New Orleans: A Dream Come True

Have you ever been drawn to a place and then fallen head over heels with it once you finally made it there? New Orleans was like that for me. A huge romantic, for me this city seemed to have everything that could be desired in a place: gorgeous architecture, stellar music, Southern hospitality but big-city sophistication, a fascinating history and of course, amazing food.

I headed off to explore Nawlins last week with a friend. Let's start with the food, shall we?

Favorite Appetizer: This is an Alligator Sausage and Shrimp Cheesecake from Jacque-Imo's. It's a savory cross between a cheesecake and a quiche, smothered in a creamy sauce. To die for!

Favorite Dinner: Crawfish Ettoufee, from the same place. Served alongside Cornbread, red beans and rice and corn maque choux, this was a genuine Creole experience - and soooo good!

Best Touristy Place to start your day: Cafe du Monde for some beignets topped with powdered sugar. With a tiny "large" glass of freshly squeeze orange juice, it was a wonderful (if overpriced) was to start exploring the French Quarter.

Dessert of choice in these parts: Pralines! Don't even bother looking for chocolate, cause this is Praline territory.

Biggest sandwich I have ever eaten: Muffaletta from Central Grocery. I didn't realize that "whole" meant it was served on a whole loaf of bread! We didn't finish this baby, but made a homeless guy's night.

Best "I'm in the South!" breakfast: Elizabeth's, where we ate praline bacon (I know!), fried green tomatoes, poached eggs, potatoes, and a biscuit. Swoon!

Best "I am way too underdressed to be here" lunch: Emeril's Restaurant. Despite our tennis shoes and shorts in a sea of suits, they didn't turn us away for lunch, so we got to enjoy this combination of Fried Organic Chicken, Sweet Corn-Belgian Waffle, Watermelon Slaw and Crystal Hot Sauce Syrup.

Best dessert: Emeril's Banana Cream Pie. Jacques Pepin named it "the best thing I ever ate in New Orleans", and the man has got a point there. It is one mean pie.

Best "late night dessert to eat when you're hanging out on Frenchmen Street and have a hankering for something sweet": Bread pudding in praline sauce from The Praline Connection.

Best "Dessert for Breakfast" dish: Bananas Foster French Toast from Surrey's. My stomach almost exploded by this time, but my friend finished hers. I am in awe!

Besides the food, how about some gorgeous shots of New Orleans?

Jackson Square

The French Quarter - so picturesque!

This is where we stayed: A typical house in the Bywater, with shutters, white pillars and palms.

St. Louis Cemetery #1: The first cemetery where they decided to built above-ground vaults. Before that, the bodies they buried on the river bank floated up when the city flooded. Imagine corpses floating down your street and you can see the wisdom of these vaults.

Public Art paying tribute to jazz

This mansion in the Garden District used to belong to Anne Rice. It's easy to see how the city inspired her aesthetic.

Houmas House, a real plantation. We ate lunch on green velvet chairs, strolled the gardens, 

had the best tour guide ever (a la Scarlet O'Hara) and stood under 500 year old oak trees 

draped in grey moss. 

If you ever get the chance, go to New Orleans. Filled with an indescribable positive energy, I can't imagine anyone not falling in love with it.

The Porch

2012. This year, we set some goals that may not be conducive to maintaining a blog, but hopefully can improve our overall quality of life. One of those goals is to limit our eating out to twice a month. For us, that's not an easy order to fill, but we don't count gift cards or meals that other treat us to (whew), so that might be the saving grace as we transition into cutting back.

Another idea I've been pondering is to live more fully in reality than in virtual reality. To play with my dog daily, write daily, knit, create something tangible whenever possible. I may not blog as much, but when I do, it will be to share something really special.

I am starting with The Porch. When my husband and I traveled to Portland (OR), we fell in love with Screen Door, an upscale Southern food mecca. When I heard that a similar restaurant was opening up in Sacramento, I knew that this would be our first meal out of the 2012, and it turned out to be a great decision.

When we first arrived at the restaurant, I immediately loved the old-fashioned sensibility of the damask curtains, refurnished antique mirrors and porch light on the facade.


From beginning to end, our food was to die for. It started with a Muffalatta spread and crostini toasts, compliments of the chef - not too salty despite the presence of capers and green olives. I actually considered spooning this tasty stuff into my mouth once the toasts were gone, but withheld in anticipation of the good things to come.

The Porch Salad had perfectly cooked, sweet, tiny beets, plus nuts, apples, and a light creamy dressing. Then came the entrees, which were anything but light - buttermilk fried chicken, biscuits, velvety mashed potatoes with chunky sausage gravy, tangy collard greens with vinegar.


My Shrimp Po Boy was a dreamy sandwich filled with bacon, avocado, crab mayonnaise, lettuce, and cornmeal-breaded shrimp. My mouth waters just remembering it! This is the best sandwich of the year for 2012 so far, and it will be hard to beat! (Last year's choice: Cuban Pork sandwich from Seattle's Paseo.)


For dessert, we had the Black Bottom Creme Brulee - the "black bottom" refers to a layer of chocolate ganache on the bottom, a welcome surprise to our mouths. Loved the blueberry sauce served with it - a great compliment to the dish.

Bottom Line: I'm recommending this place to our friends. It's a splurge for dinner, but I will be coming here for lunch as fast as I can afford it again!

Michael Scott's Colored Greens

Michael: Colored greens.
Stanley: Collard.
Michael: What?
Stanley: They're called "collard" greens.
Michael: No, no. That's offensive. They're not called "collard" people.
- "The Office"

Think you don't like collard greens? This recipe might help you change your mind. I have had collard greens at many Southern restaurants. Sometimes they were bitter and distasteful to me; other times, so spicy that taking a bite lit my mouth on fire. I like to challenge myself every now and then, so when I found collard greens at my local farm stand, I bought a bunch with the goal of coaxing my green-disliking husband enjoy them.

Here is a recipe I adapted from the classic standard The Joy of Cooking, which can also be made with mustard greens. Here, the bitterness is balanced with a little sugar and vinegar, and there is just a slight heat from red pepper flakes. Try it next time you make fried chicken or BBQ - excellent with cornbread.

Collard Greens with Bacon

Wash thoroughly and chop into 1-inch pieces:
2.5 lbs. collard greens

In a large cast iron pan, cook until crisp:
6 slices bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces

Add the greens along with:
2/3 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 c. diced leftover ham (optional)
Red pepper flakes, as desired.

Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the greens are coated with fat. Cover the greens with chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Cover the pot, reduce the heat, and simmer gently until the greens are tender, 1 hour or longer. Stir occasionally and add water if they threaten to scorch. When the greens are done, increases the heat to medium-high and, stirring often, boil off nearly all the cooking liquid. Add:
1 or 2 dashes of cider vinegar

Season with:
Salt/freshly ground pepper
Sugar to taste.
Serve very hot.

Southern Biscuits, Alton Brown-style

Because the picture I posted last time made my mouth water, and because I had lots of strawberry jam and wanted to give it away to some friends with something of the baked variety, I made biscuits tonight. I found the most fantastic recipe by Alton Brown, one of my favorite Food Network celebrities. Watching Alton cook is like observing what might occur if Bill Nye the Science Guy took to experimenting in the kitchen. I love the way he uses food science to create perfectionist alpha recipes, explaining the history and culture behind each targeting dish as he goes.

These biscuits tastes exactly as a biscuit should taste, and the texture is divine- crunchy on the outside, light and fluffy inside. Paired with jam or honey, they are to die for. Note: If you use the 2-inch biscuit cutter that he suggests, you will end up with closer to 2 dozen mini-biscuits. At least I did. For medium size, try 2.5"; for large size, try 3".

With no further ado, I give you.... Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits.

2 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons shortening

1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.