Maque choux - a Louisiana dish

After a long period of hurried slamming together whatever ingredients happened to be available in my kitchen, I had a short period of smoother sailing. I used these calmer days to add some new entries to my other pages, but then I did a little coasting around in the culinary world, too, peeking into other people's pots, looking for exotic dishes. That is how I discovered the maque choux. Doesn't this name itself have an intriguing sound?

The original (I suppose Native) recipe sounded too blah, Emeril's recipe needed Emeril's own sauce, so I opted for Nola's New Orleans Maque choux recipe. Of course, I used bacon drippings. I tend to cook healthy, low fat dishes most of the time, noone in my family has cholesterol, diabetes or any such ailment, so the occasional little indulgence does not upset our overall health. The dish turned out very nicely, I will repeat it.

Maque choux, my version

bacon drippings with oil added to measure about 4 - 5 tbs
3 cups frozen corn
1 onion, chopped fine
1/2 cup celery, sliced thin
1/2 cup green peppers, sliced paper thin
1 ts chopped garlic
1 cup canned whole tomatoes, chopped
salt, pepper
a few spicy sausages

Saute the onion until glassy, add the celery, garlic and green peppers. Saute a bit, stirring occasionally, for 5-6 minutes, then add the tomatoes, corn, adjust the seasonings, and place the sausages whole on top of the simmering vegetables. Let it simmer simmer for 15 to 30 minutes, then take out and slice the sausages to be distributed and arranged on each plate of food.

For added flavour and colour you can also sprinkle some freshly chopped basil, thyme or parsley on top of the dishes.

Buffet style spaghetti pie

We just had a birthday party, and I have to tell you about one of the most successful dishes I put on the buffet table. It was so successful in fact that I did not manage to get a picture taken at all before it was gone. Instead, I decided to use the photo from the blog where I found the recipe, whose owner by the way is also a magnificent photographer in the Netherlands, and give full credit to her for the whole package. It truly is a package, as it has extensive photo instructions on the whole process of putting the dish together.

So, please, go and visit her blog, What's cooking?.

Beef with fresh mango sauce

12 thin slices of lean beef

Marinade:
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon tamarind juice (optional)
2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon rice vinegar (or regular white)
1 small onion (or 2 shallots) chopped

Sauce:
2 ripe mangoes
3 teaspoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoon lime juice
3 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
a few drops of hot chili oil (Saigon) - to taste
chopped basil leaves

Place the beef slices with the marinade ingredients in a zippered plastic bag and let them marinate overnight. Then just before serving fry, broil or barbecue them to desired doneness.
Blend the sauce ingredients and serve it with the meat, accompanied with rice. Sprinkle it with fresh. chopped basil leaves. I served the chopped basil on the side in a small bowl, and I also added grated zucchini as a side dish, sauteed with garlic in a bit of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Cheesey veggies

Here is a simple dish that one can throw together either for a quick lunch, or as a side dish at dinner time.


4 tablespoon butter
4 tablespoon flour
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

2 tablespoon oil
1 medium sized onion
2 garlic cloves
1 zucchini
1 large carrot
1 pound broccoli florets
about two cups cauliflower florets
2 celery ribs
2 tablespoon lemon juice
about 1/2 a pound of Swiss cheese slices

Bechamel sauce:
Heat butter, stir flour into it and keep stirring for a few minutes. Lift it off the heat and slowly stir in the milk. Put it back and whisk it until it thickens a little. Do not bring it to boil completely. Add the parsley and stir a bit more before removing it from the stove.

Now put the carrots and the cauliflower on the stove in an inch of water, bring it to boil and let it simmer for 7 minutes, at which point pour the veggies into a colander and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking.

In the meantime saute the onions in the oil until softened, then add the cruched garlic and stir it until it becomes fragrant, about 2-3 minutes altogether. Add the zucchini, broccoli and celery, season with salt and pepper, add the lemon juice and cook for 7-8 minutes.

Oil a baking dish and set the oven for 350F. Mix the carrot mix with the zucchini mix and the sauce. Dump the whole thing into the baking dish and cover the surface with the cheese slices. Bake it for 15-20 minutes, until the top turns golden.

I also added some asparagus. It is out of season now but I had one of those tall slim bottles of white asparagus in the cupboard. If you can get fresh asparagus, use about 1/2 a pound, and cook them together with the carrots and cauliflower.

Finally I placed a few sprigs of thyme on top for decoration and a little extra fragrance. They are growing in the backyard. Not for long though, it looks like we are in for an early and cold winter this year.

Sumpoogi aghtsan - Armenian eggplant salad

2 to 4 eggplants, altogether about 2 lbs
1 green pepper
½ red pepper
1 small onion
4 tomatoes, chopped
2 to 3 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ to 1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon chili pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 to 6 teaspoons olive oil
juice of 2 lemons (1/4 cup)
olives and cheese (optional)

The best way to prepare the eggplants is by grilling over fire, but you can also just bake them or microwave them until they are soft when poked. Remove them, make a slit at the bottom and place them on a cutting board, slanting it towards a plate so some of the bitter juices, if any, can drain. When cool enough to handle, cut each one in two and gently cut and lift away the flesh. If grilled, you have to pick the charred skin off in bits, then rinse off whatever is left on the eggplants. Cube the cleaned flesh and put in a large bowl. Add the peppers, tomatoes and onion, chopped very small (size of a corn kernel) as well as the parsley, and mix them. Don't worry if the eggplants get mushy a bit in the process, it is to be expected.

In a separate bowl mix the spices and garlic with the oil and lemon juice. Pour it over the veggies and stir it well. Taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary. You can also add some olives and some grated hard cheese, like Kaseri.

Foie de veau provencal

I found a little piece of paper among my forgotten recipes with this recipe on it. I remember when we had this dish at the Le Petit Gaston, on Baldwin St. here in Toronto. I am not even sure whether the restaurant still exists or not. This dish was made by its original owner, Gustav Schwalb.


According to Schwalb, the dish can only be its best if we use Provimi liver for it. For a long time I did not know what he meant. Now, thanks to the internet, I was able to figure it out. Otherwise the recipe itself is quite simple.

2 tbs soft butter
1 tbs finely chopped fresh parley
1 large clove garlic
1/2 lb liver
2 tbs dry white wine
salt, pepper, oil

In a small bowl mix together thoroughly the butter with parsley and garlic, and season it with salt and pepper to taste.

In a heavy frying pan heat 1-2 tbs oil to medium heat, then add 1 tbs of the butter mixture. When the butter melts and begins to sputter, add the liver slices and cook for 3 minutes on each side. Remove the liver from the pan and place it on a warm serving dish.

Pour off the cooking juices from the pan, put it back on the stove, pour in the wine and add the rest of the butter mix. Scrape up the browned bits from the bottom with a spatula (deglaze), then pour the hot sauce over the liver.

Quickly arrange on the plate whatever you want to serve it with and serve immediately. The recipe gives you two portions.

Since I did not prepare this dish right now, I looked around for a temporary picture until I will snap one of my own. The one I found on flickr looks pretty close, I hope the owner won't mind. The way Schwalb served it, if I remember well, was simply with some mashed potatoes, and sliced fresh tomatoes and cucumbers drizzled with a balsamic vinegar based dressing. Very simple fare yet very tasty.

Mandarin chicken (New World style)

We love Chinese food, the authentic kind. But today I was hit by a wave of nostalgia, I remembered the first time we, my husband and I, ate Chinese food soon after we arrived to Canada. A new friend invited us out who, poor as we all were in those distant student years, wanted to treat us. What could have been cheaper and tastier than Chinese food? In those days (early 70's) it was REALLY inexpensive. He took us to Dundas, east of Spadina, to a small greasy spoon. Spadina itself wasn't Chinese yet. We were impressed by his expansive knowledge of Chinese cuisine. :) He ordered General Tsao chicken, some greens in oyster sauce, I forget the rest. But quite for a while after that, when just the two of us ventured into a Chinese restaurant we dared to order only their Dinner for Two. Refinement of the palate came with the gradual increase of the contents of our wallet.

Today I was looking around for dinner ideas when I chanced upon the recipe of General Tsao Chicken. I enthusiastically rolled up my sleeves and started to prepare it, only to find that I remembered it wrong, I did not have any canned pineapples in the pantry. Instead I found several of those small cans of Chinese mandarins. So what can one do in such a situation, I replaced the pineapple juice by the mandarin juice. And guess what! It turned out just great.



1 pound chicken breasts (cut into 1" pieces)
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 c. sugar
1/8 c. low sodium soy sauce
1/4 c. mandarin juice (drained from a can)
1/8 c. white distilled vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp. fresh ginger, finely grated
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. cornstarch, mixed with 3 Tbsp. water
4 green onions, sliced

Dredge chicken in cornstarch and fry in a wok or a teflon skillet over medium heat until golden brown and crispy. Sprinkle cayenne over the chicken and keep warm on low heat. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine sauce ingredients (sugar, soy sauce, juice, vinegar, garlic, and ginger) and heat gently. When sauce is smooth and sugar has dissolved, take it off the heat, add cornstarch mixture and back on heat stir constantly until sauce has thickened. Now pour the sauce in the wok and stir to coat the chicken. Serve with hot rice, as well as green onion and hot red pepper flakes on the side, so people can add some as they like it.

I fancied up our rice with chopped celery leaves, white pepper and grated lemon zest. For the greens we had steamed kale in black bean sauce.