Cooking: Mardi Gras on a Monday

I realized that Fat Tuesday followed the day after the President’s Holiday this week. But on this particular Monday, I knew I wanted to cook oyster po' boys because I had some frozen breaded oyster I found at the Japanese market that I'd been wanting to cook for months. I finally had a day off from work to make one of my most favorite sandwiches, one I had enjoyed when I visited New Orleans and ate at the French Quarter Jazz Festival. While I don't have a French bakery from which to buy the quintessential crusty but soft crumb baguette for the sandwich, I did buy bolilo rolls which have a similar texture. 

I looked at various recipes for the remoulade sauce. When I ate the sandwich from a food booth at the music festival, there was ketchup and mayonnaise at the condiment table. However, I wanted to make a remoulade sauce like the one served on the sandwich at CreoLa, a favorite Creole Cajun restaurant near where I live. My remoulade included Duke's (go South or go home), chopped shallot, chopped capers, Louisiana hot sauce, horseradish, a sprinkle or two of tarragon, and some dill pickle juice. Oh my gosh, it was perfect. And then set up my sandwich station with the rolls, a Roma tomato (when they're out of season, sprinkles of salt and pepper are de rigueuer), and chopped Romaine (Iceberg is less available here in California than in the South), a jar of dill pickle chips and the remoulade.

 

Okay my oysters were a frozen product, breaded in probably tempure and panko from a Japanese market and not the fresh Gulf oysters breaded in flour and cornmeal until crispy, but someday....I will attempt to cook the real deal. Without having to shuck and bread the oysters myself, it was a fast fry--only 4 minutes total.

I made a total of 3 sandwiches: one pour moi, one for Cecilia, and one for Nancy who had visited CreoLa with me a couple of summers ago for our local destination dine and my craving for this sandwich. 

Maybe next time, I will just buy the fresh, shucked oysters on the half shell at the Japanese seafood aisle and cook them Louisiana style.

For dinner later, I needed to get rid of leftovers and had beef stew. I also had Brussels sprouts and freshly harvested broccoli and a potato. Sides of vegetables, my friends, are how I extend leftovers. 

I cooked the Russet into mashed potato and sautéed the cruciferous vegetables in a cast iron and microwaved the beef and root vegetable stew.

 

And the Parmesan, lemon, thyme sourdough that Cecilia baked that day was a fine accompaniment.

Still more leftovers in my fridge of Pancit Palabok, Mushroom Fettucine, and Chili con Carne which should tide the hubs and me for the week unless I cook Red Beans and Rice and Andouille Sausage to continue the laissez les bon temps rouler for this Fat Tuesday. At least I cooked for Shrove Monday even if I missed celebrating on Shrove Sunday;)