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FunTripsLIVE
Christmas in New Orleans
Memories
are Forever |
It's
about the experience |
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Just a Lot of
Chef
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Got a question
about New Orleans
Ask
Us |
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His name is Kevin Belton, he may be
found at the New
Orleans Cooking School. He weighs, oh, say 400 lbs or so,
and swears that consuming large amounts of fat in the form of
butter, gravy, I mean roux excuse me, and sugar in whatever
form you need, will
guarantee you will go to
your grave with a smile
on your face.
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(You may go early, but you WILL be smiling).
We arrive a few minutes
early at the Molasses Building at 524 St. Louis Street, where our
cooking class begins at 10:00 a.m.
The General
Store occupies the front of the building and is chock full
of Cajun cooking spices, including Joe's Hot Stuff, Blackened Steak
Magic, Seafood Magic, Emeril's Favorite Cajun Spices - you've
heard of Emeril,
haven't you? - Cajun King, Cajun Herb and so on.
There are mixes for the famous Beignet (New Orleaneans' morning
staple - a delectable fried pastry drowned in powdered sugar),
Jambalaya, Cajun style red beans, and Gumbo to name a
few. |
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Promptly at
10:00, Kevin, who is wearing a shirt that says "I know what it means
to miss NO," appears and herds us into the classroom, harasses us
about getting seated, and begins with the comedy routine which lasts
the entire three hour session! |
First, he informs us that New
Orleans is NOT a tourist town, and
suggests that we do not buy
souvenirs, we eat them.
This is actually pretty good advice.
The 'Excellent Chef Quotient' is
higher here than in most cities.
A restaurant in New Orleans probably
won't survive very long if the food
- AND SERVICE - aren't good.
Consider that, along with the idea that it would
take you about five years, eating every meal out, to try all the
restaurants in New Orleans!
Kevin throws in a little history, explaining that
the cooking style in Louisiana was born out of necessity.
Because of the swampy lands, there wasn't - and isn't - much
opportunity to grow a lot of crops. Hence, the formula for
good Creole cookin' is to use what's in the refrigerator! Use
less of what you don't like and more of what you do!
It's that simple!
| Our lesson for today
(and everyday at the New Orleans Cooking School) includes
Bread Pudding, Gumbo,
Jambalaya
and
Pralines.
It's easy. Kevin cooks and tells us stories
and cooking secrets while we watch in the overhead mirror.
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While the butter
melts, the trinity sautés (trinity
is onion, garlic and bell pepper),
and the audouille sausage is
browning, Kevin seems to be
encouraging the food with loving
words like "Oh, Baby!' or "Come on
Baby!" It's probably one of
his unspoken secrets.
I'm going to tell you a few of the secrets, but
not all, because taking this class is a really fun thing to do when
you're in New Orleans, and I don't want to ruin it for you.
Secret #1: How to make roux and if
you make the roux right, you will make Perfect Gravy every time.
That's worth knowing, isn't it?
- Use equal parts of oil and flour! Use
peanut, lard, butter - not olive oil, because it has too
much flavor.
- Cook until the roux is the color of peanut
butter. If you burn it, throw it out and start over!
AHA!
- Mix one cup of roux for every 8 cups of
stock.
That was easy, wasn't it?
Secret #2: Cream sherry removes
salty flavors from dishes, so add a little if you need to
tame it down.
Secret #3: The Trinity (onions,
celery and bell pepper) must always be made in these
proportions: 2 parts onions to 1 part celery and 1 part bell
pepper. This is a moisture thing. |
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Kevin makes
Pina Colada Bread Pudding and shows us how to make it any flavor we
want just by replacing the Pina Colada liqueur and other
complimenting ingredients.
He suggests Banana, Amaretto and almonds and
chocolate syrup with Reese's peanut butter cups! Oh Baby!
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the end of the three hours. we are salivating and the smells in the
room have made us into whimpering beggars. Henry comes
around with Abita Beer from a Louisiana Brewery and Kevin announces
it is time to eat! He cooks. We eat. Our kind of school!
We are given permission - no, we are given a
mandate - to moan, lick our fingers, lick our neighbors fingers,
beat on the table or whatever else we feel like doing, because we
are in New Orleans, and New Orleans is like a foreign country within
the USA!
What do we think? OH BABY!
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It's
time for us to leave the Garden
District and make our move to the
French Quarter. We say 'so long' to
Cindee - not goodbye - and agree
we'll meet again!
She graciously drives us to our new home,
The Historic Hotel Monteleone on the Rue Royal! As the rich
brass doors open into the lobby, we enter an entirely new world
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Let's go! |
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