Old Creole Winter Okra Soup - a weekend recipe

In Black Magic Woman,  my French Quarter Mystery No. 4, Wyatt Thomas and Mama Mulate's latest squeeze, Jason Fasempaur, travel back to old New Orleans, circa 1845, to implore voodoo high priestess Madam Marie Laveau to help them lift a curse that is plaguing Wyatt. While there, they visit a haunted plantation on River Road and a townhouse in New Orleans. Wyatt also fights a duel with a French sword master. When Jason sees the rustic kitchen of the New Orleans townhouse, he enjoys a bowl of cook Sarah's delectable soup that he declares ‘a taste of heaven.’ Here is Sarah’s recipe. Try it, and I think you’ll agree with Jason.

Old Creole Winter Okra Soup

Ingredients

      ·         3 pints Okra

·         6 tomatoes, fresh

·         2 onions

·         2 T butter

·         2 dozen oysters

·         3 T rice

·         1 red pepper pod, deseeded

Directions

Wash and stem the okra, and then slice it very fine. Chop the tomatoes finely and preserve the juice. In a large pot, chop the onions finely, and then fry them in the butter. Wash the rice well. Slow stew the onions, tomato juice, and pepper in about three quarts of water and one pint of oyster juice for three hours, stirring frequently. Don’t add the okra and rice until ten minutes before serving, then let it boil. Drop in the oysters, boil up once, and serve.

Note: Even though south Louisiana usually has a long growing season, the Creoles of New Orleans didn’t have fresh okra and tomatoes during the winter. They resolved this problem by canning fruits and vegetables during the plentiful months. To follow the original recipe, use one can (jar) of okra and one can or jar of tomatoes instead of fresh okra and tomatoes. Either way, it's good.

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Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma, where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He authored the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans, the Paranormal Cowboy Series, and the Oyster Bay Mystery Series. Please check it out on his Amazon author page. You might also like checking out his Facebook page.

Bertram's Tailgate Oysters - a weekend recipe

Louisiana is football crazy. People in New Orleans like the Saints and everyone in Louisiana like L.S.U. Bertram Picou is no exception. He’d like to tailgate along with all the other Louisiana football fanatics except he has no help at his eclectic French Quarter bar. When the Saints or the Bengal Tigers are playing, he’s always working.

Through the years, he’s devised ways to keep his bar open while watching the big games and doing his own version of tailgating. He used to have a little TV set under the bar. Now, he has a big screen mounted on the wall and makes even more money than before from the lucky fans that wander in off the street. Lucky, you say? Bertram has an open grill in his tiny kitchen.

During big games, he always cooks up some tailgating fare, Louisiana style, and serves it free to his customers. Here is one of his and his customers, favorite tailgating fare:

Ingredients 

·         Oysters, large and fat

·         Bacon, thin strips

·         Butter

·         Parsley, minced

·         Lemons, sliced

·         Olives, sliced

Directions

Place a thin strip of bacon on a skewer, alternating with the oysters until the skewer is full. Broil over a medium flame. When the edges begin to ruffle, the oysters are ready. While you are doing this, prepare drawn butter by placing a cup near the flame so that it will melt. When it does, mix in the minced parsley.

Alternate the oysters and bacon on a hot plate and pour the drawn butter and parsley over them. Garnish with olives and lemon slices and you have the perfect, Louisiana tailgating snack, even if you are in a bar watching the game on a big screen TV.

Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans and the Paranormal Cowboy Series. Please check it out on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages. You might also like to check out his website.

French Quarter Fritter Batter - weekend recipe

If you visit New Orleans for its Cajun and Creole cuisine, you’ll soon discover the many desserts synonymous with the venerable city. The Big Easy is probably the fritter capital of the world. Known in New Orleans as the beignet, the fritter can combine with almost any fruit to create an exquisite desert. Think apple, banana, or cherry fritters. Let your imagination go wild. It all starts with the fritter batter, and here is the recipe. Hey, if you can't visit New Orleans soon, read my French Quarter mystery Big Easy and take a trip in your mind.

Ingredients 

·         1 cup flour, sifted

·         ½ cup water, cold

·         2 eggs

·         ½ cup sugar

·         1 Tbsp. olive oil

·         2 Tbsp. brandy

·         ¼  tsp. salt

Directions

Separate the eggs. Beat the whites into a thick froth and reserve. Add the yolks to the flour, and then beat until very light. Add the sugar and blend well. Add the brandy and beat lightly, and then add water and oil to make the batter the consistency of a thick starch. Add the egg whites and beat well. The batter is now ready for the desired fruit needed to create your amazing Creole dessert beignet. Enjoy!

Eric'sWeb

Eric Wilder eBook Morning Mist of Blood now just 99 cents

Read Morning Mist of Blood on your Kindle or Nook for only $.99. If you love dogs, cowboys, and things that go bump in the night, you'll love Morning Mist of Blood. MMoB is the second book in the Buck McDivit Mystery Series.

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Big Easy, the first book in Eric Wilder's French Quarter Mystery series, is now available on your Nook or Kindle for 99 cents. Clarion Review said, "Wilder's fiction is like an icy cold Hurricane slush on a hot Louisiana day." Read it now for only 99 cents and take a trip to the Big Easy.

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A Tornado Alley Tale

My friend Terry and I were having drinks after work when he recounted a tornado story that he'd experienced during the 1973 Union City tornado.

Terry was still a cop at the time and sent to help shortly after the big tornado. He found a man standing outside the ruined shell of what had recently been his house. Those of you that have experienced tornadoes know they often leave certain things completely untouched amid massive destruction. A coffee table remained in the spot that had been the man’s living room, not even an hour before. The telephone sat on the coffee table, undisturbed by the storm. As Terry talked with the home owner, the phone rang.

Terry watched as the man carried on a short conversation with someone. After hanging up, he walked back to where Terry waited.

“That was strange,” he said. “It was a man calling from Moore. He was standing in his front yard a few minutes ago when my TV Guide dropped out of the sky in front of him. Just before the storm, it was sitting on that coffee table beside the phone.”

Moore is a town about thirty miles east of Union City. The magazine wasn’t even wet.

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Happy 4th of July, Everyone

I awoke this morning with the strange feeling I needed to start drinking beer and eating hotdogs. Then I realized what day it is.


The kids are all out of town, working, or somewhere else. Doesn’t matter with Marilyn. She has enough food for an army, in case one shows up. She’s grilling burgers on the back porch on a $5 dollar Hibachi grill she bought at Wal-Mart. Bet everything will still taste wonderful.

Still smarting about her favorite cook’s recent social problems, she prepared Paula Deen’s famous potato salad. There’s also watermelon and strawberries for desert. No Vidalia onions at the store for some reason. Oh well!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, everyone! Hope you are having as much fun as us.

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