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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Little child

Are you getting ready for Mardi Gras? Here in Thathouse we most certainly are. We've very excited for next Tuesday and have our plans already in place. We're going to be very tired Wednesday morning.

It may be hard to believe, but I've never been to New Orleans. I know, it's a shocker. Especially if you know my love for cajun food. Instead I know the best cajun restaurants in town and use my kitchen to fill in the rest.

When I saw the Creole soup I couldn't wait to try it. And what better than the week before Mardi Gras. And stay tuned for after the main event for the gumbo recipes. I'm honestly so thankful for the timing of these recipes given that it's been cold here. Soups are perfect. Soups with some creole flair? Even better.

Unfortunately, this soup did not live up to my expectations. It's bascially a tomato soup with horseradish. And frankly, if I'm going for ome New Orleans/Creole heat, I tend to use something other than horseradish. Cayenne, cajun spices, tabasco......The horseradish never fully got blended into the soup - if you look, you can see the little white horseradish dots. I would definitely recommend leaving it out and using cayenne or tabasco instead.


Creole Soup (From The Fannie Farmer Cookbook)
  • 2 Tbsp bacon fat
  • 2 Tbsp finely chopped green pepper
  • 2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
  • 2 Tbsp flour
  • 1 cup chopped tomatoes
  • 3 cups beef stock
  • 1/8 tsp ground pepper
  • 1 Tbsp horseradish
  • 1/2 tsp vinegar
  • salt
  1. Heat the bacon fat in a pot, add the green pepper ad onion, and cook slowly for 5 minutes.
  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes and stock or bouillon.
  3. Simmer for 15 minutes.
  4. Strain and add remaining ingredients.

13 comments:

  1. On a really, really, really random note . . . I went to New Orleans over 3 years ago and took a few pictures with a disposable camera there. Said camera is still half used, sitting on the coffee table waiting to be developed :X

    Ok, the end.

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  2. Such a bummer the soup didn't live up to the hype (ok I guess there actually wasn't hype...but you know). I would love to try spicing it up a little!

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  3. Just imagine all of the amazing foods you will be trying in New Orleans:D

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  4. What What! Madi Gras is next week already!? Where does the time go? Time to make King Cake I guess.

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  5. Enjoy Mardi Gras!! I'll be down there this weekend too! Have fun in the city!

    If you want to go on a foodie splurge, I highly recommend Commander's Palace's Sunday Jazz brunch. It's amazing!

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  6. Inspired by your soups I've had another go at making veggie soup. Much better than the last few times but the dried peas never seem to soak up the moisture well - maybe I need a different pack of peas!

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  7. I'm surprised no celery made it into the soup to complete the trinity! However I'm not that big of a celery fan so this would be perfect to me. I especially love how horseradish makes its way into the soup - yum!

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  8. Too bad... I love Turtle Soup--I eat it repeatedly when I am in New Orleans, I was hoping for something like that at the start of your post! :)

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  9. Honestly, some of the best Cajun food I've ever had came from the kitchen of Joe's best friend's mother in Metairie, just across the lake. Oh man. I still have dreams about the jambalaya.

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  10. The soup just needed some beads to go with it - looks retty decent from here.

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  11. i've never been a big fan of new orleans-style food. :/

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  12. Hmmm, the recipe does sound a little odd.
    LL

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  13. booo to not living up to expectations. :(

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