Bittersweet Beignets

My15 yr old daughter Nati got back from visiting her Aunt Julie and Uncle Mark in New Orleans and she bought gifts for friends and family to the tune of two hundred bucks courtesy of Dad and she said Dad it wasn't nearly enough money.

I got a box of Cafe' Du Monde Beignet Mix ( french doughnuts) and cooked them up tonight as a late night snack for me and 11 yr old grandson Jackson. I usually make them from scratch. Not tonight. I used the mix.

I had no powered sugar or granulated sugar  - which I usually pulse till powder in the coffe bean grinder, so I made a chocolate sauce involving melted butter and semi sweet chocolate chips and milk to the right consistency. I poured some over the beignets and used the rest for dipping. Exquisite, and not too sweet, maybe better than the traditional powdered sugar as a late night snack.

Jackson accompanied his with a tall glass of milk, me and mine with a glass of cabernet. Sweet dreams.

Birthday Bash

Just at dark the skies lit up and we got pounded with thunder and hard rain. It was brief , not like the lingering after taste of this birthday soup comprised of equal amounts of onions, carrots, celery, sweet bell peppers and mushrooms, plus the addition of our local meat market's pepperjack brats. Bayleaf ,garlic, parsley, sage, crushed red pepper to taste as seasonings made a memorable soup. All in a chicken broth with black beans and herbal and aromatic brown basmati rice.

Saute all the vegetables together in olive oil till hot, add rice, toss, add broth to triple cover the vegetables, simmer till rice and vegetables are tender - 20- 30 minutes - add canned beans and already cooked and browned cut up brats and get hot. Serve with buttered rustic bread.

Nothing like a diverse, earthy, hearty, healthy soup on your birthday, especially when you share it with your 15 yr old daughter,who said dad you should make this more often it is awesome.

A great day.All my kids called, all 5. From San Diego to Naples Italy to St Cloud and Delano, Mn . I feel blessed.  And you know what  - they all eat well and understand and appreciate it. They grew up in the family restaurant business and they all know you have to work your ass off no matter what your business is. And they are all successful.

What a day, what a life.

This is a ring of Swedish Potato Sausage - finely ground pork, onions, and potatoes. A distinctly bland sausage w/o herbs or spice except maybe nutmeg or sage. I parboiled it on the stove top in a cast iron pan, poured off the water and finished it off in a 425 degree oven to brown it.

Sauteed onions and mushrooms with parsley and sage are the centerpiece. I usually eat it with yellow mustard.

Last night's epiphany suggested that I accompany the potato sausage with a raspberry jalapeno jam that I got at a local farmer's market. It was the perfect counterpoint to the subtle , harmonious flavors of the pork, potato and onion. Like adding fireworks to a Mn 4th of July. Illegal and delicious.

Put a dollup of sour cream on the mushrooms. Spiced up lingonberries would work, too.

A Tex/Mex Hotdog

If you don't have a hotdog bun, but you do have a flour tortilla, adapt your hotdog recipe to include sautee'd onions, sweet red peppers and black beans. Season with garlic and cilantro and some heat if you wish. Lay it all on a warm flour tortilla and add yellow mustard. It is a good dog. Accompany with your favorite beer.

Blue Gill Tacos on the Patio

After you eat your taco or burrito w/ blackened bluegill, brown or wild rice w/ lime juice and cilantro, black beans, sauteed onions and peppers, avocado and salsa, sour cream, all rolled up in a corn or flour shell, you should sip your after supper brandy on the patio with ice and fresh mint leaves from your herb garden.

 Then take a walk to the mail box with your young brown lab( mostly, tho' he howls instead of barks and he also jumps in a full rotation of joy - a mixed breed for sure w/ diverse responses to various stimuli). He chases, points, bays,catches, flushes.

On your way back from the mail box, peruse the field for the first of the early wild strawberries. Eat those tiny succulent berries and rejoice in the early harvest - 2 or 3 wks early this year. You do not get enough but that makes it even better. Sweetness, a burst of flavor, hope, the promise in blooms and nubbins, of more. I can't wait, but I will because I have no choice.

It is a pleasure to deal with food in this way because I spent so many years making it happen and serving "false foods" from the food purveyors -  the national foodservice distribution companies - while I was in the high volume restaurant business.

The fish bite when they bite, the raspberries are ripe when they are ripe.

 

It is fishing opener and everyone is fishing for walleye but I am fishing for and catching bluegill on a flyrod. They came into the shallows today and the big ones, all males, are biting like crazy. Largemouth bass, too.This is fun. This is great. I caught so many I stopped, feeling guilty.

Fileted and panfried in olive oil, plated,  finished off with white wine, reduced by half, added parsley and tarragon and 3 or 4 pats of cold butter, swirled, poured on filets. Exquisite. 

Fishing Opener's Eve

This is what you want to eat on the night before fishing openers. Jalapeno cheddar brats( from Thielen's in Pierz, Mn,) onions, sweet bell peppers, mushrooms( any kind) and potatoes braised in olive oil and seasoned with salt, black pepper, garlic and sage.Add olive oil to cover bottom of your pan, add all ingredients at once so they all touch the bottom of the pan.

Get your pan and food sizzling hot on the stovetop and finish in the oven . I use a black cast iron pan. A half hour cooking time at 400 degrees will get everything done simultaneously. You can add some beer or white wine to the pan for the final few minutes. Turn the broiler on to brown if necessary. It should be browned and golden and looking good. Wine or beer - not too much ( 1/2 cup) should be reduced to a glaze. You are doing this for an added richness and depth of flavor.

Food has to look good before it tastes good. Strew all with parsley. Put that earnest, masculine repast on the table and serve family style with rustic bread and butter and mustard .

A simple one pan meal which will not take time from equally important considerations - rigging up for tomorrow's opener, plans, strategy, as well as the remembrance and resultant discourse on a lifetime of fishing openers. Don't stay up too late, or do. You only get this day once a year.

Good food, good fishing, family, close friends, a shared history. It doesn't get any better than that.