The first expiriment with stuffed shrimp was a success!  Happy New Year everyone, check out the recipe for simple and delicious stuffed shrimp.

Ingredients

•  20 Jumbo Shrimp (12 count) butterflied
•  1 medium white onion (finely chopped)
•  2 medium Green bell pepper (finely chopped)
•  1 celery stalk (finely chopped)
•  1/2 pound of lump crab meat
•  1 sleeve of Ritz Crackers
•  1/2 sleeve of Saltine Crackers (more or less)
•  1/2 stick of butter (4 tbsp)
•  2 tbsp of cajun seasoning (or to taste)
•  1 egg
•  1/2 tsp Kosher Salt (or to taste)
•  1/2 tsp ground pepper (or to taste)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (Farenheit).
2. Finely chop the onion, bell pepper, and celery.  Melt 1 Tbsp of butter in large skillet and cook onion, bell pepper, and celery over medium heat until soft.  Add crabmeat and cajun seasoning (I used Slap Ya Mama but Tony Chachere’s works great as well).  Once well blended and flavored, remove from heat and place into a large bowl.  
3.  Crush the Ritz and Saltine Crackers together (very fine) in a Ziploc bag and add to bowl.  Add the egg (the first time I made this recipe I got a double yolk and I think it made it a little too perfect), 1bsp of melted butter (optional), salt, pepper, and mix well.  
4.  Arrange the shrimp, already butterflied, on a baking sheet.  Scoop a righteous amount of stuffing onto each shrimp (this really depends on how much you want on each of your shrimp, or really if you want them on shrimp at all, they probably make good crab cakes.  Really, just pretty awesome stuffing you can use for all  kinds of stuff, hell, cut the shrimp up and put it in the stuffing for all I care, it’s just good stuff.  Rant over)
5.  Melt remaining butter and brush over the shrimp and stuffing.  Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until stuffing begins to brown and shrimp are opaque.  
6.  Eat it, love it, share it. 

John’s Chicken Pilaf

Ingredients

• 6 chicken thighs or pieces of your choice
• 2 cups of rice
• 1 Pint chicken broth
• 1 Pint water
• 1 medium onion Chopped (1/4 inch)
• 2 celery stalks chopped
• ½ tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• ¼ tsp tarragon
• 1 tsp basil
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

Directions

• Toast rice in olive oil for 5 minutes, remove and set aside
• Brown chicken in in olive oil
• Add onions and celery and sauté until translucent
• Add the rest of ingredients with rice, and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 -30 minutes until rice is done.

Serves 4-8 Depending on them being pigs or not

Ingredients

3 Strips of Bacon	1 Cup of diced onions
1 cup of diced smoked sausage (andouille is best)	1 cup pork cubes(1/2″ square)
2 lbs raw shrimp peeled	1/4  Stick of Butter
1 cup rice Long Grain (Basmanti is best)	1 cup diced green peppers ½”
1/4 cup chopped fine parsley	2 dozen raw oysters (drained) about a half pint
6 Roma Tomatoes (coarsely chopped with the liquid removed)	2 cups Chicken Broth
1 cup water

 

Seasoning to taste:
Garlic (4 cloves finely chopped)        Allspice 1/8 Teaspoon
Hot sauce, not Tabasco, Louisiana, Crystal or other mild one, we are looking for taste here
Basil, Thyme, Sage (very little)

Instructions

1. Cook the Bacon down to release the fat,(bacon is a treat for the kids or those acting like kids), Add the pork and brown it, then add the sausage to render a little of the flavor into the pan.
2. Remove the meat now and with the heat on high add the chopped tomatoes and cook them down to a sauce about 5 minutes, stirring all the time (because the pot is on high heat).
3. Add the onions and green peppers and the butter, sauté for two minutes or so but don’t burn the butter
4. Add the rest of the ingredients (Meat, Broth, Rice, shrimp, oysters and Parsley)
5. Add the add’l water if you want softer rice, it is sort of split on people wanting the soft rice as compared to the firm rice.
6. Turn it down to simmer and cover, Stir every 5 minutes or so, to make sure nothing sticks, if you are using a cast iron Dutch oven you can just cover it and leave it for 20 minutes.

   Check every 5 minutes after the first 20 minutes ‘til the rice is to your liking.

Simply delicious “Arroz con Gandules” for a 100

 

16 cups or 8 lbs of Rice

36 cups of water with 1 cup of chicken bouillon powder

8 – 15 oz cans of pigeon peas(Gandules)

1 finely chopped onion

2 cups of fresh chopped Cilantro

12 ounces of tomato sauce, 1 can

3 cups of stuffed Olives

8 teaspoons of Italian seasoning

4 bay leaves

½ cup of olive oil

3 cups of sofrito

¾ cup of sazon with achiote

1 lb of ham cut into small cubes

 

 

 

Directions for oven batch

Add the olive oil to the pot and add the ham at medium high heat stir for a minute or so then add the onion and stir for a minute.

 

Add the sofrito stir for 2 minutes but don’t let it dry out or burn

Add the tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, and the sazon, stirring to mix well and heat the tomato sauce .

Now add the bay leaves and the water and bring to a boil, taste the water, it should be really seasoned add adobo to taste, probably several teaspoons, 2 maybe but do make it too salty, the olives will raise the salt.  It should be dark red or orange.

Now add the peas, olives and rice mix well, turn of the heat and mix well and pour into the aluminum pans. Water should just cover the rice if it doesn’t add more water.

Bake at 350, covered for about 40 minutes,  test and if the rice is not done go for 5 more minute at test until down.  Don’t stir while cooking, it will get mushy.

Before serving stir in the chopped cilantro