Braciole

In my younger days I lived in Boston - on Hancock Street, just a a few steps off 'Dot' Ave - and played the role of the impoverished student. But it wasn't bad enough to rate the term, really. I had my GI Bill, and a part time job, and rent in a condemned building is awfully cheap. With a little prioritizing, one could live pretty well. Volume could be the key consideration. As my similarly situated friends (there were several habitable apartments in Hancock House, as we called it) quickly learned, on a diet  predominantly of Jell-O and popcorn, we need never stoop to drinking domestic. I hear even now the stately toast - 'Gentlemen, I give you - starvation!' Those were the days.

And when splurging was an option, there was spaghetti. At Purity Supreme, the grocery around the corner, a pound of it went for just 55 cents. The ingredients for a respectable sauce - even with meat - could be had for a few bucks more. There were other delicacies within our means. Like these super thin cuts of round steak - not so cheap by the pound, but sliced so thin that a little went a very long way. They were labled braciole - which I assumed was pronounced like broccoli with an Italian accent - and were terrific done up in a skillet for a breakfast of steak and eggs. 

Then along comes a friend who not only knew how to pronounce braciole (brah-'zhol), but actually had a recipe, and showed us what it was all about. Stuffed with Italian sausage and braised with tomatoes, it was absolutely fantastic with spaghetti. 

I have since learned that braciole is typically made with a stuffing of breadcrumbs, parsley, cheese and pine-nuts - but at best, that's only so-so with spaghetti.  

Down South, odds are you won’t find the already thin sliced braciole cuts on the butcher’s shelf; so you have to butterfly it yourself.

Which brings us to flank steak. It’s not only a great cut of beef - its dimensions are made to order. It's also fairly easy to butterfly.

FOR THE BRAISING SAUCE:

1 medium onion chopped;

5 carrots, julienned;

1 small fennel bulb, thin sliced in 2 inch lengths (save the fronds);

6 garlic cloves, minced;

1 24 oz can tomato puree;

1/2 C chicken broth;

1/2 C dry vermouth;

1/4 C olive oil;

Salt and pepper

  

FOR THE BRACIOLE:

1 flank steak, 1 1/2 pounds or so, butterflied - pounded to about 1/4 inch thickness;

1 pound hot Italian sausage (removed from casing if using actual sausages);

2 C freshly made, and not too fine bread crumbs (if using store-bought, make it 1 1/2 C Panko);

1/2 C parsley, finely chopped;

1/2 C selected fronds from fennel bulb, finely chopped;

Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

TO MAKE IT:

1. PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 DEGREES

2. Butterfly the steak. You’ll need a long, sharp knife. A boning or carving knife is ideal. Lay the steak on the cutting board before you, with the grain (which is easily seen on a flank steak) running up and down. Imagine the steak is a book, and you wish to open it at the middle-most page - but the pages are glued together, so you will have operate. The steak will probably be about an inch thick. You want to cut that thickness in half.  Hold the knife as flatly as possible and cut along the middle of the right edge (or if you are left handed, the left edge) and saw a little, working your way up and down the length of that edge. 

Continue, deepening and smoothing, until you can  peel back the top half of the book, and keep peeling and cutting until it is in fact like an open book - but do not go so far as to cut it in two. Then flatten it with the heel of your hand, cover it with plastic wrap, and pound it with a meat mallet - front and back - as uniformly as possible, until you have a general thickness of about a quarter inch.

Now that you’ve read all this, it may have occurred to you to JUST FIND A VIDEO DEMONSTRATION on line.

If by chance the steak comes apart on you, no worries. It does not have to be all in one piece. You can make more than one braciole. It will all be sliced into so many roundels anyway.

3. Blend sausage with bread crumbs until spreadable, and mold sausage over the steak, covering each piece, maintaining a margin of about an inch; cover it evenly with parsley and fennel fronds; sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

4. Starting with a wide end - with the grain, as you face it, running left and right, east and west - carefully, tightly roll the steak, just as you would a jelly-roll. The grain should be running with the length of the cylinder you are forming - that way, when the roll is sliced into roundels, you will be cutting against the grain - which makes for better eating.

Then, with 10 inch pieces of string, at 2 1/2 - 3 inch intervals, tie the roll securely. Generously salt and pepper. Cut the roll in half, for better maneuverability. Now you are ready to sear it.

5. In a Dutch oven, over medium high heat, bring the oil to shimmering. Add meat rolls, and, turning with tongs, brown thoroughly. Remove and drain.

6. Reduce heat to medium, add carrots, onions and garlic;  sauté, stirring occasionally. When vegetables have wilted, add broth and wine, scraping the bottom to loosen any tasty residue from the saute. Blend in the tomato puree, and bring to bubbling.

7. Place steak rolls back in Dutch oven, turning them in the sauce. Transfer the Dutch oven to the preheated oven and cook COVERED 1 hour, giving the meat another turn about half way through. Then, turn the rolls again, and cook UNCOVERED 30 minutes.

8. Remove the rolls, allow to cool, and slice into 3/8 - 1/2 inch roundels.

9. Serve atop pasta, covered in sauce and grated cheese. 

Creole Fricassee of Chicken a la Jardiniere

This isn't a new twist on an old standby. It's an old twist on an old standby.

Chicken fricassee holds a special place in Creole cuisine - front and center. It is so fundamental, so basic that to an old Creole it must have seemed quite ordinary. But thumbing through archived recipes of a century ago (in The Times Picayune Creole Cookbook), one can see that it did not have to be ordinary. It could be transformed into something stupendous. Fricassee a la Jardiniere is an outright celebration, a showcase of the best of the garden.

You begin with the chicken fricassee - a sauté of chicken, braised in sauce with aromatics, swimming in gravy, laced with green onion - but then you get extravagant. There are already vegetables in the fricassee. That was just part of the foreplay.

Now for the showcase vegetables - they are our second line. And it can be everything a second line should be. Arrange them on top of the fricassee, in and out of the gravy, nestled among drumstick, thigh and breast. Then finish it all in a hot oven.

FIRST LINE FRICASSEE

 

1 C (in all) olive oil

1 1/2 C (in all) flour

1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces

salt and pepper

2 carrots diced

1 1/2 C diced onion

1 C diced fennel bulb

3/4 C diced bell pepper

3/4 C diced celery

3 T finely chopped garlic

1 C green onions, sliced, with a good bit of green - Note: the green onions are not to be added until the braise is finished.

2 C chicken broth

1 can condensed beef broth

3/4 C white wine

2 t paprika

1/2 t cayenne

1/2 t black pepper

1/2 t white pepper

4-5 springs of fresh thyme
Sour cream (optional) 

1. Generously salt and pepper the chicken pieces. Scatter 1 C flour on a plate, and dredge chicken in flour, thoroughly coating each piece.

2. In Dutch oven, over medium high heat, bring 1/2 C oil to shimmering, then brown the chicken, in two batches so as not to over-crowd, 3 or 4 minutes a side, till golden brown all over; set aside.

3. Discard oil, wipe pan - but do not disturb any brown crust left on the bottom - do remove any burnt spots - and add 1/2 C fresh oil.

4. PREHEAT OVEN to 375

5. Blend in 1/2 C flour, stir until smooth, and cook over medium heat, still stirring occasionally, till you have a golden brown roux.

6. Stir in all the vegetables except the green onions, and stir, stir - till vegetables are wilting. Then add paprika, cayenne, black and white pepper - still stirring.

7. Slowly add the chicken broth, stirring until well incorporated. As it thickens, add the consume, a little at a time, and then the wine - still stirring -

8. Place the chicken back in the pot, cover. Lower heat and simmer 45 minutes.

9. Stir in the green onions. You might wish to stir in some sour cream, too.

And the fricassee is basically done. Now to make it a la jardiniere.

SECOND LINE VEGETABLES

10. Add your second line vegetables to the fricassee after it has been braised for 45 minutes. Keep them on the surface - at least don’t fully submerge them. But do make sure everything is at least moistened in the sauce. With tongs lift exposed pieces of chicken enough to allow some crisping of skin.

11. Then place Dutch oven in oven, uncovered, on an upper rack, and cook 15 minutes.

Artichoke. This recipe should feed to bursting four people. So an artichoke, quartered, will provide each an interesting diversion. If you have more than four people, you might wish to cut it into eighths. Or use two artichokes. Bring to a boil enough water to cover the artichoke, add the juice of a lemon, the lemon itself, a bay leaf, a couple of garlic cloves, a teaspoon of peppercorns and some olive oil - don't forget the artichoke. Cook for 30 minutes. Remove,  and drain. Cut off the stem, peel it and slice it. Cut the artichoke in half, length wise. Carefully remove the spiny choke and the tough inner leaves; then - with cut side facing down - carefully slice the halves in two.

Cauliflower. Cut it in half, lengthwise. Half a cauliflower should be plenty (save the other half for a salad). Cut florets from the stalk, and halve the larger ones if it will make the general size more uniform. Over high heat, bring about a quart of water to a boil. In a large bowl, prepare an ice water bath. Drop the florets into the boiling water, give it a few seconds to get back up to a boil, and cook 3 minutes. Remove the florets and drop into the ice water bath. When cool, remove.

Corn. Boil an ear or two for 10 minutes. Remove, and cut into 1/2 inch roundels.

Green peas. 1/C fresh, blanched for three minutes; or thawed frozen - no precooking necessary.

Cherry tomatoes. Especially if you can find a variety of sizes and colors. 1 C should suffice.  

Serve over rice - or dirty rice. Get casual. Use your hands - with the artichoke and the corn, you’ll have to.

There are of course a lot of other options for the second line vegetables: spring onions, roasted in foil; wedges of fennel bulb, roasted without the foil; roasted garlic, patty pan squash, red chilis; blanched asparagus or broccoli florets - and on and on.

Cornish Hen Paradis

Madeira demi glace spiked with current jelly and truffles, and adorned with fresh green grapes – an old haute Creole concoction – Sauce Paradis was once upon a time served with the squab at Antoine’s. But it is great on anything – veal scallops browned in butter sure comes to mind – though it especially shines with roasted fowl.

Squab is a young pigeon, right? Getting your hands on a pigeon can be complicated. It can involve more embarrassment than one would expect. When you live in a small town, you can’t count on anonymity. So I gave up on Pigeonneaux Sauce Paradis; I need a bird I can get in the grocery store. A Cornish hen will do. And each guest can still have a picture perfect fine-figure-of-a-fowl on his or her very own plate.

  

My wife says this dish is perfect for Easter, because it has the fresh look of Spring, and there is absolutely nothing ordinary about it. It is, she says, Holiday special. (She really talks like that).

It might be a good idea to serve a light salad as a first course, and then end with the bird - and just the bird. Lots of garlic bread nearby for the sauce.

The last time we made this, we finished by passing the roasting pan around the table for mopping up with the last of the bread.

That’s how everybody knew it was time for dessert.

For each Cornish Hen:

With a pair of Kitchen shears remove the backbone, and save it to make a broth with later on. Spread out the hen, breast up, on a work surface. Press down on the breast until you hear the pop, and flatten the bird. Rub it down with olive oil, and generously salt and pepper.

On a half sheetpan, in a 400 degree oven, roast the birds for 40 to 45 minutes. You want them done enough to come easily off the bone, with some crisp in the skin to stand up to the sauce.

SAUCE PARADIS

1 stick butter

1/4 C flour

2 C condensed beef consomme

1/2 C Madeira

3 T current jelly

1/8 t white pepper

3 C sliced white grapes

black truffle - at least 1 whole truffle, sliced 

In a 2 quart sauce pan, on low heat, melt a stick of butter, then add a quarter cup of flour, and start whisking. You are making a roux. A blondish roux, not a dark one; the darker the roux the less thickening power. Five or ten minutes on low heat should be enough to cook the flour taste out of it, but not so much you’ll wind up with soup instead of sauce.

Then - still whisking - blend in 2 Cups of condensed beef consomme.

Don’t worry, this is not one of those condensed soup recipes from A Man, a Can, and a Plan (which, by the way, is a great little book). The original prescription is for a rich beef broth - so why not condensed beef consomme? Beats looking for a bunch of bones and an extra couple of days’ work. Or reducing four cups of regular beef broth to make it double strength. But a 10.5 ounce can contains only 1 1/4 Cups, so you will need two cans. (The dog is entitled to the remainder mixed in with his dry food).

Back to the sauce – whisking, whisking – Blend in 1/2 Cup Madeira. This makes it old world Southern. Use Rainwater Madeira, and it makes it even more so. There are some good stories about Rainwater Madeira and old Savannah - which I should save for a Savannah recipe.

Add the 1/8 t white pepper and 3 T’s currant jelly. Keep stirring. It will begin to thicken.

Keep cooking and stirring. You don’t want to add the truffles until you are pretty much done with the stirring. No sense in breaking them up any more than you have to.

Once you have the sauce the way you want it, add the truffles and any remaining truffle liquid.

Then add the grapes and turn off the heat. 

Shortly before the birds are ready to take out of the oven, start reheating the sauce.

When the birds are done, sauce them, arranging the grapes and truffle slices for best effect.

Put them back in the oven for five or ten minutes, to glaze the sauce and get them piping hot before serving.

This same recipe works just fine with any manner of roast fowl. Butterfly a chicken, roast it, reheat it with sauce and then cut it up. Think about thinly sliced turkey breast - which is screaming for sauce. What about duck? You like Veal Marsala? You’ll like Veal Madeira. You’ll die for Veal Paradis. Ever notice that any veal dish makes a great pork dish? It goes on and on.

This sauce is special.

Cajun Roast Pork

This is a lean cut roast in the style of Prudhomme, with the abundant gravy that was the hallmark of the fatter cut recipes. But it is not cooked as Chef Paul would have prescribed, for he was bound by the rules of the day - when, just to be sure it was safe, pork had to be cooked to a temperature of 160 degrees. The fact that pork loin’s optimal temperature for eating is more like 145 - 150 degrees didn’t carry much weight.

But with improved industry standards, things have changed. There is no longer any need to overcook pork loin. Hallelujah.

This roast is pretty to look at, and suited to an elegant presentation, sliced and sauced on a big platter. But it eats like comfort food, and should be accompanied by something that thrives on gravy - rice, mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing, cheese grits, or biscuits. The last time I made it I served it with a Creole eggplant casserole, and boy did that work well. 

Here it is:

  

Roast Pork Louisiane

3-4 pound pork loin roast (from the rib end)

1 T sugar

1 T salt

1 T black pepper

INGREDIENTS FOR STUFFING:

3 T butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 large red bell pepper, finely chopped

1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 t salt

1 heaping t thyme

1 scant t cayenne

1/2 t black pepper

1/2 t white pepper

1/2 t dry mustard

INGREDIENTS FOR gravy:

4 C’s unsalted chicken broth

1 C red wine or Madeira

2 T vinegar

2 T corn starch

****************************************

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a saucepan blend the 4 C’s chicken broth and 1 C wine, and over high heat reduce by half.

3. Rub sugar, salt and pepper all over the pork. With a paring knife, cutting lengthwise with the grain on the fat side of the pork, make 12 to 15 deep slits - each two to three inches long. Cut as deeply as possible without going all the way through to the bottom. With your fingers stretch and enlarge these slits to form pockets for the stuffing. These pockets should be roughly 1 1/2 inches apart, in rows down the length of the pork, staggered so that slicing anywhere against the grain would cut into two or three pockets. Also cut pockets into the ends. 

4. In a large skillet, sauté stuffing ingredients (vegetables first, then, when colors brighten, the spice) in butter over fairly high heat for five minutes, stirring frequently. Remove to a dish big enough to accommodate the pork and the vegetables - a 9 x 13 inch baking dish is probably ideal - and allow to cool.

5. Place the pork in the stuffing dish, and fill the pockets with stuffing. Press vegetables as deeply as possible into the pockets, filling them to capacity. There should be a considerable amount of stuffing left over. It will be used.

6. Wipe clean the skillet, add 3 T of oil, and get it hot. Carefully - using tongs and spatula - place pork fat side down in the hot oil, and brown for several minutes. You will lose some stuffing in the process, but searing should constrict the pocket slits enough to hold things together. Turning with tongs and spatula, brown the roast all over - including the ends. It should take about ten minutes.

7. Cut two stalks of celery in half. Arrange these pieces cross-ways like the rungs of a ladder along the bottom of a roasting pan, forming sort of a rack for the pork. Place the pork upon this rack, and press additional stuffing in all the pockets - as much as they will hold. With your hands scoop up the excess stuffing and mold it to completely cover the topside of the pork. This buttery, spicy mixture will baste the pork during roasting.

8. Add 2 T vinegar into broth mixture, and pour it all into the roasting pan.

9. Place roasting pan - covered - in the preheated oven, and roast for one hour.

10. Remove pan from oven and rake the vegetable mixture off the top of the pork, stirring it into the broth. Return the pan to the oven, uncovered, and roast 30 more minutes - watching to make sure the top does not brown too much. You are looking for a temperature of 145-150.

11. When you have a temperature of 145-150 degrees, take the pan out of the oven, remove the pork to a serving platter or cutting board, and tent with foil.

12. Put the roasting pan on the stovetop and bring the broth to a boil, then lower the heat. Ladle about 1/2 C of the broth into a bowl, and allow to cool. Blend the 2 T of corn starch into the cooled broth, and stir this mixture into the broth in the roasting pan. Simmer, stirring, till the broth thickens. Now it’s gravy. Adjust seasoning.

On a platter, slice the roast, and cover it with gravy.

Aunt Jean's Alabama Chicken Stew

I was not so familiar with the Alabama barbecue tradition when my father-in-law, Cloyd, took me to St. Florian (pronounced Floreen) Catholic Church in Florence, Alabama, to get in line. It was maybe five o’clock in the morning, and already there were probably a hundred people ahead of us.

Some fifty yards away at the church’s outbuilding was the head of the line, our destination the bright square of its open door. It was still dark, so that was about all there was to look at, but the profound aroma of hickory smoke and roasted pork was entertaining enough. Cloyd, who was a veteran of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, and getting on in years, was muttering and shaking his head. He was fretting that the line was so short. Nothing like it was a few years ago. Times were changing. “The line used to be twice as long,” he said, “this late in the day.”

As I said, it was five in the morning.

For decades, every Memorial Day and every Veterans Day, St. Florian Catholic Church had been administering magnificent barbecues - terrific pulled pork, Hot Slaw and Chicken Stew. Being from  Georgia, I wondered if this chicken stew was just some variant of Brunswick Stew. “Don’t know about that,” Cloyd said. But then we were pulled to the head of the line by old friends of his for a tour of the inner works. A long series of tables, manned by volunteers chopping and pulling pork, and a row of cast iron pots - veritable witches’ cauldrons, more than a few of them. In several hours they would be filled with bubbling chicken stew. Our guide explained that the law required washing these pots with hot water, which would simply destroy the “seasoning” they had acquired over the years. That would be a horrible waste, so the law was ignored, and the authorities looked the other way. I was charmed by the thought. 

I tried my first chicken stew that day, and loved it. I also had my first Alabama Hot Slaw, too - and loved that - but that is another post (click here for Alabama Hot Slaw).

I was raised on Brunswick Stew, I revere it, and I mean no disrespect; Alabama Chicken Stew is every bit as good, and I confess, I make it more frequently than I do Brunswick Stew. The fact that my wife is Alabaman and demands it is only one of many reasons.

A bowl of Alabama Chicken Stew, with a fresh biscuit, piping hot, floating in the middle, is like a chicken potpie turned inside out. And there is nothing less than wonderful about that. Think about it.

I was not to have chicken stew again for several years. One Saturday morning in October, while my wife peacefully slumbered, her left leg jerking fitfully as she murmured, as she does, “Roll Tide - Sic em” - it occurred to me that Chicken Stew would be quite the thing. It looked to be a cold, dreary day. There would be football - no doubt my wife was dreaming about it even then; something hot and hearty, and chock full of Alabama tradition was called for. But I didn’t know how to make it.

Aunt Jean was my wife’s - would be anybody’s - favorite aunt. No one knew my wife - or the mysteries of being Alabaman - better than she. I was sure she would know what to do. I called her and shared my thoughts. She told me I was in luck. It just happened that her Alabama Chicken Stew was probably the very best that ever was. But there was one condition I must promise to honor before she would give me the recipe. NEVER WAS I TO DIVULGE THE SECRET INGREDIENT. And so I swore.

INGREDIENTS

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

olive oil (enough in which to brown the thighs)

6 C chicken broth

3 carrots, sliced

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

1 large onion, chopped

2 cans cream style corn

2 cans chopped tomatoes with juice

1 Secret Ingredient

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) Pour the broth into a Dutch oven, and put it on high heat.

  

3) In a large skillet heat the oil over medium-to-high heat, and brown the chicken five minutes or so each side. Do it in two batches. The main purpose of this step is to create a nice brown crust - the fond - on the bottom of the skillet; there should be a little room in that skillet so things won’t get too steamy. The fond will eventually flavor the stew. When the chicken is browned, put it into the Dutch oven with the broth.

4) Cook the chicken in the broth, covered, on medium heat, until it is absolutely done. When it can easily be pulled off the bone, remove from the broth, and set aside to cool.

5) Leave the broth on simmer.

6) Meanwhile, pour a splash more olive oil in the skillet, throw in the carrots, onion and celery, and sauté for about 10 minutes. Deglaze the bottom of the pan as you go, with your spatula scraping loose the brown bits from the skillet bottom, incorporating them into the sauté. 

7) Add the potatoes, cook for 10 minutes. You will be adding to the fond, so give it an occasional stir, scraping the bottom of pan.

8) Add the cream style corn and the tomatoes to the skillet, stirring well, and simmer for about 5 minutes - stirring and deglazing as you go. Once you get that far it's OK to turn if off.

9) When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin, and pull off the meat. Discard bones and skin (remember the humble dog). Tear the meat into bite-size pieces and drop it into the Dutch oven with the simmering broth.

10) Add contents of the skillet to the Dutch oven, blending thoroughly. Check for seasoning, adding salt, pepper and cayenne to suit yourself.

11)  Transfer the Dutch oven to the oven, and cook, uncovered, for 40 minutes. This not only continues the reducing and cooking, it browns the surface - so stir occasionally, and spread the joy. 

12) Remove from oven. It is time for the secret ingredient.

Aunt Jean died last year, and she’s been on my mind. I’ve discussed this recipe with her children, who laughed and said there was no secret to the secret ingredient - she told everybody. So it’s ok, I guess, to spread it around.

 

SECRET INGREDIENT: 

1 stick of butter, just blend it in.

This is best served over a hot biscuit. If more elegance is desired, consider fried grit cake, or a wedge of corn bread, or corn bread sticks on the side. Perfect accompaniment would be fried okra, or fried green tomatoes, something with a crunch. Or how about fried green tomato BLT’s, like they serve at Harvest Moon.

Pompano en Papillote

Sassafrass, the office cat, looks at a computer keyboard and thinks: “I could pee there.” I looked past the waiter at my wife’s Pompano en Papillote, and thought: “I could cook that.”

At least I do now.

I have had fish prepared en papillote here and there over the years, and it’s pretty neat - meal in a bag, French name, and all that; but when all was said and done, however nice the broth and herbs, it was to my Southern fried mind just steamed fish and vegetables.

Then the Pontchartrain Hotel reopened, and the Caribbean Room was back in business. My wife and I dined there one night, and she ordered the Pompano en Papillote. The waiter really made a big deal about it, but I got the duck, secure in my choice, and maybe a little sorry for my wife.

Then they brought out the Pompano. An inflated, oven-browned bag, radiating heat and the subtlest fragrance. Very cleverly - masterly, even - our waiter broke out the scissors and snipped the bag, fashioning a workable entrance which opened like French doors of crackling parchment. The steam rose and a marvelous aroma kicked in, and for the moment I forgot my duck. You could see the Pompano, gleaming between the leaves. The waiter stepped in with a china gravy boat, and, muttering ‘crab meuniere,’ poured a stream of rich, creamy crab-filled something right through the French doors - and I thought to myself it’s not just steamed fish anymore.

The duck was plenty good, but I resolved that next time I dined there, it would be the Pompano.

It had been a specialty of the Caribbean Room many years ago, in another lifetime. I came along too late for that, but people are still talking about those glory days, about the marvelous Caribbean Room and its renowned chef, Louis Evans. I’d even picked up a copy of the cookbook that was published just after his death.

And now I have picked it up again. Chef Louis’ Pompano en Papillote is in there. This son of a Mississippi sharecropper was no stranger to a fancy dish with a fancy French name - French cuisine was his stock and trade, and he was a master. Some (many) of the most famous people of his time - presidents, great artists, legendary entertainers - would dine at his table. It was his style to put the seafood sauce in with the fish before closing the bag. That might have its virtues, but I liked the drama of the china gravy boat.

Chef Louis prescribed what looks to have been a custard with crab and shrimp. And there were no vegetables to accompany the fish in the bag. (I believe there were vegetables in my wife’s, but I have to take her word for it, because she refused to share.)

Not so sure about the cookbook, either. Sometimes I suspect that fundamental instructions (which to wiser hands might be implied) are simply omitted - things like “reduce by half,” perhaps. And the listed ingredients don’t always square with the instructions. When six egg yolks are involved, a guy wants to be sure about the measurements.

But I can cut and slice, and I can make a sauce (or at least some of them). And I was pretty good with a pair of scissors
back in Vacation Bible School, before, you know, they kicked me out.

So I set about to find some Pompano.

And that turned out to be the hardest part.

The Picayune can take you only so far, and then one must resort to the internet. There were more than a few dead ends before I found the right place. Federal Express botched the first attempt, and was going to let me bear the cost (which they could have done legally, for I was stupid enough to waive signature receipt); but the worthy fish monger would not see a customer disappointed - they actually said that - and saved the day. I recommend these people wholeheartedly https://www.citarella.com/.

Surely, Tilapia at your local market would be cheaper; but it would not be Pompano.

Prepare the parchments. The standard width of parchment paper available in the grocery store is 15 inches. So a 15-inch length of parchment is a perfect square. Cut a thin strip, and you have a 15-inch standard to use as a measuring stick. Cut as many 15-inch lengths as you need, one for each serving. Fold each one in half, corner to corner. You will have so many triangles. Arrange them side by side on a large work space and open them up.

Prepare the vegetables. You will want between half a cup and a cup of assorted vegetables for each filet.

Take five or six interesting vegetables. Like a few rainbow carrots, a red onion, fennel bulb, some pearl onions, some grape tomatoes and green peas - frozen are fine.

Cut the carrot, as much as you will need, into thin strips, 2 to 3 inches long, and no more than a quarter inch thick, because they won’t have long to cook. Same thing with the red onion. Cut thin fan shaped slices from the fennel bulb. Peel your pearl onions - which will involve boiling them for three minutes, snatching them from the water to cool, then removing their jackets. Throw in some grape tomatoes and peas. Anything you want. You decide how much.

Do not mix them up; keep them in separate bowls.

Load the parchments.

Onto the center of each sheet of parchment, next to the crease, apportion like amounts from each bowl of vegetables, making a pile of half a cup, or a little more.

Lay a filet, its edge alongside the parchment crease, over each pile. If it seems too long for your sheet of parchment, cut it in two and stack the halves. Season with salt and pepper, Cajun seasoning, anything you like. Place pats of butter and lemon slices on top. Strategically position fennel fronds, sprigs of thyme and dill. Drizzle over all some olive oil, and a little white wine - not too much, maybe a teaspoon or two for each packet.

Sealing the parchment.

Fold the other half of the parchment sheet over the fish, and get the edges as lined up as you can. Videos aplenty are on the internet. There’s more than one way to do it. You can practice with the rotogravure. (It’s not every day you can use that word.) The usual method is kind of ad hoc, just a matter of taking a corner on the crease side, bending it inboard till its upper edge is against the mound in the middle, and then smoothing it down - really hard. 

Then move further down, a little at a time, adjusting the angle a bit each time so as to make the edge follow the outline of the mound, making a series of folds. When you finish you might have a half moon shape like mine - or if the filet isn’t very long, it might be more like a circle.

Judging by the pictures I took, I have no particular talent for sealing a parchment packet. I have done this a number of times now, but it seems there has been no improvement in my technique. When I look at those pictures, I say to myself, Jeez, even I could have done better than that. But therein lies the beauty. It still works. Maybe you can fold it any old way. Maybe any mistake can be corrected if you fold it in one more time and rub it down hard with the bottom of a glass. 

Or better yet (though I have as yet to stoop so low) - use a stapler.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Make the sauce.

1/4 C minced shallots

2 sticks butter

3 T flour

1/2 C white wine

1 C fish or chicken broth

1 C heavy cream

1/2 t salt

1/2 t cayenne

1 C picked crab

3/4 lb peeled shrimp

In a 2-quart saucepan, melt a stick of butter. Add the minced shallots, 3 T’s of flour, and start whisking. Cook for at least a minute, maybe two. Then reduce heat to low and slowly add 1/2 C white wine (sweet or dry, whatever you like), give it another minute; then slowly add 1 C broth and the remaining stick of butter, whisking all the while. When all the butter is melted, slowly add (still whisking) the cream, the salt and cayenne. When the thickness suits you, fold in the crab, cook until it is thoroughly heated through; add the shrimp, and when they are nicely poached, you’re done.

Put the packets on a baking sheet.

Bake the parchments

Put the baking sheet with your parchment packets in the preheated oven. Set the timer for 20 minutes.

The packets will be inflated and browned.

Serving the packets.

Plate the packets. Then with scissors cut a short, wide “H” (with the middle bar of that “H” running lengthwise) in every packet, fashioning those French doors I was talking about.

Or, in the real world, you can stand idly by with your useless scissors as your guests ignore your instructions and simply open the packets with their fingers.

In any event, your assistant should be standing by to pour about half a cup of sauce into each packet as it is opened.

A New Orleans Spaghetti Bordelaise is a good accompaniment, for it really knows what to do with a Cajun cream sauce. You could in fact dump the contents of your packet on a mound of spaghetti and drench it in sauce. And don't forget the crusty French bread.

Which wine to pair with Pampano en Papillote is an easy choice, because, as a friend reminds me, and as Edward G. Robinson unforgettably explains (click below for dramatic illustration) -





 Champagne and Pompano - they really go together.