Here is another wonderful recipe from my Aunt Dot’s cookbook All the Foods We’ve Loved Before.  It is adapted from Uncle Bertrand’s version of chicken gumbo.

1          large fryer (or equivalent in breast and thighs) cut up

1 ½      medium onions, chopped

1          large bell pepper, chopped

5          cloves garlic, chopped fine

4          cubes chicken bouillon

¾         tsp poultry seasoning

Cooked rice

File

Olive oil

Clean chicken and remove skin.  I use a Dutch oven for this dish.  Spray bottom of pan with Pam to avoid sticking.  Put in the chicken skin and cook the fat out until skin is crisp.  The fat rendered from the skin helps give the gumbo a little bit more chicken flavor.  Besides, Penny (our son Steven’s dog that is staying with us awhile) loves chicken cracklings.

Salt and pepper chicken pieces and fry them until they are light brown.  Set aside.  Add onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic.  Add oil, if needed, to sauté vegetables until they are limp.  Sprinkle vegetables with a small amount of salt and pepper.  The will smell soooo good.

Add 1/3 cup flour and make a roux.  Do not let the flour get too brown, just a light tan color.  Add about 2 ½ quarts boiling water, slowly, to roux, and 4 cubes of chicken bouillon.  Taste broth and add more seasoning if necessary.

Return browned chicken to broth.  When ready to serve thicken with about 3 tablespoons cornstarch in about 1/3 cup cold water.  Slowly stir the slurry into broth, letting it return to a slight boil.  Return chicken to liquid and cook very slowly, about ten minutes.

Serve over steamed rice sprinkled with file, as desired.  Serves eight.

Eric's Website

Mix all ingredients well in casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Enjoy.

Eric's Website

Marilyn and I collect old New Orleans cook books and this week she found Creole Feast – 15 Master Chefs of New Orleans Reveal Their Secrets.  This extraordinary cookbook was published in 1978 and written by Nathaniel Burton and Rudolph Lombard.  It features a recipe of one of my favorite desserts, one I always order whenever visiting the Crescent City.

This recipe is by Austin Leslie, master chef and one-time owner of Chez Helene, a wonderful New Orleans restaurant no longer in business.  Leslie died in September, 2005 after being trapped in an attic for two days by Hurricane Katrina.  He was the first person to be honored by a jazz funeral after Katrina in what was then a largely deserted Big Easy.

Austin Leslie was the inspiration for the short-lived television show Frank’s Place.  He was also known as the Godfather of Fried Chicken and if you are like me, an aficionado of that particular dish, you really should read the book, if only for his personal description of the absolute best way to cut up a chicken and fry it

Chicken wasn’t the only thing Austin Leslie knew how to cook, he could also prepare absolutely wonderful deserts.  I’ve published other bread pudding recipes and every one is slightly different.  If you enjoy bread pudding as much as I, give this one a try because it is a good one.

1 loaf stale French bread                                   ¼ can evaporated milk

1 pound butter                                                  1 ¼ cups sugar

¼ pound raisins                                                1 small can crush pineapple

3 eggs, beaten                                                  3 tablespoons vanilla extract

¼ cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Wet the bread and squeeze the water out of it.  Melt the butter and mix with all other ingredients.  Pour mixture into a well-greased 4 x 10-inch baking pan.  Bake for 2 ½ hours.  The pudding will rise in the first hour.  After an hour, remove pan from oven and stir the mixture to tighten it.  Return to the oven for the second hour of cooking.

¼ stick butter, melted                                       1 cup sugar

1 cup flour                                                        ½ cup rum

Place all ingredients in double boiler and cook for 10 minutes.  Beat until fluffy.  Serves 10

Eric's Website