Mardi Gras at My House - 2/24/09

Tonight was Mardi Gras or Carnival, celebrated on Fat Tuesday throughout the world. In honor of this, I made the Gumbo Ya-Ya recipe on page 32 of this month's Gourmet. This recipe was from the book, New Orleans Classic Gumbos and Soups, by Kit Wohl. I was hoping for something really good and this recipe did not disappoint. I would invite my friends from New Orleans, Matt and Arlene, over to eat this one. Wow! Just making the roux was an experience. I had read the recipe quickly earlier in the month and thought I had to stir the butter and flour mixture for an hour and 45 minutes. Thankfully, when I read it today, I realized it was only 45 minutes to an hour which is still a long time to stir but did fall in the Eyrleigh's nap time range (she usually sleeps about an hour). I was fascinated by the way the simple flour and butter mixture turned from basically a pasty dough to a rich dark brown gravy just from heat and stirring. The recipe said stir constantly but I did cheat and take 30 second breaks to cut up the vegetables and make the last pudding of the month. The little breaks didn't prevent the roux from turning out beautifully and making a wonderful base for the gumbo. I did halve the recipe but if I made it again, I would put in the meats, the sausage and chicken, for the full recipe. I ended up going back and putting the rest of the sausage link and the roasted chicken in so the leftovers would have some meat in them. I hadn't planned on making the Creole Seasoning recipe on page 102 but I realized I had Cajun seasoning instead of Creole. I wanted the recipe to be authentic so I mixed the spices for the Creole recipe. It was great! If you like very hot, you would need to add more red pepper flakes. However, I thought the richness of spice was perfect and allowed you to taste the other flavors of the gumbo without overpowering heat.
As we quickly draw near the end of the short month of February, I wanted to make another of the yeast roll recipes even though the gumbo was on the rice. It ended up being somewhat moot as something went wrong with the Crusty Cornstalk Rolls recipe on page 86. The dough looked great at the end of the first rise but after the second rise, the "ears" had stuck together. When I tried to separate them before baking, the dough appeared to flatten considerably and stay flat while baking. What resulted was very flat, extremely chewy on the outside and doughy on the inside. My uncle had come to dinner to see my brother who is still at our house and I didn't want to subject him to bad rolls, so I reheated the Cracked-Wheat Topknots from last night and we enjoyed those. I'm not sure what I did wrong, looking back I shouldn't have messed with them after the second rise and I should have kneaded them longer. I was rushing out the door for Eyrleigh's 15-month doctor appointment and I doubt I kneaded much more than 3 or 4 minutes. Kneading creates those gluten chains that help bread rise well and skimping on the kneading is not a good idea, as I discovered today.
I purchased a King Cake at our local grocery store, the typical tri-colored Mardi Gras cake, but I wanted to add a homemade dessert so I made the Brandied Fig Vanilla Pudding on page 110. I never did find fig preserves but the recipe said any preserves were fine so I used apricot preserves that I had in the fridge. The pudding was basic vanilla pudding with preserves mixed with brandy on top. I wasn't that impressed. It tasted good but not spectacular and nothing I would make for any special occasion. The King Cake from the store was insanely sweet but more in the spirit of the holiday. The super sweet cake reminded you that Lent was coming and something glutenous should be given up. For Lent, I think I'll give up... super-sweet tri-colored cakes.