Summer is in full swing here now and all we can think about is eating on the lighter side with cooling effects.

this week we got some Local Soft Shell Crabs, yep thats right i said local and delicious and uber clean. pan fried, we dont have a fryer so nothing is ever fried here. in New Orleans there is a traditional dish called a wopp salad, but lets not call it that. Pickled stuff like cauliflower, carrots, celery, green beans and two types of olives. Umm Yumm. some baby arugula and a fork is all you need.

i am calling this dish “Not your average pork and beans”we are doing our famous grilled confit pork steak, a whole pork shoulder confit then sliced and grilled to make it rich and fork tender on the inside and crisp and crunchy on the outside. From tony we got some squashes that Brian  shredded and mixed with vinegar for a spark which cut any of the heaviness . Plaquemine parish fresh beans, like black eyed, crowder, pink eye and lima. now if you have never hade fresh beans they bear little resemblance to the old and dried stuff you get in the grocery store. these do not need to be stewed to be edible, they just get a quick blanch and are good to go. top this off with Georges figs flavored mustard vinaigrette and there you have a full flavored tasty summer dish that wont weigh you down.

yellow fin tuna again yes from clean gulf waters. it was crying out for a chili and citrus marinade and the Grill. Brian took the tuna scraps left over from cutting up the whole fish and made a tonato sauce, that’s roasted tuna with anchovies and spice mayonnaise. this is always one of my favorite condiments. what else we got around here this time of year? well it also happens to be creole tomato season( these are heirloom tomatoes that never went away and did not need to be resurrected ). grilled and turned into a fresh chunky sauce and i’m telling you i’m ready to eat.

so come on down and enjoy the cool goodies in the warm weather.

eman

Bill and I headed up to the farm today for our weekly picking. 96 degrees in the shade and there ain’t no shade on the farm.
We walked the field and talked with Tony about what was ready to go and started picking.
Chili peppers really like this weather so there was an abundance of those, both hot and sweet. Most of the hot ones, cayenne,  piruri, fish peppers, and a yellow one that tastes like a habanero without the heat, I will make into our hot sauces for the year. After the chillies sit with vinegar and salt for 2 weeks we will strain them and pour it into our oak casks to mellow for 2 months. 
The sweet chillies we will pickle and use for garnish throughout the year.
Also out there we got eggplant, 4 varieties, cucumbers,  purslane,  some melons and chocolate cherry tomatoes.
Looks like a fun week of coming up with new dishes using this bounty.

Liquid Prozac

Bombay Gin infused with locally grown cucumbers muddled lemon & lime House made Watermelon Club Soda

Blueberry Mojito

Local blueberries & syrup with fresh mint, Old New Orleans Crystal  rum, lime juice, and soda

Peach Old Fashioned

So we’re getting these incredible peaches from Ruston Louisiana, a town that  everyone knows grows the best peaches in the state. these peaches are at that perfect stage where they are ripe, sweet, juicy and still firm, you know that’s the whole reason that we search long and hard for these ingredients,” GROWN FOR FLAVOR NOT FOR SHIPPING” . What to do ? what to do? Well i do love a well made old fashioned, and I’ll tell you what, peaches and bourbon sure do like each others company. We start with 10 year aged bourbon and soak those beautiful peaches in that for about 2 weeks, mellow-sweet and rich perfume of summer. Then we mash some oranges with Craig’s brandied cherries add two types of bitters and a touch of local sugar simple syrup to wrap it up. That’s it, summertime in a glass.

This is Tony and Ricky Accardo, our farmers from Paulina Louisiana. They farm on rich alluvial soil called Black Jack on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Their land also happens to be where Perique Tobacco is grown. Known to be the best tobacco in the USA.

The fields are starting to produce bog time. This week we got two types of garlic, vidalia onions, new potatoes, squashes, zucchini, and some bronze fennel.