4 Course and 7 Beers Ago

Of Course, we did not have 7 beers, but it works - President's Day having just passed and whatnot. I prepared the food, and Mike brought along the accompanying libations. As promised, this is the Mardi Gras Four Course Cajun Feast blog:













This particular feast took a good amount of time to prepare. It started around 9am with the production of stocks. I made a shrimp stock, that would later become etouffee and a "veggie" stock (not in a traditional sense, but I'll explain that with the first course). I also got some pork simmering away with trinity (celery, onion, bell pepper) + jalapeño and garlic which would become boudin.







GUMBO CONSOMME
As the description dictates, this blog is about my triumphs, and failures. In the case of GUMBO CONSOMME, we've stumbled upon the latter. That's not to say that it didn't taste good. On the flavor front, all was well. On the front of this consomme being a successful consomme, or clearly being reminiscent of a gumbo, thumbs down. As the photo clearly conveys, the clarity of the consomme is not so clear. Whilst preparing something else, I let the consomme boil, reintroducing the impurities to the stock, and botching the whole batch. ALSO, I clearly underestimated the obvious importance of roux to gumbo - this is where the soup failed to reach true gumbo-ness. That being said, the soup was good and Mike's 2010 Blufeld Riesling from Mosel, Germany was a perfect match.













GULF TRIO
The next course was a celebration of the triumphant return of the Gulf - or just an excuse to fit three courses into one. A) Gulf oyster on the half shell with cocktail sauce foam - I shucked to order. The sauce was too viscous to foam properly, thus it didn't have enough body to stand up to the oyster. Mike's Katana Junmai Ginjo Sake from Shizuoka, Japan was however, a perfect pair with the oyster. B) Boudin balls on house-made remoulade. Absolutely killer!! C) Boiled crawfish and potatoes over a corn-andouille puree. The puree was the highlight of the night. The wheat beer Mike brought was perfect with the boudin and crawfish.













BLACKENED ROCK COD, DIRTY RICE, ETOUFFEE
Want to smoke out all your dinner guests with a noxious blackened cloud? Blacken some fish with a killer black spice in a screaming hot pan inside an apartment. But then serve it over shrimp etouffee with dirty rice, and you'll have them... still talking about how we all coughed for 10 minutes. Mike took a real reach on this one and served a traditional Indian Lassi. The purpose of this choice was to subdue the spice, which it did. However, it did not serve as a really thirst quenching beverage. It was nice in sips, but not in gulps.













Mardi Gras just ain't Mardi Gras without a KING CAKE. So I made one.







Instead of colored sugar, I made colored icing. No baby, that's dangerous.

BEIGNETS
Thanks to Cafe Du Monde, I made these tasty morsels:













Not gonna lie here. I went out and bought Cafe Du Monde beignet mix, mixed it up and fried it. I did top it with pow pow sug sug that had been mixed with a little Cafe Du Monde coffee. These went splendidly with the Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout from Petaluma, CA that Mike brought.

All in all, another successful tasting and pairing dinner.

I have exciting new coming up very soon. Stay tuned!