creole – Cadence

Emeril’s Grillades And Stone-ground Grits

Today I cooked another recipe from my favorite cookbook, Sizzling Skillets and Other One-Pot Wonders, by Emeril Lagasse.

For anyone wondering, it’s pronounced GREE-ahds. (Keep in mind New Orelans’ French heritage and the links Creole cooking has to French cuisine.)

This dish is traditionally a breakfast or brunch dish, but definitely filling enough to be served as a dinner. I expect the leftovers will be just as good, if not better, the next day.

It’s definitely a dish to make on a weekend. We got back from Kroger and I got straight to work by 6 PM, but we weren’t eating until after 11 PM. The pot was in the oven by 8:30 for the two-hour braising period, but I got lazy on the couch and didn’t realize the grits needed an hour to cook properly. (I’m a newbie when it comes to cooking grits – this was only my second batch.)

You can find the recipe online here: https://www.emerils.com/127825/grillades-and-stone-ground-grits

Or purchase the cookbook on Amazon – you won’t regret it!

Emeril’s Kicked-Up Jambalaya

This Emeril recipe is from the Food Network, Essence of Emeril era. You can still find the recipe online here. Jambalaya makes a nice & quick weekday meal, compared to gumbo which requires dedicating a full day to put together properly.

I tend to omit the shrimp, since Jessica will only eat shrimp if battered and fried or smothered in butter, scampi-style. I use Aidells Cajun Style Andouille, since that’s the only nitrate-free option we can find at Kroger. (Jessica has found nitrites and nitrates to be a migraine trigger for her.)

This time, I went with boneless, skinless chicken thighs and breasts. Leaving this in the whole ~1 hour cook time will result in shredded chicken – which is fine by me, but not everyone likes it that way.

“Salt and pepper” in the ingredients leaves the seasoning balance up to you. In retrospect, every time I made this before I didn’t add nearly enough salt, leading to bland and boring rice. When seasoning at the start of cook time rather than later, it can be tricky to judge the salt level; seasoning and then reducing when making sauces can lead to overly-salty results.

In this case, the rice also soaks up the liquid and expands, so it seems the water should taste as salty as you want the rice. This time, I added 1-2 tsp chicken base along with the water, plus roughly 1 tsp of Kosher salt.