Mess of Greens

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seafood

Jo Russell’s (Not) West Indies Salad (but kinda)

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IMG_2294This Easter my family and I spent the weekend at the beach. Some super generous friends loaned us their condo, so we drove down and spent time together, cooking, eating, and wishing it would stop raining long enough to sneak out to the beach to let Wagner play in the sand. We had some sun at the end and almost 2 hours of clear weather each day, so we “got our beach on” just enough for Wagner to know that the ocean is his favorite thing in the whole world, and somehow I’m still going home with a super attractive knee-sunburn. Geez Louise.

Our beach trips usually revolve around seafood cooking and eating (no suprise) and we get crazy excited when my dad goes to Joe Paddy’s in Pensacola (more on this later).

This time, Daddy brought back jumbo lump crabmeat and made a version of a recipe that his mother made that she got from her best pal, Jo Russel.. and it is so fine, so delicious, so amazing that when Brett had it for the first time he ate his entire plateful in about 2 minutes because he was worried someone else might try to eat it directly off his plate before he could.

Basically, the recipe is kind of a version of the West Indies salad that they serve down on the Gulf coast and in the Florida Keys, but probably better. (also, when I mentioned to my family that it seemed like West Indies Salad to me, I was corrected indignantly).  It’s SO simple that the crab meat really shines through, and you just get lost in the perfect texture and flavors. The next time you’re down this way, or get your hands on some jumbo lump crab meat, I hope you’ll give this recipe a whirl. …

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Crawfish Elegante’

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I’ve shared so many of my Grandmother’s recipes here that I’m a bit worries my cousins are going to hunt me down for giving away family secrets. Well, I would be worried except that my cousins and I all feel the same way about our Grandmother… that she was the warmest, kindest, most loving woman on the planet and that if we can be just a little bit like her in our lives, we’ll be doing things right.

Somehow she made all of her children and her grandchildren believe that we were her absolute most favorite (and, you know what, I bet we ALL were.) She was forever sewing something for a friend, or cooking something delicious for one of us, or making up something fun for us to do together.

My cousin, Amy, gave us the most wonderful Christmas gift a couple of years ago…she painstakingly typed up and bound all of Grandmother’s recipes into a cookbook of sorts.I use it every week at least once, and I’d bet they do, too (if they haven’t memorized the recipes yet.) Grandmother has some Louisiana roots, which is why a bunch of her best recipes have a creole/New Orleans flair.

Her recipe for Crawfish Elegante’ is a super delicious, very versatile dish that can be made ahead, frozen, and eaten in a variety of ways. It’s perfect for spring when crawfish are in season, but also pretty great whenever as you can get frozen peeled crawfish at the store. Here, I’m sharing it as a dip with toasted New Orleans French Bread, but it’s also great over rice as a main dish OR as a filling for puff pastries. We also had it as a catfish topping this same night, and as my cousin Virginia would say “it didn’t suck.” 😉

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Comeback Sauce & Pan Seared Snapper

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My wonderful in-laws came down to the Gulf Coast of Alabama from the North Carolina mountains a couple of weeks ago to get away from the snow and invited us to pop down for a visit. They grew up in the midwest and now live pretty far inland, so fresh seafood isn’t something they eat very often (though they DO like it a lot). We went on a little adventure to Pensacola, Florida to go to the amazing Joe Patti’s  Seafood Market, and picked up two meals worth of my favorite fish, Red Snapper. The fish is so light, lovely, and flakey that you really don’t have a do a ton to it to make it delicious… just a little salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a sear in a skillet. Although we didn’t NEED it, I’d had a hankering for Mississippi’s most famous condiment, Comeback Sauce for a couple of weeks, so I made a batch to drizzle on top, too. The spicier cousin of remoulade and thousand island dressing, Comeback Sauce was created by Greek immigrants in Jackson, Mississippi and is still served at the Mayflower Cafe today. What resulted was something just right… fresh, fresh, gorgeous fish with a spicy, light dressing. It was divine.
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Blackened Catfish and Spicy Pinapple Salsa

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 It’s spring time, which means that Boone and I try to eat as much fish and fruit as possible…also, on springtime Sunday afternoons, all I want is a homemade frozen margarita for some reason, and spicy food goes just great with that.Plus, when we went down to the Fla Keys last fall I think every single meal I had something blackened, so it was time to try our hand at that. On top of that, since I’m back on the weight watchers wagon (whooo!!! or booo! depending on who you ask…) and since we may or may not have eaten chinese food on Saturday night, we wanted something light.You may have seen the catfish tacos that I posted last year, and this is a similar idea with different flavors. If you liked those, read on for your own spring time blackened catfish feast.
 
What you need for the catfish
a cast iron skillet
4 catfish fillets
4 sprays cooking spray
For the Rub
 2 1/2 Tablespoons Paprika
2 Tbs Salt
2 T garlic powder
1 T black pepper
1 T cayenne pepper
1 T dried oregano
1 T french poultry seasoning (in place of thyme)
What you need for the salsa
1 can of pinapple rounds (or one fresh pinapple, peeled and cored), diced
1 medium fresh tomato, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 jalepeno chile (diced fine)
Juice of 2 fresh limes
salt to taste
we didn’t have any, but I’d also recommend cilantro.

Serve with Greek Yogurt and cilantro!

What to do: 
Start by dicing all of the fruit and the onion and jalepeno and combining in the large bowl.
 
once everything is diced in about the same size pieces, juice the lime and pour it over the fruit. Salt to taste. Let this stand and marinate for at least 30 minutes, if not longer so the flavors meld together and it gets spicy and sweet.
Once that’s ready, start preparing the fish by mixing the spices together to make the rub. Once that’s taken care of, set aside and heat the cast iron skillet on high for  6 minutes. it may smoke, but you need it to be hot enough to blacken…but not hot so hot that it cracks (because you can do that to a skillet, btw).
pat the fillets dry, and then cover them in about 1 tablespoon of rub per fillet. You can use more, but 1 tablespoon does the trick. Once you’re ready to blacken, spray the skillet with cooking spray.

place the catfish in the pan making sure that the fillets don’t touch. If they touch, the meat steams rather than crisps…which just isn’t the same as blackened. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, until the fish is firm and flakey… you’ll know it’s ready because there’ll be a nice black crust on the top.

 

VOILA! serve with tortilla chips  or saffron rice and black beans and a dollop of plain greek yogurt on the top for a tropical-ish treat using my favorite southern fish!

 

Crawfish Bisque

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I LOVE LOVE LOVE boiled crawfish and it’s FINALLY the time of year when you can get them EVERYWHERE. (see tomorrow’s post). but just BEFORE crawfish season,  I got a taste for some and decided to try my hand at a bisque. I mean, obviously I prefer fresh ones just out of the pot on a springtime afternoon, but sometimes that’s just not possible.
 During the months of about July- February you can enjoy this little delicacy by way of the freezer section of your grocer, and honestly, if you’re going to make a soup, bisque, or etoufee’, why on earth would you want to go through the trouble of boiling THEN peeling enough of the little guys for everyone at your table? trust me, you wouldn’t…which means the little frozen packages are a godsend, if not as juicy and fresh as the ones you’d cook yourself.
My bisque was a pretty basic attempt, but it hit the spot for me and told my tastebuds spring was on it’s way. Here’s how you can replicate it (and make it even better with your own additions) if you’re interested!
Crawfish Bisque
Serves 4 (or 3 if you’re like me and have a portion control problem)
What you need:
1 tablespoon of oil (or less..just enough to saute’ the vegetables)
one red bell pepper, diced
one white onion, diced
two ribs of celery, diced
1 or 1/2 lb of frozen, cooked crawfish, roughly chopped
1 can of corn, drained
1/4 cup of white wine
1 1/2 Cups of chicken stock  (OR 1 cup of chicken stock and 1/2 cup of lobster/seafood stock)
3/4 Cup of heavy cream (or whole milk if you’re cutting calories)
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/2 bunch of green onions or parsley for presentation
What to do:
Chop the celery, bell pepper, and onion. Saute’ the the onion until translucent, and add in the celery and pepper. Saute’ for 1-2 minutes. Add in the cayenne, salt, and pepper. I feel like the heat releases more flavor and cooks into the vegetables more evenly than when you add it in afterwards.
 

Drain the corn and add it with the crawfish into the pot. stir for 1 minute. Pour in the white wine and let that cook down for about 3 minutes.

Pour in the stock/broth  and add the bay leaf and let simmer for at least 30 minutes (but longer is usually better for flavors to meld together)

Just before serving, add in the cream. this will lighten the color and give it a really lovely richness… viola’! you’ve got a southern seafood bisque that tells you spring is on the way (or already here!) serve with crusty bread and sprinkle it with green onion for a little color… and your good silver if you want it to feel like more than a regular old soup. I did. 😉

 

 

Catfish tacos with purple cabbage slaw.

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Catfish Tacos with Purple Cabbage Slaw
Serves 2.5, Weight watchers points: 4 per taco + 1 for the slaw

You haven’t heard from me in weeks…first of all, things have been craaaa–zeeee since about mid-march, and secondly, because I joined weight watchers and needed an adjustment period to figure out what was friendly to weight loss and what…isn’t. turns out that most southern food is on the no-nos list…but together we’ll sort things out and figure our delicious ways to eat the foods we love with fewer calories, less fat, and just as much flavor!

Which brings me to tonight’s post…Catfish tacos. I’ve heard from lots of people who didn’t grow up eating catfish (read: folks not from MS) that the slightly earthy taste isn’t super appealing to them…but honestly, if you like trout, then farm raised catfish should be right up your alley. no..you don’t get to take exotic mountain vacations to go fishing for catfish, BUT it’s a southern-raised, eco-friendly fish option that when cooked well has an incredible freshness and firm but flaky texture. as a mississippi girl, catfish is my go-to freshwater fish.

If you’re still not sold, then this recipe is the PERFECT way to experiment. Wrapping up the fish in a tortillia with avacado, tomatoes, and cilantro means that you get some of the lovely earthy fish flavor, but it will be balanced out by the extras. 😉

What you Need: 
For the Tacos:
4 catfish fillets
2 tablespoons of cajun seasoning (tony chachere’s is my personal favorite)
1 tsp cumin
6 small flour tortillas
1/2 bunch of cilantro
10 cherry tomatoes
1 ripe avocado

For the slaw:
1/2 purple cabbage
3 tablespoons greek yogurt
1 red onion
juice of 1 lime
table salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 jalepeno

 What to do:
For the slaw:
Start with the slaw since this takes a few minutes to sit and soak up flavor. shred the cabbage, slice your onion into thin, thin rings, and chop the jalepeno into tiny pieces. Combine that into a bowl and salt it so it begins to wilt. In another bowl, stir the greek yogurt, lime juice, and chili powder, and pour it over the cabbage mixture. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

 

For the tacos:

 

at this point, it’s time for the catfish..it cooks quickly so this should be last! make sure you ahve Mississippi farm raised catfish. Put it in a dish and dust it with the cajun seasoning and the cumin and let sit for a few minutes.

coat a skillet with cooking spray and put the fish in the pan. Let it cook for 4 minutes on each side (or until the fish is firm and no longer sticks to the pan). Once that’s done, set the fish aside.

 

 

either before or as the catfish is cooking, chop your taco toppings… of course you can use other ingredients than these, but these are fresh and light.
 
once the fish is ready, make your tacos! you can use the slaw as a topping or as a side… either way, it’s delicious and so pretty.
If you’re a catfish lover, then you can forgo the tortillas altogether and just serve this with the slaw and all the fixins’. I hope you love this spring recipe as much as I do!