SC - What is Grains of Paradise

[grizly@mindspring.com]

Seems there was a gathering of expatriot Louisianans (or whatever they call
themselves) here in the northern reaches. A college friend of my husband's
decided to host a Fat Tuesday party at his abode. Seeing as how the friend was
born and raised in Louisiana, he had a hankering for a touch of that Mardi Gras
spirit.

Invited were; myself and my husband (went to school in Louisiana with the host),
a couple who are mutual friends (her family is from Louisiana), a couple known
from the host's workplace (he grew up in Alabama), a friend of a coworker of the
host, and a childhood friend of the host (grew up 375 feet away - they measured
it as kids when they thought about running a telegraph between their homes).
Later on, the growing, teenage son of the mutual friends arrived from a
snowboarding excursion (all he got was leftovers).

The menu included, in order of presentation:
Chicken and oyster gumbo (host's mother's recipe)
Boneless chicken with rice and shrimp stuffing (shipped to the childhood friend
from Louisiana) served with garlic bread
Crawfish boil (a colaborative affair between myself and the host)
Spicy coleslaw (the mutual friend's dish claimed to be from Justin Wilson)
Broccoli slaw (source unknown)
Sweet hushpuppies (my dish from the Prudhomme family cookbook with some
tweaking)
Fried catfish (also from the Prudhomme's)
King cake (a box mix shipped from Louisiana to the host)
Lots of cheap beer

The host made a huge pot of gumbo which smelled wonderful. He warned us all that
there was more food to come, so all had one bowl with a little file' powder to
start. Next out was the stuffed chicken, sliced so as to make it an appetizer.
Prior to when the food started to come out, the host and I started the crawfish
boil. In a huge stockpot we put water, Zatarain's crawfish boil spice mix (in a
mesh bag - how convenient!), one lemon quartered, 3 lbs of small red potatoes,
two heads of garlic, peeled, and a teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper. Once the
water began boiling, we added half a pound of sliced andouille sausage and 4
ears of corn broken in half. Once the water returned to a boil we added about 3
lbs of blanched whole crawfish. While this was cooking, the slaws were passed
around. We ended up cooking about six pounds of crawfish (only one lone crawfish
was saved for the teenage boy). Next up were the hushpuppies and catfish. The
hushpuppy recipe was unusual in that the only liquid came in the form of one
egg. The trick to making this recipe is that the longer the mixture sits, the
moister it gets.

Mix together:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

in a separate bowl mix together:
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup each finely chopped green pepper and scallions (green part only)

mix vegetables and a beaten egg into flour mixture. Mix thoroughly. This will be
very dry at this point. Cover and refrigerate for up to two hours. The
instructions said not to let it go past two hours or it will get too moist. With
the very dry conditions of Alaska, the mixture was moist enough for frying in a
little over an hour. Heat lard in a deep fryer (used 2 1/2 lbs) until about 330
degrees. Drop spoonfuls of batter into lard and cook until dark golden brown all
over (about 5 minutes, turning once).

The catfish was a multistage process. First a spice mix was put together:
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt

Cut catfish filets into 1/2 to 1 inch strips. Mix together:
1 tablespoon of mix
2 tablespoons hot pepper vinegar
2 tablespoons prepared mustard

 and rub all over the strips. Let sit for a little.

Mix together in a bowl:
1 egg beaten
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon spice mix

Put catfish strips in the milk mixture and let sit for a couple of minutes.

Mix together in a gallon sized plastic ziplock bag:
1 1/2 cups corn flour
rest of the spice mix

A little bit at a time, put soaked catfish strips in the flour/spice mix. Toss
to coat thoroughly. Remove strips and let sit for about five minutes.

In the same lard the hushpuppies were cooked in, heat to about 300 degrees.
Place catfish strips in to fill fryer but without touching. Fry for about 11
minutes, turning once at about six minutes. Pieces should be dark golden brown.

After the catfish and hushpuppies, we took a short rest then sliced up the King
cake served with some Community coffee (with milk and sugar, of course).

Left over after the dust cleared, plenty of gumbo, some hushpuppies, one
crawfish, a bit of broccoli slaw, and some beer. Nine people ate six lbs of
crawfish, 3-4 lbs of catfish, a wad of hushpuppies, all the spicy slaw,
potatoes, sausage, corn, chicken and stuffing, and an entire King cake. Quite
the appropriate way to observe Fat Tuesday if you ask me.

Kerri
wearing her Drag Queen hat instead of her Princess hat