Boudin, Bourbon & Beer Benefitting the Emeril Lagasse Foundation: Whisk(e)y Wednesday presented by Lock & Key

by Sydney Blanchard

Boudin, Bourbon & Beer! Photo courtesy of boudinbourbonandbeer.com.

Boudin, bourbon, and beer? Yes, yes, and yes! 

If you're a fan of any of the aforementioned vices, or even if just love a music festival, this year's Boudin, Bourbon & Beer benefitting the Emeril Lagasse Foundation is going to be your jam.

On November 13, 50 chefs from across the country, including Cory Bahr, Jeff Henderson, Justin Devillier, Kristen Essig, John Currence, and Chris Shepherd, will join Emeril Lagasse in New Orleans for a Louisiana-inspired boudin cook-off.

Along with Abita Beer surprise brews, specialty Buffalo Trace cocktails, and cigar tastings will be fun live music performances by Silverado Pickups, Sweet Crude, Elle King, and St. Paul and the Broken Bones. 

Tickets are $99, which includes all food, beverages, and live entertainment. All proceeds benefit children's charities. It's going to be a good time!

Eleven Amazing Happenings of 2011

While I'm not one to follow the trends all the time, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the past while looking forward to the future.  I know "top 11 of 2011" lists and "12 things to look forward to in 2012" lists are all over the place right now, but this ain't my first rodeo.  Last year I came up with a top 10 list of items that I ate, drank, or blogged about during 2010.  Then I followed that up with 11 things I wanted to eat and drink more of in 2011.  Some of them I succeed, some proved to be impossible, and some I just didn't really do.  This year I decided to change it up a bit.  I tried to recall the top eleven memories or amazing things that happened to me over the past calendar year.  Somewhat in order of importance, though certainly not by scientific or well thought out criteria, here is my list that counts down from eleven:

11.  Victory at the Frankie's Dawg House 4th of July Hotdog Eating Contest

Winner, winner, hot dog dinner!

10.  KingCakeBR

Visit Baton Rouge, the Baton Rouge Social Media Association, and TommysTV collaborate with me on this project and it turned out to be a huge success!

9.  Emeril's Blogger Party and the start of Virtual Potluck

Calandro's Supermarket helped me out with a lot of the ingredients and I successfully cooked 9 recipes from Emeril's new book over a three week period this past Fall.  It also introduced me to the other bloggers who were selected that have now formed the Virtual Potluck!

8.  Viking Cooking School Outdoors

Photo taken on film, courtesy of Frank McMains

I got to help open the first ever Viking Cooking School Outdoors at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center.  It was a fun and challenging month watching the school go through construction, dealing with logistics and equipment orders, all the way to the helping teach the opening class!

7.  Meanwhile, Back at Cafe du Monde...

I had the pleasure of being a headliner and filming a segment for the TV pilot in 2010.  In 2011 I got to serve as a red carpet host and emcee for a couple shows and have submitted an entry for the coffee table book.  I'm so proud to be a part of what Peggy has built from this food monologue show!

6.  Eat St. on the Cooking Channel

Eat St. came to Baton Rouge to film three episodes for the Cooking Channel (and the Food Network in Canada) and I got give an interview for the show about Taco de Paco!

5.  Raise a Glass

"Raise a Glass" is a weekly radio show about the history, traditions, culture, production, and consumption of alcoholic beverages.  I host it with my brother Eric Ducote from BR Beer Scene.  The show airs on Fridays at 6 pm and replays Sundays at 4 pm on 96.9 FM WHYR Baton Rouge Community Radio.


4.  LSU Press Bite and Booze Cookbook Contract

Although it won't come out until 2013, signing my contract for the "Bite and Booze Cookbook" is certainly worthy of being on this list.  Now all I have to do is write it and wait!

3.  Forty Under 40

I had the extreme honor of being recognized as one of the Baton Rouge Business Report's Top Forty Under 40 recipients for 2011.  My mom and dad joined me for the awards banquet, which was also quite an honor!

2.  The Bite and Booze Radio Show

The Bite and Booze Radio Show on Talk 107.3 FM started in April 2011 and has been a consistent fixture in Baton Rouge's Saturday talk radio lineup ever since.  I actually just signed a contract for all of 2012 as well, so the Bite and Booze Radio Show is here to stay!  Get ready for more interviews with local chefs and some great food and drink talk radio!

1.  MasterChef

The audition process started in 2010, but I actually spent 10 days in Los Angeles in February of 2011 filming the first four episodes of MasterChef on Fox.  I didn't get a whole lot of air time out of it, but national television exposure is better than none!

Here's to an even better 2012!!!

Emeril's Stir-Fried Squid with Chili Sauce

My final recipe from Emeril Lagasse's new cookbook Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders is probably the quickest recipe to make from the entire book.  That's not why I chose it though.  While I've eaten calamari and squid salads at many restaurants before, I hadn't ever actually worked with raw squid.  That needed to change.  Emeril's recipe for stir-fried squid with chili sauce seemed intriguing so I decided to see what I could do.  I found everything I needed, including the frozen squid bodies with tentacles, at Calandro's Supermarket.  Once I got home, the time was right to cook something spicy!

The recipe had three main components.  First, the squid itself had to be sliced into rings, dusted with crushed red pepper and then stir-fried.  Second, the chili sauce had to be made with the vinegar, sesame oil, brown sugar, salt, Sriracha chili sauce and ginger.  The final component included the cabbage, green onion, garlic, jalapenos and chilies.

After all of the prep had been taken care I got the squid in my pan (a wok would have been preferable) to give it a quick fry.  It didn't take long in the canola oil to cook it off, then I set it aside to focus on the rest.  I quickly put the cabbage and accompaniments into the same pan to stir-fry them until soft.  Once the cabbage started to wilt I added the chili sauce and then returned the squid to the wok as well.

The stir fry had a great flavor and I was impressed at what I had been able to accomplish in just about 15 minutes of total time.  The spice ended up being rather intense but not too much for my palate.  The squid had an excellent texture.  I knew the most important part would be to cook it just right to where it wasn't overly chewy.

I really enjoyed my blogging party time with Emeril's new cookbook.  Having made nine of the recipes from the book, I'd definitely recommend it to anybody who is looking for some creative ideas for dishes to make in your own kitchen.  I certainly got to step out of my comfort zone with a few of these dishes and I encourage any chef, foodie, or fan to do the same!

Seared Scallops a la Emeril Lagasse

Scallops are one of those foods that seems to be over-glamorized by food based television shows... particularly those with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.  However, while they may mess a lot of people up on Hell's Kitchen, I knew that they really weren't that difficult.  The key to a properly seared scallop is the right amount of oil a very hot skillet.  After that, I suppose it's all about timing.  Emeril's recipe pairs the seared scallops with an interesting combination of cabbage, fingerling potatoes, apples, and golden raisins.  Bizarre... but it ended up being quite tasty!

I picked up my ingredients for the recipe at Calandro's Supermarket.  There were a few steps involved such as boiling the potatoes with thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns; soaking the raisins in apple cider; toasting some pine nuts to draw out some flavor; and searing the scallops to a beautiful golden brown in grape seed oil.  After that, I cooked down the cabbage in oil, wine, and Emeril's chicken stock.  Soon the raisins were added along with the apple and some more thyme.

The final plating involved arranging the scallops over a bed of the cabbage, potato, apple and raisin mixture. Since I used some purple and green cabbage the dish really popped with color.  The toasted pine nuts were used as a garnish along with some fresh thyme just to add a little greenery.

The "Seared Scallops with Savoy Cabbage, Fingerling Potatoes, Pink Ladies, and Sultanas" from Emeril's new book Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders ended up being one of the most interesting recipes I've ever cooked.  It seemed odd yet somehow really worked.  I was amazed at how well the flavors and textures worked together.  Plus, this truly ended up being and extremely healthy meal.  While I'm not known for such things, it is always good to get such great depth of flavor in a dish that at least isn't terrible for you!  Oh, and the scallops were amazing.  Apparently I can sear scallops fairly well.  Kosher salt, fresh ground white pepper and grape seed oil.  That's it.  Bon Apetit.

Emeril says I'm a Big Boy

Big Boy Spaghetti and Meatballs caught my eye the moment I opened Emeril Lagasse's new cookbook Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders.  Knowing that I'd be blogging about at least nine of the recipes as part of the promotion, I had a good feeling that the meatballs would eventually make their way onto Bite and Booze.  Hey, there was red wine in the sauce after all!  After securing the ingredients I needed from Calandro's Supermarket I took to my kitchen to make some meatballs.

The balls themselves included ground beef, Italian sausage, parsley, Parmesan, garlic, salt, pepper and some buttermilk-soaked bread.  After mixing all the ingredients together I formed them into balls and stuck it in the refrigerator to help them take shape.  From there it was straight to a hot skillet with olive oil to brown off the meatballs followed by building the flavors in the sauce.

The sauce came out highly acidic but Emeril had a cure for that.  In his recipe he notes that if the sauce is too acidic you should add some evaporated milk.  I ended up adding about half a can, not two tablespoons, but it certainly did the trick.  The sauce worked out pretty well and meatballs were definitely enjoyable.  I could definitely see doing some different takes on this recipe in the future!

Emeril's Chorizo and Potato Quesadillas with Cilantro-Chile Crema

Excited to change up the style of one-pot wonders from Emeril's new cookbook, I turned the page to a recipe that caught my eye: chorizo and potato quesadillas with cilantro-chile crema.  The recipe seemed simple, straight forward, and delicious, so I knew I ought to give it a try!

Step one, like always, started with a trip with Calandro's Supermarket at the corner of Perkins and Seigen in Baton Rouge.  I found everything that I needed and more... except one thing: chorizo.  Calandro's had some smoked chorizo but I needed the fresh stuff to take out of its casing (or never put it in one).  

Fortunately I remembered the leisure class I took on sausage making at the Louisiana Culinary Institute.  Chef Dave Tiner provided us with a homemade chorizo recipe.  I picked up some smoked paprika and got the butcher to grind some pork for me.  I knew I'd have the rest of the ingredients at my house already.  I put some white wine, salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, oregano, granulated garlic, sugar and cayenne in a mixing bowl.  After whisking it all together I added a pound of ground pork and mixed all of the seasonings into it.  Boom!  Chorizo!

After I let the ground pork marinate in the chorizo seasonings for a little while I put it in a skillet to brown it off.  Once sufficiently cooked I added the red onions and then some diced fingerling potatoes that I had previously parboiled.  The mixture needed a little extra salt and pepper, but other than that is tasted sensational.

I also made a cilantro-chile crema to go with the quesadillas.  Emeril called it the "icing on this cake," it it wasn't hard to see why.  In a food processor I combined sour cream, cilantro, a minced jalapeno, three garlic cloves, some green onions, a little cayenne and a little salt.  After blending for a few minutes, I had a delicious spicy yet refreshing crema!

Once the crema took its place on the assembly line I turned my attention to the quesadillas.  I melted a little butter in a skillet and laid a tortilla down on it.  I then loaded one side with the chorizo-red onion-potato mixture followed by some chopped red bell pepper and a generous portion of cheese.  Once the tortilla did its job toasting in the butter, I folded it over into the melty cheese.

The end result, especially when drizzled with the cilantro-chile crema, turned out to be fairly spectacular.  The quesadillas provided a great balance of spicy and savory with a combination of textures from creamy to crunchy.  All in all, this recipe was most definitely a success!

Emeril's One-Pot Wonder: Chicken and Dumplings

In an effort to get back on track after my not-so-successful Tuscan white bean soup, I decided to tackle some American comfort food once again with a Southern staple: Chicken and Dumplings.  I had never previously made dumplings although it turned out to be pretty similar to biscuits in the whole scheme of things (at least the dough making part).  As for the chicken, well, it was pretty standard... and very delicious.

After getting all of my ingredients from Calandro's Supermarket in place I began to get the stock going.  I submerged the chicken quarters in chicken stock (I've got to start making my own!) and water and added aromatics such as onion, celery, carrot, peppercorns, thyme, and parsley.

Once the stock came to a rolling boil I lowered it to simmer and turned my attention to the dumplings.  Some flour, salt, baking powder and chopped herbs were mixed together with vegetable shortening and then even more so with whole milk.  After that I kneaded the dough and cut it into thirds.

From there the dumplings had to be rolled out fairly thin and then sliced.  I'm sure this could have been done in a pasta machine almost as easily but I did it with an old-fashioned rolling pin.  Once I got the dough flattened out I cut into squares and rectangles and then moved them to the refrigerator until it was time to drop them in the boiling broth.

The stock had to go through a straining process.  The chicken was also removed.  Fat, skin and bones were discarded and then I waited to drop it back in.  I got a fresh batch of carrots, onion and celery ready to go before adding my strained stock back to the pot.  Once that got to a boil I added my dumplings.  A little later I added the chicken back along with the peas and then left everything to simmer for a little while.

My dumplings finished really nicely, plumping up into a chewy flavorful pillow of dough.  The chicken came out beyond fork tender and full of flavor.  I added a little heat to mine because I like food a little on the spicy side, but other than this recipe was right on the money.  I think I've cooked about all the stocks and soups and such that I can handle for now though.  The next recipes I make from Emeril Lagasse's Sizzing Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders will be a little different!

Oh, and see that serving dish featured above?  Stay tuned to an upcoming blog post because you're going to get a chance to win a set of them!

Emeril's Blogger Party: Tuscan White Bean Soup

While participating in Emeril's blogger party by joining 20 other bloggers from around the world in cooking recipes from Emeril's new book "Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonder," I made a commitment to myself to step out of my comfort zone with a few of the recipes.  While I've made plenty of recipes where I've had to soak beans over night (red beans and rice, for example), I had never experimented with Tuscan style white bean dish that was also (outside the chicken stock I guess) vegetarian.  That's a whole realm of cuisine that is truly outside my comfort zone, so I thought I'd give it a try.

My white beans plumped up after soaking them over night

After a trip to Calandro's and another stop at Southside Produce, I still was unable to find any broccoli rabe which the recipe calls for.  Broccoli rabe is actually a green, not broccoli at all, but since I couldn't find it, I made an executive decision to just try regular old broccoli instead.  I wasn't impressed.  I should have done a little research to find something more similar, but oh well!  For the beans I used half baby lima beans and half cannellini beans.  That combination worked a little more to my favor.

Ingredients for my Tuscan White Bean Soup other than the beans!

All of the fresh and wonderful vegetable and herb flavors were there in the soup but I couldn't help but think there was something missing.  It needed some bacon fat or a ham hock or something to the next level.  This is the first of Emeril's recipes that I've cooked that I haven't been completely inspired by.  I know it may have had a lot to do with not being able to find the broccoli rabe, but I still just was not impressed by the soup.  That's okay though.  I still have a book to give away and more recipes to cook!

Finished Tuscan White Bean Soup with Broccoli

 Now, about that extra book copy that I have!

For participating in the blogger party I received a free copy of the book and also a copy to give away to a loyal Bite and Booze reader.  To win?  Make sure you follow Bite and Booze on Twitter or like my page on Facebook and leave a comment on this blog post telling me what you think about Emeril.  I'll take entries until September 27th and then I'll inform the winner about their new book that will be arriving!

Emeril's Blogger Party: Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto

Having been on a Gordon Ramsay reality show, I found it a little absurd that I had never actually been in charge of cooking a risotto before this dish.  Sure I had seen them done before on TV and even in person, but I had never actually be responsible for ladling the broth into the rice with precision.  When I saw the Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto recipe in Emeril Lagasse's new book Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders, I got excited about giving it a try!

I set my sights on a creamy rice with deliciously seasoned Gulf shrimp in hopes that this would be a meal to remember.  Like all the recipes for Emeril's Blogger Party, this one again started with a trip my locally owned Calandro's Supermarket to stock up on fresh produce, Gulf shrimp, specialty ingredients, and even some wine.

The first step after the mise en place was to peel and devein the shrimp.  After that I retained the peels to make a shrimp stock.  The peels were cooked off in a little olive oil and then I added water, onions, carrots, parsley, celery, salt and whole peppercorns.  Once the stock came together I strained it and then put it back in a pot to keep warm.  A flavorful stock is the key to a wonderful risotto as all of that flavor will transfer into the rice!

The shrimp were seasoned with Emeril's Original Essence and a little extra salt then sauteed in butter and reserved for later.  

I started the rice in the pot after I cooked down some shallots and garlic in a little butter.  I let the rice toast for a bit before pouring in some wine.  The rice soaked up the wine quickly and then I began to ladle in stock a cup at a time and allowing it to absorb before adding in more.  

Towards the end I added in some finely chopped basil, thyme and chives as well as some lemon zest and juice.  The rice had a wonderful nearly creamy texture and an amazing flavor from all the layers of deliciousness that were added throughout the process.

Once the rice was ready I added in the blanched asparagus and shrimp and let everything cook a little more until the shrimp and asparagus were brought up to temperature.  To serve I added a generous portion of freshly grated Parmesan cheese over the top.  The end result looked stunning and tasted even better.  I'd have to say that I am pretty proud of my first ever risotto!

Stay tuned to Bite and Booze because on my next post I'll giving you a recipe for a Tuscan White Bean Soup and a chance to win one of Emeril's new cookbooks: Sizzling Skillets and other One-Pot Wonders!

Emeril's Blogger Party: Red Wine and Port Braised Short Ribs

For my second recipe based on Emeril's Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders (my first posted featured deep dish pizza!), I decided to make a perfect recipe for the Bite and Booze side of me: Red Wine and Port Braised Short Ribs.  Braising is a classic French technique that usually takes a cheaper and not-so-tender cut of meat and simmers it at a reasonably low temperature for a long time until a lot of the fat and connective tissue has broken down, leaving you with fork-tender protein.  One of the keys of braising is definitely to have a a flavorful liquid that will impart layers and depth of tastes as you cook.  For this recipe I once again started at Calandro's Supermarket where I stocked up on supplies including shallots, turnips, herbs and, of course, Port!

The next step to cooking this kind of meal is to take care of the mise en place.  The French culinary term literally means "everything in place".  Basically it means you get all of the ingredients out and prepared before you start cooking.  For me, that meant to peel and chop the carrots, shallots and turnips, measure out some flour, garlic and black peppercorns, and be ready to rock.  Since the recipe called for beef stock and I didn't have any homemade stock on hand, I picked up some of Emeril's beef stock at Calandro's.  I figured that's probably what he would have wanted!

After seasoning the beef short ribs with salt and pepper and then browning them in a cast iron pot with some olive oil, the next step involved flavoring my braising liquid.  I cooked down the vegetables with a little more olive oil until they started to caramelize and then I added the flour.  After letting it toast and begin to stick to the bottom, I deglazed the pot with red wine and let that cook down a little more.  I soon added the thyme, bay leaves, parsley and whole peppercorns followed by the Port and beef stock.  After coming up to a boil, I had a very flavorful braising liquid that I knew would work extremely well with the short ribs.

Once the liquid got to that rolling boil I removed it from the stove and add the the short ribs back to the pot. I got them all as submerged as possible and then transferred everything to the oven where I let it sit for about 2 and a half more hours.  I opened it up once to mix the ribs around and then removed the lid for the final time.  The fragrance from the pot filled the entire house and I knew that this would be an amazing meal.  However, the work hadn't quite finished there.  I first needed to strain the liquid to remove the herb stems and bay leaves.  I separated the vegetables and beef as well in order to get a gravy left in the pot.  After letting it simmer for a little while longer, the remaining liquid coated the back of a spoon and I returned the beef and veggies to the pot one more time so they could soak up more flavor and come back up to temperature.  I also used that time to make a batch of yellow corn grits to serve the ribs over!

The final product: an extremely tender and flavor-packed beef short rib served over yellow corn grits with carrots and turnips.  I couldn't be happier!

For doing these blog posts from Emeril's new book I received a free advance copy.  It is available in stores in late September.  I'll also be giving away a copy of the book in an upcoming blog post, so stay tuned to see if you can win one!  Also of note, this recipe actually called for parsnips instead of carrots but I couldn't find any.  Carrots worked very well though!