Creole Kitchen

I heard about this hole in the wall Cajun place, Creole Kitchen, on the radio the other night and decided to check it out. Hole in the wall was an understatement for sure. I drove around for several minutes trying to find it, there is no sign other than the writing in the window and even that is extremely difficult to see but the effort really paid off.

There is no dining area, take out only and is in a less than desirable par to of town. As you can see it’s extremely small but does have a fairly thorough menu. I had the crawfish etouffee which came with two sides, I chose macaroni & cheese and red beans & rice. Every bit of it was awesome! Crawfish etouffee was very spicy bit the heat didn’t overwhelm me and I was still able to enjoy the crawfish of where there was an impressive amount. The red beans & rice was very good and the macaroni & cheese may have been the best I have ever had! Although I am certain it would rival the BigMac for calorie content.

As I said above, Creole Kitchen has a nice menu and I am looking forward to trying a few other things. Check out their menu.

Creole Kitchen

1052 Mt. Vernon Plaza, Columbus, Ohio 43203

Veal Gremolata

I wanted to try a few new things this week and veal was on the list. Getting my wife to try new things can be difficult, I have to be careful. Veal is one of those things she was very if-y about. She was hesitant at first but came around and actually liked it. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:
2 lemons
¼ cup parsley – finely chopped
4 cloves garlic – minced
1 ½ lbs veal scallops
¾ cup white wine
4 tbs butter
3 cups brown rice

Prepare gremolta:
Grate the zest from the lemons and squeeze and strain the juice. In a bowl mix together zest, parsley and garlic, set aside.

Cook veal:
When I ordered the veal at the butcher counter he cut it thin, ¼ inch, but I wanted it thinner. My solution was a 1x4 board which I keep for various uses in the kitchen. I laird out the veal with plastic wrap top and bottom and lightly pounded each slice underneath the board with a hammer. They came out nice and thin! Salt and pepper scallops. In a frying pan add 1 tbs of butter. Add veal in a single layer and cook, turning once, until brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plant. Repeat with butter and remaining veal.

Prepare sauce:
Melt remaining butter in the same frying pan over medium-high heat. Add hal of the gremolata and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the wine and stir, scraping up the browned bits on the pan bottom. Cook sauce until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Stir in 2 tbs lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Return veal to the pan and simmer to 4-5 minutes. Sprinkle remaining gremolata and serve over brown rice.

I had a good bit of veal left over but it made awesome sandwiches for lunch!

Leeky, Creamy Chicken and Dumpling

There has been snow on the ground for well over a week and I am more than a little tired of it. Since I can’t move to Florida I thought a bowl of soup would warm my belly. I don’t know where I found this recipe but it really looked good. I made this last night and it turned out great, it is now one of my wife’s favorites. This was surprisingly easy, it took about an hour start to finish, including the chicken!

The originator of the recipe I used must have found it somewhere else because they had this to say about the chicken:

"Also, from the recipe, it wasn’t clear what she meant by “chicken tenders” - did she mean already grilled chicken strips? raw chicken tenderloins? chicken nuggets? After reading the recipe and seeing that it wouldn’t cook for long after the addition of them, we decided that she meant chicken nuggets of some sort. I didn’t want to use chopped and formed nuggets, but we did want to use the breaded kind (we figured it would thicken the stew), so we ended up using Trader Joe’s panko-crusted chicken tenders (from their refrigerated section). If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s close to you, try to find something similar in your local grocery."

I chose to use chicken tenderloins. I seasoned the chicken with a little salt and pepper and grilled them. I can see how it’s important to use chicken tenderloins or some other small piece of chicken. Whole chicken breast, even when cut into chunks, would have been far large.

Ingredients:
• 2 tbsp. olive
• 3 leeks, white and tender green parts split lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
• 5 ribs celery, thinly sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper
• 4 c. chicken broth
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 lb. chicken tenders, cut into small chunks
• 2 packages fresh gnocchi (about 24 ounces)
• 1/3 c. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 3 tbsp. dry sherry – I did not have sherry so I used 3 tsp vanilla extract, I could not have been happier!
• 1/2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp. turkey base
• 1 tbsp. Dijon mustardd
• dill week
• tarragon



In a pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add leeks, celery, bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil, cook about 3 minutes. Stir in the cream, lower the heat and simmer until the soup bubbles at the edges. Add the chicken and the gnocchi and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Add the vanilla and paprika, stir. Add mustard, and dill and tarragon to taste. Stir in parsley and serve hot.

Pimento Cheese

I really like pimento cheese but I’m not a fan of the over processed pimento cheese “spread” you found in a grocery store. Solution: make my own! It’s much easier than you think.

Ingredients:
1 lb sharp cheddar cheese
½ oz jar pimentos (chopped)
2 tsp garlic powder
3 – 4 tsp horseradish
mayonnaise

First shred the cheese, shred along the short side, smaller pieces are better. Set shredded cheese aside in a mixing bowl and allow it to come up to room temperature (makes mixing easier.)

(This is a terrible picture but it's the best I could do at the time, sorry!)

Once the cheese has warmed slightly mix in garlic powder, horseradish, pimento and just enough mayonnaise to bind things together. Mix evenly. When complete put into a container and refrigerate.

That’s all there is to it!

My dad mixes this up often but does not include horseradish so if you don’t like it leave it out. He also prefers to let his warm up slightly before he eats (makes it softer) where as I just jump right in. Either way it’s much better than anything you will find in the store.