Comfort Food From Louisiana: Mardi Gras: New Orleans West Bank Chicken Wings

Comfort Food From Louisiana: Mardi Gras: New Orleans West Bank Chicken Wings: From Denny:  When I think of Mardi Gras the first images that come to mind are all the wonderful parties and delicious food.  Of course, I do - it's Louisiana!

One thing is for sure we are all often short on time to prepare our favorites dishes so I've decided to post onto this blog my favorite recipes from the Zatarain site.

They are a New Orleans based company that provides products to short cut the Cajun cooking process from slow food to a more efficient use of our time.  I prefer to cook "from scratch" most of the time but there are those times when we all turn to a faster way to prepare our favorite dishes...

Louisiana Seafood Reusable Shopping Bag

Check out awesome Louisiana eating: oysters, shrimp, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya

Romancing The Chocolate: Celebrate Valentines Day With Fiery Chocolate Fondue

Romancing The Chocolate: Celebrate Valentines Day With Fiery Chocolate Fondue: From Denny: Chocolate fondue is the favorite of Valentine's Day menus. This recipe is extra special with the addition of some Tabasco hot sauce to kick it up a notch - the romance, that is. :)

It's also a ridiculously easy recipe, with only a few ingredients, sure to be a crowd pleaser at a party - or just for two.

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Romancing The Chocolate: Cookies: Spiced Chocolate Macaroons

Romancing The Chocolate: Cookies: Spiced Chocolate Macaroons: From Denny: Do you like spice cookies but crave the addition of chocolate? This cinnamon and chocolate pairing also happens to improve as the cookie ages. What could be better than that? A stale cookie that tastes great! :)

The cookie also contains the background dark note from a hint of cloves like I like to use in my morning stovetop cooked oatmeal. There is nothing like the pairing of cinnamon and cloves to add richness to a dish whether sweet or savory.

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Romancing The Chocolate: Chef Recipe: Chocolate Tart with Caramel and Cream

Romancing The Chocolate: Chef Recipe: Chocolate Tart with Caramel and Cream: From Denny: Everyone who enjoys a chocolate tart every time they can, raise their hands. Yeah, I thought so - sisters of the soul. I sure order it from the La Madeleine restaurant or other local bakery whenever it shows up in the display case. It's like a little piece of heaven in one tiny spot - a rich little chocolate pudding, a dollop of cream and some pie crust, simply divine.

This is a New York chef recipe from the famous restaurant Aureole. Chef Christopher Lee uses Sicilian sea salt to enhance the sweet creamy richness of the indulgent chocolate dessert.

He also includes the unlikely addition of the chocolate malt Ovaltine to the bittersweet baking chocolate.

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Valentines Day: Warm Upside-Down Pear Cake With Tangerine Custard Sauce

From Denny:  For pear lovers - and lovers - this is an outstanding dessert good enough for any holiday!

Like any upside down cake this one is practically beginner cook and foolproof.  The custard requires a more experienced cook and a little time but is well worth the effort.

The cake is a simple one using all-purpose flour, unsalted butter, tangerine zest, a few tablespoons of milk and heavy cream, a couple of eggs, cognac and pecans.  Cream, cognac and pecans (all fav ingredients of mine) all play off each other for a wonderful flavor combination.

This tangy tangerine sauce is an unusual and clever pairing with the pears and hearty cake.  The sauce combines half and half cream, tangerine juice, tangerine zest, vanilla extract and sugar along with the egg yolks to make it rich and memorable.

Sold?  Yeah, me too!  If you can't find tangerines, try substituting oranges.

Tip:  In fact, every time I enjoy a fresh orange I go ahead and take the time to zest it, placing the zest in the freezer like a treasure mounting up over time.  Then, when I need some orange zest for any recipe I'm ready to go.

Comfort Food From Louisiana: Mardi Gras: New Orleans Zulu King Cake

Comfort Food From Louisiana: Mardi Gras: New Orleans Zulu King Cake: From Denny: When you experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans one of the first things you want to enjoy again is the famous King Cake.

Here in Baton Rouge our grocery stores and local bakeries offer literally dozens of varieties from chocolate eclair to cream cheese and blueberry. Those are two of my favorites. :)

The Zulu King Cake has coconut and chocolate chips. Cinnamon, sugar and cream cheese is another popular version.

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Romancing The Chocolate: Cookies: Chocolate Crackled

Image via Wikipedia

Romancing The Chocolate: Cookies: Chocolate Crackled: From Denny: These chocolate chunk cookies are delightfully decadent as they also include ancho chile pepper that provides some smokey heat. Cinnamon and extra vanilla extract balance the chile heat and intense semi-sweet chocolate.
A variation of this cookie is provided that enjoys using roasted ginger spice in place of the cinnamon.

Check out the interesting variations of your favorite chocolate chunk cookie!

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Romancing The Chocolate: Cookies: Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip

Romancing The Chocolate: Cookies: Vanilla Rich Chocolate Chip: From Denny: This is basically your standard chocolate chip recipe but with the difference of lots of extra vanilla extract to punch up the intensity. They should probably rename these cookies to Intense Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This recipe is from McCormick, the company we usually think of for spices. Turns out they have quite an extensive recipe collection!

These cookies use light brown sugar along with white sugar. We like dark brown sugar at our house and reduce the white sugar by half. But hey, we are living in Louisiana where we like the molasses taste of dark brown sugar.

We bake and cook a lot with the cane syrup produced here. Steen's cane syrup is a lot like black strap molasses in that it is an intense taste but much sweeter, just perfect for baking or making an awesome barbecue sauce. I find it a bit too strong to pour onto pancakes. Of course, my Cajun husband thinks it's awesome on pancakes and waffles. :)

Comfort Food From Louisiana: Mardi Gras: Muffuletta Sandwich

Comfort Food From Louisiana: Mardi Gras: Muffuletta Sandwich: From Denny: Do you love the New Orleans tradition of muffuletta sandwiches? They are popular throughout Louisiana, especially at carnival time. During the parades people are always looking for snacks that are easy to grab off a tray and run back into the crowd to catch those all important beads. :)

This recipe is for an appetizer version where you don't have to worry so much about the high calories, salt and preservatives since it is a smaller portion.

There is even a recipe to show you how to make your own olive salad which can be used for more than just this sandwich, like a dressing on a garden salad or as a spread on French bread. It was originally developed by the Sicilian immigrants that settled in New Orleans about 100 years ago.