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Cajun Fried Turkeys Chef Darrell Breaux
We goin’ ta fry ‘bout 800 turkey at Thanksgiving, maybe more. They started orderin' earlier this year, means there might be more.
A couple of years ago I was eating at Bro’s Cajun Cuisine on Centennial Blvd out near the Ford Glass plant, and I heard Darrell Breaux say that they would probably fry about 300 turkeys that year. I had this picture in my head of him and his boys standing around a bunch of little propane turkey fryers, cycling 300 turkeys day and night. Then I wondered where in the hell was he going to refrigerate them. I never tried to answer those questions until now. I just put them out of my head and tagged Darrell Breaux as a nut if he was going to stand around and fry 300 birds.
This year, I have gotten to know Darrell and Linda Breaux a little bit better, and they are not the least bit nuts, unless you count being in the restaurant business for 30 years a bit nuts. If that is the case, we all need to look at ourselves as complete looney tunes.
If you have ever been into Louisiana Bayou country, then you will recognize Bro’s Cajun Cuisine, now located on Charlotte Ave. as an authentic edition of a back bayou café. I am a true lover of Cajun food, so I feel right at home. When you talk to Darrell, he makes a real distinction between Cajun as he knows it from Lafayette and Cajun as they know it in New Orleans. Lafayette, Louisiana offers spicy Cajun and Creole cooking, dancehalls with zydeco music, and vast swamplands. Darrell says that they use a lot more pork there, and a lot less seafood. His Jambalaya and Red Beans and Rice reflects these tastes, and the Cajun fried catfish is real nice.
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Bro's Cajun Cuisine |
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But this isn’t a restaurant review, its more a profile about a Chef who has been trying to practice a cooking legacy in this tough Nashville market, for thirty years. He’s got lots of stories about the different locations he has been. Ask him some time, cause he loves to talk, and he will keep you fascinated.
I started out to talk Turkey. If you go out on the back deck of the restaurant, back behind the cooler, you will come upon two deep fat fryers. Darrell had them built for his Cajun frying business. They each hold about 300 gallons of pure peanut oil in their stainless steel pots. There is an electric, two-ton capacity hoist built out of I-beams that span the fryer basins. And inside the fryers are some big stainless steel fry baskets. Well the larger basket holds 38 turkeys at a time, and the slightly smaller fryer uses rows of vertical spits to hold 26 turkeys at a time. So, that is 64 birds frying at one time, and for those who are curious, it takes about an hour to fry a turkey. So now I am starting to understand how you do 800 fried turkeys for Thanksgiving.
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The Big Fryer |
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Of course Darrell is not going to give out his seasoning recipe, but you just got to know that Cajun Fried Turkeys are injected with a spicy seasoning mix. Most spicy recipes have Pepper, Louisiana Hot Sauce, Cayenne pepper, Garlic & Onion in them. Sometimes there is a rub used, but Bro’s relies on his injected spices and the use of pure peanut oil in the fryer.
Out back, in the corner of the parking lot are two bodacious smokers. At this time of year, they will smoke hundreds of picnic hams and boneless whole hams for holiday dinners. Both the fried turkeys and the smoked hams are popular items for corporate catering and Christmas parties.
I was kinda suprised that many of the hotels and stores wern't buying product for resale. The Hotels could offer a popular style of holiday dining and buffets and the grocery stores could sell a boatload of the turkeys. Darrell tells me that in time he expects that to happen. Not to long ago, Bass Pro hired him to do fried turkey demonstrations and talked of consulting, and now possibly Sam's has started to inquire.
As a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, I am proud to prepare
and serve you the home-cooked food of my heritage. This tradition of Cajun and Creole cooking has been handed
down through my family for generations. As we say back
home, I hope you enjoy your meal and pass a good time. |
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Authentic Louisiana
Cooking & Catering
3214 Charlotte Ave.
Nashville, TN 37209
615 329-2626
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What are Schnapps
There's some confusion about what schnapps is, what cordials are, and what liqueurs are. For years there has existed the mistaken impression that "schnapps" was just another synonym for "liqueur." Indeed, more than once inquiry was made as to what the technical difference between a schnapps and a liqueur really was, and not only could it not be explained, no books could be found that could say, either. Finally, the real story started to emerge.
Schnapps, a German word, "is the generic term for all white (clear) brandies distilled from fermented fruits. True Schnapps has no sugar added and is definitely an acquired taste, particularly for nationalities not used to raw distillates." So schnapps are different from liqueurs on two major fronts, they being both fermented and distilled, where liqueurs are simply fruits steeped in an alcohol which has already been fermented and distilled. You will also hear the words eau de vie in the context of liqueurs. This is a French expression for an unsweetened fruit brandy, very similar in nature to Schnapps. It has come to be used to mean an unsweetened liqueur as well, probably because of the similarity of taste and texture. But the original meaning was most likely as a brandy. Liqueurs do go a long way towards tasting like real schnapps, and can make some compelling tastes on their own, but the chemistry just isn't there.
It's worth noting that true German schnapps is not what we get in the United States. The major American commercial brands are all heavily sweetened, and have added glycerine as well. It's about as close to true German schnapps perhaps as American beer is to its German counterparts. If you want to try to capture the taste of a true schnapps, consider making an eau de vie.
Cordial, on the other hand, has a different meaning depending on where you say it. In the US, it almost always means a syrupy, sweet alcoholic beverage. In fact, in the US, "liqueur," "schnapps" and "cordial" all occupy that nebulous field of flavored hard liquor, with varying degrees of sweetness. In many other parts of the world, most commonly the British Commonwealth and her former possessions, cordial actually means a non-alcoholic, sweet, syrupy drink. One of the most well-known commercial cordials, Cadbury-Schweppes' Roses Lime Cordial is a good example of this confusion. Originating in London, Rose's Lime has always been called "cordial" among the English. But in North America, it's called Rose's Lime Juice because consumers, upon reading "cordial," would immediately think "alcoholic."
So, what is grappa, eau de vie, marc, calvados, kirschwasser, williams pear, framboise, slivovitz, and how is it different from brandy?
Brandy's Italian cousin is grappa, a drink produced by extracting the alcohol from vinacce, or marks, the skins and seeds left in the fermenting tanks after the wine is transferred to casks to age. "It used to be a poor man's drink, made to extract everything possible from the grape,"
If there's something smaller than a niche market, eau de vie has it sewn up. Yet for those who seek it out, and are persistent enough to find it, great eau de vie can be an exquisite experience. After all, there must be some reason why tens of millions of Europeans have incorporated it into their daily rituals of life for the past few hundred years -- as the perfect after-dinner digestif.
The name translates as "water of life," a reminder that the invention of distillation in the 17th century came in pursuit of cures for plagues like cholera. Other, more upbeat uses soon came to the fore, and eau de vie established itself as a distinct class of spirits: clear fruit brandy, rarely touching wood, and usually drunk fairly young. Unlike grape brandy, eau de vie puts the emphasis on freshness, liveliness, and capturing the intense essence of fruit -- rather than on depth, weight, and the complexity that comes from years of interaction between spirit, oxygen and wood. A quality eau de vie consumes about 30 pounds of first-rate fruit, picked at the moment of peak ripeness. Even though it has to survive in the marketplace, eau de vie is clearly a labor of love.
The heartland of eau de vie production lies in central Europe -- the Black Forest region of Germany, Alsace, Switzerland, and parts of Austria and Northern Italy. Fruit brandy production is also common throughout Eastern Europe. The most common fruits used are pears (Bartlett, also known as Williams), cherries (bottled as kirsch or kirschwasser), plums (the basis for Yugoslavian slivovitz), and raspberries (framboise). But a vast array of other fruits can be distilled to good effect, and it is a safe bet that every community in the core eau de vie zone will take the pride of its local fruit harvest and cook up a batch. Herbal eau de vie can also be found, especially in Italy.
For all practical purposes, Italian grappa and French marc are simply variations on fruit eau de vie. Here the fruit is partially or fully-pressed wine grapes, but the distillation process is the same, and so is the goal (at least for the good ones): a clear, un-oaked expression of varietal fruit.
SO… what the heck is poteen? It is a strong illicitly made Irish liquor, in other words, Irish moonshine or hooch.
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Creole Seasoning
(c)2000 - Nashville TN - Robert Siegel
salt 6 lbs
black pepper 2 lbs
garlic powder 2 lbs
cayanne pepper 1/2 lb
paprika 2 lbs. 10 oz.
onion powder 1 lb. 4 oz.
thyme - ground 12 oz.
oregano - ground 12 oz.
pulse in food processor to blend |
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(c)2000 - Nashville TN - Robert Siegel
Creole Sauce
onions - coarse chop
green bell peppers- chopped
celery - chopped
garlic - chopped
butter
tomato puree
crushed tomatos
creole seasoning
sugar
black pepper
salt
garlic powder
cayenne
bay leaves
Chicken Base
Lobster base
stock (chicken or seafood)
brown roux to thicken |
5 lbs
5 lbs
2 bunch
1/4 cup
2 lb
1 #10 can
1 #10 can
1/2 cup
1/4 cup
1/4 cup
1/4 cup
1/4 cup
1 Tbls
12 lvs
4 oz.
4 oz.
2 qt
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Heat vegetables in butter until softened, add tomatoes, purees, seasonings, and bases and bring to a simmer. Thicken with roux to your desired consistancy.
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Shrimp Creole
Serves 4
1 1/2 lbs. Shrimp (boneless Chicken or Pork, or Turkey )
1 Tbls. Olive Oil
4 cups Creole Sauce (above)
4 portions cooked white rice (optional)
This is one of those dishes that can be adapted to almost any protien source you like. (Chicken, whole or boneless, Pork ribs, chops, or boneless pieces, Shrimp, Catfish, any fish, Duck, Turkey, Crawfish, Oysters, beef tips, veal and on and on). All the work is involved in Creole sauce, which can be refrigerated up to a week, or frozen for a couple of months.
Heat the oil in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat, add the Shrimp (chicken, pork etc.) to the hot oil and stir until it begins to brown on the outside. Add the Creole Sauce and lower heat to a simmer. For seafood dishes, simmer for 10 minutes and serve. For other protien selections, simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve over rice or pasta.
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Enchanted Gingerbread Check out the website Did you know that there is a member of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the American Culinary Federation who considers Oprah, Food Network, Travel Channel, Southern Living Magazine, Southern Lady and a whole host of national customers, common every day occurances? Well, meet Gayle O'Hanlon, that is if you can slow her down long enough to meet her.
When you show up at her Enchanted Gingerbread Shop, it becomes apparant that Gayle has elevated gingerbread baking to a whole new level. Granted, this is her busiest season, but even so, this chef has crafted a large business from a birthday experience with her daughter Hailey.
Gayle is what you call a mosiac type personality, one who is able to go in many directions at once- as opposed to someone who is linear- thinking in one direction. There is a need in the world for both types, and in fact, we all show tendencies of both. To spend a bit of time with Gayle at the Gingerbread Store is tremendously entertaining. The conversation might sound like this:
"Hey Gayle how ya doing?"
"Did anyone get the 400 house Lowe's shipment set out for pick-up? Oh! I'm good, thanks ---John, were those cookies wrapped and boxed -- Hailey, I need you to go the Sam's and get us 600 lbs. of powdered sugar -- you know we are going to do something new soon. Elisen-Lebkuchen, they are the best kind of cookie made only from ground almonds, no flour. They will help make us a more year-round business. Hey! we should put the tea cakes on the website. Yeah! I'm good!.. Is someone watching the oven, they need to be just crispy."
The shop is kinda like everyone's fantasy, shelves and shelves of candy canes, peppermints, gum drops, Mike & Ike's , gummi bears, Skittles, and jelly beans. There are sheves with hundreds of half finished g-bread houses, trays of baked chiminy pieces, and a big mixer of royal icing.
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As Gayle will say "my gingerbread is the stuff sweet dreams are made of. Enchanted Gingerbread had its beginning on December 1, 1990 with her daughter Hailey's birthday crowd of three-year-olds." Providing them with all the makings for a gingerbread house seemed to be a great way to keep them entertained. Though a roomful of little children packing frosting tubes and eating lots of candy may seem intimidating, the results were wonderful! Enchanted Gingerbread was incorporated in April, 1991 and then trademarked in 1996,
intending to expand the awareness of gingerbread all year long.
The business has continued to grow and Enchanted Gingerbread has continued to expand its product line. For instance, you might want to sign up for one of the regularly-scheduled community workshops, listed in the
Tennessean's Community Calendar or at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. Order a birthday cake or a gingerbread wedding cake. Many clients have ideas for one-of-a-kind gingerbread products. Whether
it's a house 2 feet tall, or a replica of the Ryman Auditorium, they do it. In the past couple of years, they have
created a specialty centerpiece house for the Shrek 2 wrap party, and built a custom brownstone in gingerbread for the editor of Vogue magazine. 400 Habitat for Humanity Gingerbread houses for Lowe's went out the door the other day, and PODS houses are right behind, not to mention the large order for Wachovia Bank coming up next.
Over the years there have been numerous print articles written on Enchanted Gingerbread, including pieces in O Magazine , the City Paper, USA Today, Bon Appetite, Country Folk Art, Star, Parent, Nashville City Paper, and Country Living magazines. They were very proud to be included in Marshall Field's 2003 mail order catalog.
Television appearances have included The Food Network's In Food Today, TNN's Cookin' USA, QVC's 50-in-50 Tour live from the Ryman Auditorium, WTVT Nashville's Talk of the Town, Channel 4's AM Nashville, Tennessee Crossroads and Willard Scott even held up one of their houses on the Today show!
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Enchanted Gingerbread
1314 5th Avenue N, Ste. 100
Nashville, TN 37208
phone 615-255-6960
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Around The World In A Coffee Cup
Cathy Hoormann, Kickin Coffee
It all began in the ancient land of Abyssinia, now called Ethiopia. This mountainous country situated at the conjunction of the African and Arab worlds known as the Horn of Africa. That little bean was chewed and eventually brewed. This began man-kinds love of the bean.
Now let us fast forward to modern times. Isn’t it amazing how time fly’s when you are enjoying a satisfying cup? First let’s classify the two main species of beans.
The top bean is Arabica (Coffea Arabica) received its name for the Arabs, who brought it from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula in the fifteenth century. All the prized flavors possible are found in Arabica. The best grade level of Arabica is grown at high altitudes in semitropical climates near the equator. These beans naturally contain about half the caffeine of the other species, robusta (which have an average of 2.2 %). Robusta (Coffea canephora) named for its hardiness, many times is looked down upon by specialty-coffee trade for its sometimes called paper-bag flavor. It is a native of West rather than East Africa and grows very well at sea level. Over a hundred years ago it was cultivated for its low cost. Many big commercial packagers rely on robusta to fill out their blends. Before you think badly of this bean, just think kindly of it the next time you enjoy your espresso. Robusta’s large body gives the espresso the necessary syrupy texture.
We all have a tenancy to stick to one kind of blend. However it can be a satisfying experience trying coffees from different regions. Remember coffee is a crop. Crops change flavor due to growing conditions. A new crop may spark a new taste interest. We won’t go into all the options, but we will take a look at the areas of the more specialty varieties.
Yemen and Ethiopia: The land of the dry-processed bean, known as Mochas. Many people refer to this bean having an overarching taste of wildness. A fruity and winy taste. In the Sanani region of Yemen the beans are more aromatic, and stand up to darker roast. The Harrar from Ethiopia is the most sought after for its described blueberry flavor. There is another region of Ethiopia called Sidamo. In this region a washed process is used which brings out lemony and flowery notes of the bean. A bag may by name Ethiopian Yergacheffe.
Kenya: This bean has many loyal fans. The five-thousand-foot plateaus create its high sparkling acidity. The top grade of these beans have sharp blackberry flavor with a slight sweetness.
Indonesia: Many of the beans of this region are dry-processed creating an earthy wild mushroom profile. This is the area of the Java, Celebes, and Sumatra. Let’s focus on Sumatra. The coffee is one of the most popular in specialty trade, because of its massive body.
New Guinea: This area above the northeastern tip of Australia has similar characteristics of Indonesia. However the very careful washed and the use of exact varieties give the taste profile of Blue Mountain. This New Guinea bean is helpful to espresso blends and is used by many to avoid adding the robusta in their blends.
Costa Rica and Guatemala: This all begins with the romantic tale of marine captain, Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu. Gabriel crossed the sea in 1723 with a single tree and planted in Martinique, the Caribbean French colony. To think from one tree this part of the world is home to hundreds of plantations spanning the continent. Coffee blenders rely on Central and South America to give high notes to their blends. It is said it would be difficult to get a bad cup from these areas.
South America: Things wouldn’t be complete if we did not talk about the area of Juan Valdez and his mule. Columbia has been enormously successful in marketing itself as a producer of fine coffees. The best columbias are clean and neutral and great for blends. However there is the area of , Narino that is the area of Supremo, the clear well defined acidity.
The Caribbean: The most famous is Jamaica. These high mountains are how to the Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. Be wary in the market place about people using this name as a selling tool. The best of these beans are very high priced. Over all the good Caribbean coffees are syrupy and raisin-sweet, which they get from medium to dark roasting.
Hawaii: The only coffee grown in the United States, Kona, cultivated on the volcanic slopes of Mauna Loa. These beans are carefully processed creating a quality uniform cup. Beware coffee consumers the use of the Kona name on coffee is like that of the Jamaica Blue Mountain. Many people use this name to lure you in. The realty of it is that Hawaii saves the best for itself, because they profit by selling locally.
These have been only sips of the possibilities that are awaiting you with your morning pot of coffee. I hope that youcoffee adventurers will scoop up some of these beautiful beans and begin to enjoy a tour around the world
Always Kickin’
Cathy Hoormann
Kickin’ Coffee & Tea |
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