Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Today's FPF is brought to us by my friend, Audubon Ron over at Ducks Mahal. I tell you, ma cher...he do know what he talkin' bout!

This recipe is fish with a sauce and potatoes with green beans. The fancy words are:

These recipes are from the famous New Orleans Restaurant Arnaud’s. I cook a lot and picked this up for you.

This might seem like a big task, who could cook this way? But, you know it’s real easy. New Orleans is called the Big Easy. It’s always meant to be Easy.

First let’s prepare the food.


Season your fish in another small side dish mix dried rosemary, dried oregano and thyme.

Make a Bouquet Garni in cheese cloth: Place herbs of one bay leaf, 1 tsp peppercorn, 1 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp marjoram in cheese cloth and tie.


First, let’s talk about a roux.

A roux is a simple sauce or gravy. It’s a French word. But it means gravy. Simply, cook equal parts oil and equal parts flour. You can use butter, vegetable oil or olive oil. Butter cooks faster, veg oil cooks medium and olive is slower. You decide. In this recipe I used butter. Take three tablespoons butter, melt down and add three tables spoons four. Mix and let perk on high. The thing about a roux is you have to keep stirring. It starts out white then as it cooks it gets darker. All three are useful but in this recipe I want it to be oak color. When the roux gets oak color add:

1/2 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 finely chopped shallot (if not 1/2 white onion)
1/4 of one green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup beef broth
And Bouquet Garni

Put all in the sauce and cook on very low heat.


Add wine and a dash of beef broth. It should look like the last picture above. Cover and cook on low heat and let simmer very slowly.

While that is perking on simmer, place potatoes in a large pan and fry in 1 TBSP vegetable oil until most sides are brown and add the mixture of dried rosemary, dried oregano and thyme and stir. Then place on oven pan and cook on 350 heat for 20 minutes.



When potatoes are cooked place green beans in the same pan and fry in veg oil and add one TBSP of Balsamic vinegar and TBSP of Worcestershire and stir. Then add potatoes from oven. Stir and cover on very low heat.



In a non stick fry pan dip your fish in flour and add to 1 TBSP veg oil and sauté on both sides until cooked.

When the fish is cooked to your liking, place on a dish, cover with the sauce and add the potatoes and green beans.

And Voila!, time to eat.

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez - Cajun French for let the good times roll. Honey, we French folks have a saying, “If you can’t cook, you can’t make love.”

Be happy, love one another and eat good My Little Mon Chat Baby.



With maximum L’s

Audubon Ron

I was out picking elderberries today and came across our neighborhood duck who has taken up at the cow pond where the best elderberries grow. Every year a different waterfowl takes up residence here. Last year it was Canadian geese. This year...it's a duck.

But I thought I'd send you over to my friend, Ron's blog, Ducks Mahal. Ron is a sushi eating Mississippian with a soft spot for waterfowl. He's a wonderful writer with a penchant for irreverence. He writes about living in rural Mississippi, corporate culture and just about anything that pops into his head. Sometimes sweet...sometimes biting.

I really enjoy his blog and you might too.

Hope you are having a very happy Sunday.