• Grated Parmesan to taste

Preparation:
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil, add pasta and cook according to directions. I strongly recommend you make your pasta al dente. It adds a wonderful dimension to the dish.

2. While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, olives and red pepper flakes, stirring until garlic is golden and fragrant, about a minute and a half. Add the parsley, capers, anchovy and oregano to your skillet, and saute for 2 minutes more. Follow this up quickly with your tomatoes – which you should simmer for about 5 minutes more to allow all the flavors to marry.

3. When the pasta is done, drain it and add it to the skillet, tossing it with the sauce to combine. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

When you’re done, you’ll have an incredibly spicy, full-of-flavor meal that’s quite hearty and heavy on the aromatics. I think my kitchen still smells like Puttanesca, which should torture Rafiki and my wife when she returns home around noon.

I served myself a generous portion of Tomato, Bean and Mozzarella Caprese (recipe coming in a day or two) and a glass of red wine to accompany my pasta. A fantastic meal that I almost wish I would have saved until Vita was home to enjoy. But, you can make some amazing stuff with the leftovers from this dish as well. Aren’t leftovers great?