In the 1970’s I was working for a diving company based in Belle Chasse, LA. I have been thinking about that time lately (it probably has something to do with Lent and Mardi Gras). I can’t think about N’Orl’ns (one word) without thinking about the food. For two years I lived off of Muffulettas, Shrimp Etouffee, boiled crawfish, and Jambalaya. I have had a sudden desire for the flavor. Louisiana food generally falls into two main cuisines Creole and Cajun, which roughly corresponds to city and country.
Category Archives: Main Dishes
Karl’s Stone Soup with Bread Dumplings
When your refrigerator and freezer are getting cluttered with bits and pieces, it is time to make Stone Soup. This is not entirely in the spirit of the story, but Stone Soup sounds so much better and classier than; “What is in the refrigerator soup?”
Filed under Main Dishes, Poultry, Soups
Karl’s Fried Tofu and Baby Bok Choy with Pan Fried Noodles
Jan has put up with my meat eating for 35 years now (30 of them in the married state as of this month). She considers herself a born again carnivore, but she still misses being a vegetarian. Since she let me have lamb on Easter, I planned on a tofu stir fry for dinner tonight. Eilene, however, had some friend over and so I had to add some things to what I was planning to make to have enough for two adults and three hungry teen-aged girls. They must have liked it because they cleaned it down to the last noodle and scrap of vegetable.
[no picture, it disappeared too fast]
Filed under Main Dishes, Vegetarian MD
Karl’s Moroccan Oxtail Tajine
Adapted from a recipe by Mamatkamal El Mary K
This week is Chris’ Birthday. Myr is taking him out for steak on Saturday, so she wants something heavy on the vegetables. Jan really liked the Chicken Cassablanca I made last week, so she wants a North African tajine (tu-jeen). I have some French green lentils that I have wanted to try out (A Taste of History idea). Chris (who just landed from a trip to Germany) got in the last word, he wants oxtails. This I can work with.
Filed under Beef, Main Dishes, Stews
Miriam’s Cream of Mushroom Soup
Many people associate cream of mushroom with Campbell’s-assisted casseroles.
I did not grow up with these, so got to discover them as an adult (along with butter and cream). But that handy concentrated glop, even diluted, is nothing like cream of mushroom from scratch. I even convinced Chris of this fact, with this recipe. It’s loosely adapted from 500 Greatest-Ever Vegetarian Recipes‘ wild mushroom soup.
Filed under Soups, Vegetarian MD
Karl’s Roasted Salmon with Leeks
It is St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow, and no one in this household likes what is sold as “corned beef” in the supermarkets (I understand that if you can find Italian corned beef it is much closer to the original). In fact, except for Chris, my son-in-law whose family is from Boston, we do not favor “boiled dinners” (everything thrown into the same pot and boiled). For us the classic Irish main dish is the Salmon of Knowledge.
Filed under Main Dishes, Seafood
Karl’s Chicken Casablanca Soup
Eilene was sick today so I plan on Chicken soup. Originally I was going to go with my usual French chicken noodle soup and then I noticed the bag of Mandarin oranges on the counter. I had bought these thinking they were Cuties, but they were not as easy to peel. As a result, they were just sitting on the counter getting old.
I went on the Internet looking for some kind of “orange juice chicken soup.” There were surprisingly few hits and fewer that looked appealing or what I had in mind. One that was close was a Moroccan soup that used orange juice. I looked up several Moroccan chicken soups and the spices blends and ingredients that made them Moroccan. Picking and choosing and using what I had on hand I came up with this recipe.
Note after dinner: This was a fantastic combination of flavors. Spicy with being hot. It may seem that there is a lot of spice for a dish this size, but it was perfect. The Mandarin orange juice worked as a secret ingredient (the soup did not taste “orange-y,” but you would have missed it if it was not there). Finally the bulgur thickened the soup just the right amount without turning it into a pasty stew.
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Filed under Main Dishes, Poultry, Soups
Karl’s Uyghur Lamb Samsa (Baked Samosa)
This recipe comes from a memory of a taste and of a Mongolian? Chef (from the banner behind him I think it is Inner Mongolia).
Yesterday I made Uzbek samsa, a baked dough filled with spinach, and it reminded Jan of the Uyghur lamb samsa we had in Kashgar in 1988. I know the name Uyghur looks frightening to American sensibilities, but it is pronounced “Way-ger.” We were taking our vacation, from teaching English to the Chinese, to the far west of China. There were almost no foreigners in China during those months so, except for a few stray Canadians and Australians, we had Xinjiang pretty much to ourselves (not counting several million locals). The locals assumed that we were Canadians, except for the one who thought I was a Russian and the woman who came up to Jan and started chatting her up in Uyghur. She could have easily passed in the Mexican embroidered dress and the Russian babushka she was wearing.
Filed under Lamb, Main Dishes
Karl’s Samsa with Spinach and Paneer (Baked Samosa)
Adapted from a World Cook recipe
Today I was surfing the web looking for a new idea, some recipe, some country’s food I had not yet tried to make. I stumbled upon World Cook, a site out of the Netherlands with recipes from 133 countries (currently there are officially 196 countries total). It does not purport to be comprehensive, some countries have many recipes, others only a single one. You can search by country, ingredient, and day of the year. Many of the recipes have a bit of cultural background added to them if they are associated with a particular holiday. The site is also a bit of a travel log of their family’s visits to places away from home.
I spent hours exploring the site and it had an odd quirk. Whenever you select a recipe to look at, a second unrelated recipe appeared on the same page. For example the page for the Uzbekistan Samsa recipe also had one for Tomato Soup. One recipe would lead you to another, and another, and another. It became addictive to see where it all would lead. I finally chose the samsa recipe, but the original Uzbek recipe was a bit boring. The dough was OK, but the filling was just spinach and onions. I was going to have to spice this recipe up.
Filed under Main Dishes, Vegetarian MD









