A Cozy Mardi Gras

 Mardi Gras happens on this Tuesday  which means it happens on a work day. You can still celebrate but in a lesser,more cozy style.There's plenty of different and even easy on a work night to make.

Keep in mind that the day is also Shrove Tuesday , a day to celebrate with pancakes.This was a time to get rid of all the dairy and fat in the house. Pancakes fit that bill. These can be made for breakfast and even dinner and if you're home lunch.If you don't have the time, then make the batter Monday night and keep in the fridge overnight. This will give you a crepe like pancake, thin and crispy. You can serve with butter and maple syrup or just butter, granulated sugar and butter, like the New York Times Food section recommended. You can also fold them and stuff sauted cinnmon apples or add some ham and cheese for a savory kind of bite. Another sweet treat is the beignet. It is a yeast dough, reminiscent of a doughnut. Again  you can make this on Monday if you're off for Presidents Day. The dogh does have to be kneaded and rolled out along with proofed for anywhere from an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes in a buttered bowl. Once cut and air fried for six minutes, you have delicious bites  dusted in powdered sugar or ready to be dipped in chocolate or caramel sauce.

You can also celebrate with classic Mardi Gras dishes cooked in a crockpot. Jambalaya is an easy cook in one. Make it on th e morning and let it simmer all day. This is a great way of letting the different spcies blend together for a tasty , delicious bowl. Of course it has the holy trinity of red bell pepper, celery and onion  The recipe can be amended with taking out the raw shrimp and adding crab or adding more chicken and Andouille sausage or less. If you want to make it vegetarian, then add Fieldcrest plant based sausage and more veggies like green bell peppers,  Serve with easy minute rice to absorb all that luscious gravy. Gumbo is another easy Mardi Gras dish that you can make in a snap. It does start with a roux but this is an easy base of butter and flour cooked together. This only takes five to six minutes and then added to the crock pot with the holy trinity again along with chicken , shrimp and Andouille sausage. What makes this different than the jambalaya is the addition of okra. This is a thickener which makes the gumbo potage like.  You can get the filet powder which is ground sassafras tree leaf at your local grocery or at Wal-Mart. 

You cna have a cozy Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday with simple but fun dishes. Both sweet and savory can be enjoyed during this party time. Go wild on a smaller scale.

A Variety of Gumbos

One of the tastiest and colorful dishes in American cuisine is gumbo.This rich stew is now undergoing some tweaks and updates.Are these new versions just as good as the original? Yes!

Brett Anderson,a New Orleans restaurant critic and food writer, contributed this fascinating piece in today's New York Times Food section.Gumbo is one of the pillars of Southern cooking.It is the classic dish of New Orleans, first coming to the city with enslaved Africans in the 1700's.It's name comes from the Bantu word for okra. Like the city itself, different nationalities  contributed to the dish , making it unique.The indigenous Americans added file or sassafras  as a thickened.The French contributed roux, the flour and lard mixture that serves as the area's base.Other ethnic groups added spices and sausages,along with the holy trinity of Cajun cooking, celery, onions and
peppers.


Like New Orleans, the dish is still constantly changing.Hurricane Katrina redefined the city in 2006.New ethnic groups came in, changing the city along with its '  cuisine.Gumbo takes on an Indian flavor at Saffron Nola. Chef Arvinder  Vikhu  fell in love with the dish thirty years ago after trying it in a New Orleans hotel.He gave the dish a different vibe ,enlivening  it with ginger, turmeric and ginger. A Far Eastern influence comes from the Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants that dot New Orleans' outskirts.Restaurateur Marcus Jacobs uses their flavors in his restaurant, Marjie's Thai curry gumbo.Some,such as the grand dame of Cajun cooking,Leah Chase, scoffs at this.She is the owner of the famed Dooky Chase.Hers is a traditional made with either  Andouille sausage or chicken.A few chefs have even served potato  salad with gumbo.This is sacrilege.The dish has to be served with rice although some chefs have used basmati and jasmine  kinds with it.

Gumbo is just New Orleans itself.It's constantly changing yet retains its'  roots.It will still go on, reflecting a rich and varied heritage.
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