New Orleans BBQ Shrimp

My beautiful girlfriend, Rebekah, gave me the most amazing present the other day. Steven Raichlen's Barbecue! Bible. It is an amazing book! It has over 500 recipes and I've read every one of them and to be perfectly honest I'd try almost all of them. It will definitely get your creative culinary juices flowing and make you want to grill something! Well as Beka and I were perusing the pages we decided to cook a meal from it. We settled on fixing Emeril Lagasse's New Orleans-Style Barbecued Shrimp. We made a list of what we needed and headed to the store to pick up everything. When we got back from the store we plunged right in and started cooking.
Now be forewarned this recipe takes a very long time to cook but believe me it is totally worth it. We started with about 2 1/2 lbs of gorgeous wild Louisiana jumbo shrimp and after peeling them they were placed in a shallow glass dish and sprinkled with a cajun rub and set to marinate. The sauce is what takes the most time and constant attention. It's a very long process to get to the end result and when you start looking at the small bit you get out of it you might get disheartened but one taste and I promise you'll forget about the time! Everything from white wine to shrimp peels went into the sauce, which is actually more of a reduction with cream added to it for volume.
After making the sauce I grilled the shrimp until slightly pink then basted them right on the grill, turned and basted again. They grilled to a gorgeous barely charred finish and their smoky, spicy aroma made everyone's stomach growl. After taking the shrimp off the grill I drizzled them with the remaining sauce and we sat down to eat. Beka made some of her terrific cheddar garlic biscuits and those together with iced tea finished off the simple meal.
To be perfectly honest this was the best meal I have EVER prepared or had a part in preparing. The shrimp were absolutely amazing. They were like little bites of Heaven. Perfectly spicy, creamy, and a hint of smoke from the grill. They paired perfectly with the biscuits and all were quickly consumed or dare I say engulfed! If this were a movie rating I would say six out of five stars. I am making myself hungry just thinking about it. I will certainly be fixing this for my family again in the not too distant future as my mother has already made a couple of comments about how good they were and how she wants some more. I'm sure next time it will be much faster and easier also as I'll know what to expect.
Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade

By the way, I'd be happy to email anyone the recipes for this or any other dish that I try. Just drop me a line at cssgfac@gmail.com and specify which one you want and I'll do my best to get it to you promptly!

Grilled Chicken

Oops! Long time no blog... Sorry ya'll I've been busy at work and then when I get home I just haven't felt like writing. Until now suddenly at 1:30am I am in the mood to write so I'll post several things.
Friday, July 18th I fixed supper for my parents. It was some kind of trade off if I remember correctly. Mom didn't want to cook supper and I didn't want to mow the yard or something like that, but anyways it resulted in us swapping places. I decided to fix one of my all time favorites, grilled chicken with bacon and cheese. Sorry I don't have a fancy name for it. But it consists of a marinated chicken breast nicely grilled then topped with a few strips of bacon then cheese melted over that. I chose to make my own marinade for the chicken as I love experimenting with different flavors. I made a concoction of lemon juice, EVOO, soy sauce, and honey, with a few spices thrown in, it tasted good! Kind of tangy with a smooth sweet and sour kick. I used some of the bacon my sister and brother-in-law were so kind to bring down from their farm and it is good! I covered it in blackpepper before cooking it crisp, then set it aside. Monterey Jack cheese was the only type we had in a block so I sliced some pieces off of that to melt over it.
The chicken turned out decently. The bacon wasn't as crisp as I would have liked, but it was edible. The cheese melted perfectly, I credit this to my slicing it extra thin and watching it closely while cooking. As a whole the dish was tasty and filling but not something I'd want to serve royalty as they might choke from that much cholesterol!
Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade

Nicky's Mexican Restaurant

Nicky's is an Ark-La-Tex based chain of restaurants that boast good Tex-Mex for a good price. On Monday, July 14th I had lunch with my mother, sister, and brother-in-law, at the Cross Lake location.
We started off the meal in typical Tex-Mex fashion with a heaping bowl of tortilla chips and salsa. The chips are good, but are served cold and would be much better if served warmed and salted. The salsa is tasty with just enough of a spicy kick. Nicky's salsa is nothing to write home about either way. It's familiar flavor is enough to keep you dipping back in until you realize you'd better slow down or your entree will go to waste.
I ordered the Beef Fajitas, which by the way are my favorite mexican food. The fajitas came out hot and sizzling on a skillet. Strips of flank steak surrounded by grilled onions and green peppers. Paired with them were the usual Tex-Mex sides of mexican rice and refried beans. The rice was burnt and stuck to the skillet which resulted in my eating only a bite or two before the scorched flavor drove me away. The beans on the other hand were fantastic when used as a condiment for the fajitas. The beef was done perfectly with a nice crust on the outside but juicy and hot on the inside. The fajitas would have been perfect except for the tortillas. They struck me as being frozen and re-heated. If the tortillas were homemade and the rice had not been burned this would have been a great meal. As it was, it was satisfying and good, but left me feeling like it really could have been better if the chef or manager cared just a little more about the food.
Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade

'ello puppet!

Hi! Thanks for stopping by to check out my blog. I hope it won't make you bored, sad, or angry! My main interest is to make you hungry and ready to try some new foods!
I don't have a set time of when I'm going to update this but I plan on posting at least once a week. The posts will most likely have a title consisting of the restaurant/eatery name and then the post will talk about where I ate, what I had, how it was, and if I'll ever order it again. Also I'll be peppering in posts of my latest forays into the culinary world from the perspective of the chef! I love cooking (despise cleaning up afterwards) and am always attempting new recipes. Feel free to comment back on what you thought of the post/critique, ways I could make it better, things you've experienced at a certain restaurant, or just whatever comes to your mind.
Happy Eating!
"Chef" Slade