Challenge

While I do my best to write out recipes, I would love to hear about any of your food challenges or ways that I can help you come up with some good recipes.

My email address is jakemcglothin@gmail.com.

Okra and Tomatoes with Shrimp

For those of you who have lived in the Greater New Orleans Area, you would know that Creole tomatoes are delicious and okra thrives here. Our shrimp is really good too. I have had okra and tomato dishes countless times, but have never seen a recipe for it. So, being the genius that I am, here is a great recipe for Okra, tomatoes and shrimp over rice.

You can choose the pan you want to use, but it will need a cover.

20 small to medium okra, chopped
4 medium to large tomatoes, coarsely chopped
½ large onion, diced
½ large bell pepper, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb of shrimp, peeled
Stock (veggie, fish, or chicken)
Oil
Salt, black and cayenne pepper

Heat a large sauce pan to medium heat with a tablespoon of oil; add onion and bell pepper, salt and black pepper. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add garlic, cook for about 2 minutes.
Add okra, salt and black pepper, cook for about 4 minutes, stirring regularly (be sure that the garlic doesn’t burn.)
Add the tomatoes, more salt and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and cover. Turn to medium low heat.
After letting that cook for about 8 minutes, add 1 cup of stock and turn to low heat.
The stock, along with the tomatoes, should create a really nice sauce.
Cover and let cook for about 20-30 minutes, depending on your patience level. Uncover and add the shrimp, which are done once they turn pink (about 5-10 minutes.)

Serve over rice and enjoy.

Jake..

Zucchini Pancakes

Robin and I joined a really great food cooperative called the Hollygrove Market, which provides local and organic produce weekly at a very good price. Their website is http://www.hollygrovemarket.com/ (please check them out). Well, we have been getting quite a bit of zucchini and squash as of late and we were getting quite tired of grilling, stir frying, and roasting them. As I was walking through a grocery store on a Saturday morning, I noticed they were selling Zucchini Corncakes, which looked really good. That evening, I went home, looked up about 3 or 4 recipes, and came up with this one:

Zucchini Pancakes

2 large zucchinis grated, drained of excess moisture
½ all purpose flour
½ cup milk
1 large egg
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Cumin

Preparation:

Grate 2 zucchini, green or yellow (not pattypan), and put in a kitchen towel or cheese cloth. Squeeze out as much water as you are able.

Add ½ cup of flour to zucchini, then add two pinches of salt and one of black pepper. Then add a dash of cumin. Mix with a fork or spoon to distribute flour evenly.

Add ½ cup of milk and mix until you can no longer see the flour.

Add one large egg and mix until distributed evenly.

Other possible additions: you may add a bit of Parmesan cheese, thyme, or oregano for additional flavor.

I believe the recipe I saw used baking soda, but I didn’t.

Cooking:

On a lightly oiled griddle or pan, put heaping spoonful of mixture onto pan. Now put your two index fingers together, then your thumbs and make a circle- that’s how big the pancake should be. Add a bit more mixture if needed. I will tell you though- the thinner, the better.

Cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Repeat.

How to eat:

1. Just the way they are.
2. Take two good tomatoes and dice them. Heat a tablespoon of butter in sauté pan and add the diced tomatoes, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat and spoon onto pancakes. Top with a poached egg and Parmesan cheese.
3. Serve with strips of bacon and fried or poached egg on top.
4. Serve with sour cream

We actually did the second option and added some eggplant. It was surprisingly good. Please let me know what you think and if you have any good ideas on cooking zucchini send them my way.

Also, I hope to have my wife, Robin, bake zucchini bread in the near future.

WELCOME!

You would think that my love for conversation and writing would have lead me years ago to having a blog, but truth be told, having my thoughts, recipes, and ramblings for all to see scares the pants off of me.

I have been told my food is good, I make poor decisions when I drink, and write pretty terrible poetry that makes no sense. Knowing this, I can assure you now that I have no grand schemes of grandeur in any of these fields (food, alcoholism, and literature).

What I will say is that I hope you enjoy the things I put here. Mostly, you will see recipes that I have come up with that are based on foods I have eaten, seen, or even read about and made it my own. If you are lucky, I may put up a few poems that will keep you thoroughly confused for an extended period of time.

The stuff we eat and drink, at the end of the day, are simple things. I hope you enjoy the posts, recipes, shenanigans, and writings that I put here.