Louisiana Strawberries

Strawberries started showing up at the farmer’s market back in December. I love being able to eat local berries in Louisiana while much of the country is still under snow.

Basque Cuisine: Part I

Last month I returned from a vacation in Spain. I studied there for nine months about five years ago, but this was my first trip back. I visited a region that I hadn’t traveled to before- the Basque Country. The cuisine was pretty much mind-blowing, and the seafood in particular was special. Some of the highlights were octopus, anchovies (both regular and white), txangurro (spider crab), bacalao (salt cod), fried mussels and other assorted weird fish things. Basque cuisine is renowned for its tapas, which the Basques call pintxos. They are often, but not always, artfully presented on a small slice of toasted baguette with a toothpick through the middle holding everything together.

Our first stop in the region was the elegant city of San Sebastian. Its an old beach town situated on the picturesque bay of La Concha. The beach is anchored by two peaks on each end.

The weather was pleasant, but it was way too cold in early January to enjoy the beach. We just concentrated on eating. Actually, many consider San Sebastian to be the best food city in Europe, and it boasts a very high concentration of restaurants with Michelin stars. We didn’t feel a need to dine solemnly in a fancy restaurant though; almost every bar in San Sebastian serves a wide variety of exquisite pintxos at a bargain price in a very festive atmosphere. You’re welcome to help yourself, get a drink and settle the tab with the bartender before you leave. I was almost always biased towards ordering a glass of txakoli, a local, young white wine that the bartenders pour from a high distance into a tumbler glass to aerate it before serving.



Here was the spread at El Quinto Pino, a small bar in San Sebastian that had great food and wasn’t too much of a crazy, crowded scene. My favorite pintxos were their fried peppers filled with cheese or bacalao on a small slice of toasted baguette.


After three days we traveled from San Sebastian to the largest Basque city of Bilbao. I had heard that there were just as many good pintxo bars in Bilbao, but it really didn’t measure up to the variety in San Sebastian. We did, however, have a great meal at Kafe Antzokia, a restaurant in an old theater. Some of the highlights were an entire fried pescadilla, a small hake, finished off with the pastel vasca, the regional dessert of a cream filled tart. The BF and I caused a bit of a scene when I told him to pour his cider into the wine glass; the waitress immediately ran over to our table, horrified, and showed us how to pour it into a tumbler. Spain is filled with all sorts of unwritten rules.


During our nightly pintxo hunts it became obvious that Bar Irrintzi had the best food in town, and we went there 4 times in 3 days. The decor was pretty trendy, but even the little old beret-wearing Basque men were showing up there to eat because the food was that good. The wall had cartoon drawings with “pintxos and friends” written in the middle. By the time we left Bilbao for Madrid, we really felt like the bartenders were our “Friends.”


Oh, and here are some pictures of mushrooms I saw in a park in Barcelona, just to be consistent with the Gills n’ Thrills theme.

Mushroom Hunting!

Last month I fulfilled a dream - hunting for wild mushrooms! Well, sort of… My friend and I were able to tag along on the annual winter mushroom foray with a regional mycological society. Too bad the forest conditions were dry and cold, and everyone left early, feeling dejected and letdown. I found the only amanita of the hunt, which I guess is something to be proud of, but I don’t really know what it means. My interests were purely culinary; these honey mushrooms were the only edible things I found.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of an “omnivore’s dilemma” when confronted with actually eating them because they look similar to a poisonous species. I got scared and stuck with some of the more easily identified edible mushrooms. Some experienced hunters, jaded from years of mushroom hunting, let us take some of their findings to cook up. We collected pluteus, a puff ball mushroom, and two varieties of oyster mushrooms.

We settled on a recipe from my newest favorite cookbook, Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors, spaghetti squash gratin with chanterelles. We didn’t have any chanterelles, but we just used all of the wild mushrooms as a substitute. The gratin was a simple dish to highlight the delicate flavors of the wild mushrooms. Here’s the original recipe:

Spaghetti Squash Gratin with Chanterelles

1 large spaghetti squash, about 3 pounds
1 pound chanterelles
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
sea salt and freshly ground peper
2 garlic gloves, chopped
1 cup half-and-half or cream
freshly grated parmesan cheese

1. Lightly butter a shallow baking dish and preheat the over to 375. Poke a few holes in the squash and bake until it’s browned and soft, about 1.5 hours.
2. While the squash is baking, clean the chanterelles with a brush. (Avoid washing them if possible- they drink up water like a sponge.) Slice or dice them into small pieces. Melt half the butter in a skillet. When foamy, add the chanterelles and cook over medium heat until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, add the garlic and half-and-half, and simmer gently until the half-and-half and mushroom juices are reduced by about a third, about 10 minutes.
3. When the squash is done, cut it in two and scoop out the seeds. Now pull away the flesh with a fork, heaping it into spaghettilike strands. toss with the remaining butter and season with salt and pepper. Spread the squash in a baking dish, spoon the chanterelles and half-and-half over it, and cover lightly with cheese. Return to the over until heated through and the top is crisped and browned in places, 15 to 20 minutes.

I was so excited to taste the wild mushrooms that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. So here are the mushrooms sauteeing in the pan!

New Orleans Style Barbecue Shrimp

Its shrimp season here in New Orleans. One Saturday we headed to the Westwego Seafood Market to pick up some fresh shrimp.

Apparently, fresh shrimp can be hard to find in most part of the country, but the coolers at this market were overflowing with all different sizes of shrimp. Large shrimp were selling for about $4 per pound.

This was my first attempt at making barbecue shrimp, possibly my favorite New Orleans dish. It consists of shell-on and head-on shrimp cooked in LOTS of butter with cayenne pepper, garlic, thyme, and rosemary. You serve it with plenty of bread for dipping. I’m starting to think that cooking shrimp with the heads and shells intact is the way to go because it adds flavors and also protects them from overcooking. I hate tough, overcooked shrimp.

I used this recipe from Nola Cuisine. It was good first attempt, but next time I’m going to seek out a recipe with a little more cayenne pepper and garlic.