Cajun Christmas Part 1- Gumbo

I grew up in a family that loves to cook, as you might have guessed based on previous family recipe posts. Christmas dinner has always my Dad's specialty. He usually pulls out all the stops: appetizer, soup, entree and dessert courses all with matched wines. Last year we moved to Wisconsin and had the stomach flu over Christmas so we postponed dinner and just went simple the following weekend. This year since a multi course meal takes a while, we decided Bubba would be more entertained in his own house with all his toys, so my family came up to Wisconsin. When we talked about a Christmas dinner theme this year we decided to go Cajun with an oyster trio that my Dad is famous for, gumbo, and a smoked ham served with cajun coleslow and hush puppies. I decided to do a three part series of our Cajun Christmas Dinner beginning with the gumbo.

Back when I worked in Chicago I always went to this awesome Cajun place called Heaven on Seven. Their gumbo is amazing! I used to buy a half gallon to-go and bring it home with me on the train whenever my husband had a cold (so much better than chicken noodle soup). One day I bought their cookbook so I could try to make the gumbo. I have had the book for years but have yet to attempt it. It is a little intimidating looking at the ingredients list alone. There is a bit of prep work involved including making a signature Cajun spice, roasted garlic puree, chicken stock, and a dark roux. All of these can be done the day before and if you break the recipe down the gumbo is not quite as time consuming and totally worth it.

Gumbo:

2 lbs chicken breast cut into 3/4 inch cubes,
tossed with 4 teaspoons Angel Dust Seasoning

1/2 teaspoon Angel Dust Cajun Seasoning

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 lb andouille sausage cut into 1/4 inch slices

1 cup diced yellow onion

3/4 cup thinly sliced green onion

1/2 cup red onion

2 cups seeded, diced green bell pepper

1 1/2 cups diced celery

1 tablespoon seeded, minced jalapeno

1 tablespoon Roasted Garlic Puree

1/2 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 bay leaf

6 1/3 cups Chicken Stock

1 cup Dark Roux

White Rice

I started with the garlic puree in my prep work.

Roasted Garlic Puree:

8 cloves of garlic

enough olive oil to cover the cloves

Cover with tin foil and bake at 300 for about an hour

Puree with a little of the olive oil

Place in a covered container and refrigerate

Then I made the chicken stock. Kind of a cheater chicken stock because I was supposed to use chicken bones instead of bullion cubes, but I didn't have any chicken bones. Turns out it tastes pretty much the same.

Chicken stock:

9 cups water

7 chicken bullion cubes

1 cup carrots

1 cup celery

1/2 cup onion

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon parsley

1  bay leaf

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Simmer all of the ingredients in a covered pot for 3 hours

Let cool then strain all the vegetables out

Cover and store in the fridge

Next the Cajun Seasoning.

Angel Dust Cajun Seasoning:

3 tablespoons Hungarian Paprika

1 1/2 tablespoons Spanish Paprika (I used smoked)

5 teaspoons salt

1 1/4 teaspoons thyme leaves

1  1/4 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon onion powder

And last of all the hardest part. The dark roux.

Dark Roux:

1 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Heat oil over high heat, about 3 minutes.

Carefully whisk in a little flour at a time until incorporated.
(Watch out the oil spits a little and is HOT! I got two nasty oil burns the size of a pin point)

Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 22 to 25 minutes,
until the roux is dark brown.

Ivor decided to help me make the roux.
By biting my feet at the point where I could not leave the stove.

Carefully pour into a heat proof bowl and cool for 45 minutes.
Drain off and oil that separates from the roux. Store in a covered container in the fridge.

Once I spent the day before making all of the special recipes and pre chopped my veggies the actual assembly of the gumbo itself was fairly quick.

Here are all of my ingredients ready to go in the gumbo pot: 

First heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium high heat then add the andouille sausage 

and saute 6 minutes and stirring occasionally.

Then add the cajun spice covered chicken and cook anther 4 minutes.

Then the onions for 2 minutes

And the peppers, celery, and roasted garlic puree, then cook another 2 minutes

Add the remaining spices, cook 2 more minutes

Then add the chicken stock and bring to a boil

Whisk in the roux, a little at a time, then stir continuously for 5 minutes.

Turn down the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour.

Remove the bay leaf and at this point it is ready to serve with white rice,

But my gumbo was cooled and added to the crock pot to wait for

Christmas morning.

Where it sat happily letting all the flavors blend all day.

It was fabulous! Just like the original Heaven on Seven's. If you happen to be in Chicago, go and try the gumbo in person and the rest of the food on the menu is also amazing as well! Now having made their wonderful gumbo I can fully appreciate all of the hard work they put into perfecting it.

Baked Chicken Ravioli Bites with Homemade Red Pepper Sauce

I have been on a wonton wrapper kick lately. After discovering I could make other things besides wontons  I started buying a package a week and experimenting. I really like baked ravioli, but ravioli dough is just so time consuming, and I don't have a pasta machine to flatten the dough properly. It turns out wonton wrappers work great for baked ravioli too.

Red pepper sauce:

1/4 onion

3 cloves garlic

1 cup bell pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon tomato paste

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon of each: parsley, basil, oregano

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup white wine

Chicken filling:

1 chicken breast

1/8 onion

2 cloves garlic

8 mushrooms

2 tablespoons parmesean cheese

1 teaspoon of parsley, basil, and oregano

1/4 cup white wine

20 wonton wrappers

I first put 1 chicken breast in the oven heated to 325 for 2 hours in a covered casserole dish with 1/2 cup of water. While the chicken cooked I sauteed the onions and garlic in some olive oil then added 1/4 cup of white wine, 1/2 cup of water 1 teaspoon of tomato paste and 1 teaspoon of each: parsley, basil and oregano. I let it simmer for an hour then let it cool.

Once cool I added it to the food processor then blended til smooth

Once the chicken was finished I chopped onion, garlic, and mushrooms in the food processor, then put them in a saute pan

Then I minced up the chicken and added it to the pan

Then I added the spices and the white wine and let it cook down for a couple of minutes

The set it aside to cool

I put a spoonful of the mixture into the wonton wrapper 

Fold it over then seal with water

When I'm ready to cook I brush each wonton with vegetable oil and bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until golden brown flipping part way through.

Serve with the red pepper dipping sauce in the middle and a sprinkle of parmesean cheese.

Big Boy Bed

I had a plan how I was going to do this.
I was going to wait til a Friday, take the side off the crib after nap and let Bubba hang out in the room on and off during the day so he would be used to the new status of his bed and then we would have all weekend to practice so that Bubba might not get in and out of bed all night on a week day when my husband had to get up early the next morning. This is how it ended up happening.

One Monday morning Ivor hopped into Bubba's crib while we were reading books in his room. Bubba promptly got up and pulled himself into the crib with Ivor, then climbed back out. Then in and out another time. Oh crap.

We decided since Bubba has become such a good sleeper lately we'd try to put him down for nap like usual then take the side off before bedtime. We even let him help remove the rail.

                            

This was the scene in Bubba's room an hour before bedtime
(BTW, he is yelling "I Free!" at the end of the clip.):

 Not feeling very optimistic we headed back to his room. Much to my surprise Bubba climbed in bed and actually stayed in it, but when I went to leave he cried "Hugs!" So I went back hugged him, tucked him in and tried again. "Sad." he called so I returned and lay next to his bed. As it turns out the new freedom was a bit overwhelming to my Bubs.  As I lay on my son's floor again, I thought of a poem from my childhood:

"...Belinda was brave as a barrel full of bears,

And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,

Mustard was brave as a tiger in a rage,

But Custard cried for a nice safe cage..."

After an hour and a half total, he was out. I crept out of his room and went to bed in case the worst happened. At midnight I awoke to Bubba crying. He was sitting on the floor in a pile of blankets, I think he rolled out of bed. I tucked him back in and he drifted off. The rest of the night was uneventful but at five in the morning he awoke and I grabbed a pillow and blanket and took my position.

Nap time then next day went much smoother. We sat by his bed and read three books. He lay down and so did I. He held my hand and drifted off. Victory in fifteen minutes!
If recent history is applied Bubba may have a rocky start but will end up sleeping like a champ. Before now he would walk down to his room by himself, when I announced it was bedtime, hop in the chair to read a story, then sigh as I tucked him into bed calling "Night Night, Mommy!" as I'd leave and he'd sleep til morning.

At the one hour mark on the second night as Bubba talked about various "itchy fingers" and made shadow puppets on the wall I decided that Custard had found his courage. I said "Night Night Bubba. Love you." as I tucked him in and left the room. And waited.

Not a peep. He just rolled over and when to sleep, and stayed that way all night.

Cinnamon Dough Ornaments

I have been making cinnamon dough ornaments since I was a kid. At my mom's house there are some cinnamon ornaments that are probably thirty years old. And they still smell cinnamony.

The recipe is simple. One four ounce bottle of cinnamon and 3/4 cup of apple sauce. Stir it up til it becomes a dough. 

Then you can roll out the dough and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. 

We don't really have Christmas cookie cutters, only random animals. 

So we ended up with a couple of interesting ornaments.

I like the flamingo and the crab the best

Set them out on a cookie sheet with wax paper, flipping them over every so often. They will take 1 to 2 days to dry out this way or you could put them in the oven on 200 for a couple hours.

I was going to just let them dry out but I decided I needed my cookie sheets to make toffee, so I baked them to speed up the process.

I strung them with twine to hang them up. They smell incredible! (And look pretty cute too)

Chicken Enchilada Wontons

On a whim I bought won ton wrappers without any real plan of what I wanted to do with them. After they sat in the fridge a couple of days I came up with an idea.

3 small chicken breasts (cooked in crock pot or covered dish in water)

3 slices cheddar cheese (cut in 1/8 pieces)

1 can enchilada sauce (3/4 in chicken, rest as sauce)

1/4 yellow onion

wonton wrappers

First I cooked 3 small chicken breasts in the crock pot in 1 cup of water for about 5 hours.

Then I minced it in my mini chopper with onion.

I added 3/4 of a can of enchilada sauce and mixed it up.

I place 1/8 picece of cheddar sliced cheese in a wonton wrapper.

Topped it with about 1 tablespoon of the chicken mixture

Folded it in half and sealed the seems with water.

I placed them on a pan covered in wax paper til I was ready to cook.

I brushed them with vegtable oil and baked them in the oven at 350 til golden brown, about 20 minutes.

I served them with refried beans topped with a sour cream and enchilada sauce mixture.

Bratloaf

I like to make unusual meatloafs. Usually I like to have some sort of elaborate topping. For some reason I got it in my head that I needed to try to make a brat loaf. My first attempt involved 1/2 package of ground turkey and two normal brat sausages, then I topped it with sliced potatoes. It was pretty good, but not bratty enough. 

After some brainstorming, it was decided that the potatoes should be on the bottom and there should be a different topping. Something to give it the authentic brat experience: Sauerkraut and apples. Here's what you'll need:

1/2 package of ground turkey
5 turkey brats, removed from their casing
1/4 yellow onion, minced
1 tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon coarse ground brown mustard
1 egg
4 slices of bread, toasted and then soaked in 1/3 cup beer
2 potatoes

Sauerkraut topping:
1/2 package of sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
1 granny smith apple, diced
1/8 onion, minced
1/4 cup of apple sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Mix together all of the ingredients except bread and potatoes

Slice the potatoes thin, and layer them in an oiled pan

Shred the bread and mix in the beer

Combine with the meat mixture 

Then spread it in the potato layered pan. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes.

 Drain off any grease and top with the sauerkraut topping.

Then turn up the heat to 350 for 20 minutes

Add 2 tablespoons brown sugar and turn up the heat to 375 and bake for 10 more minutes.

We served it with green beans sauteed with onions, mushrooms, and bacon.
Delicious!