SAUCE PIQUANT

Sauce Piquant

So close to Creole Sauce you might mistake them for cousins. In fact I do.

6 Tbsp. Flour
3/4 cup oil
3 large onions, minced
4 stalks celery, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
3 green peppers, minced
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 lemon, juice and grated zest
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
1 Tbsp prepared mustard, yellow or Creole

Brown flour in oil, slowly, stirring all the while. Add remaining ingredients; cook over low heat for 30 minutes. The more red pepper, the more "piquant" the gravy will be. To use sauce with chicken, rabbit, sqkuirrel or turtle, brown meat in oil. Remove meat and prepare sauce piquant. Return meat to sauce and continue cooking until tender. Add water, if necessary.

Makes 2 ½ cups.

HOT PEPPER VINEGAR

Hot Pepper Vinegar

Once on everybody’s dinner table. Used in particular on braised greens. Cayenne peppers were the most common, but any will work.

Wash hot red or green peppers; prick with a large needle (to allow the vinegar to get inside). Pack into sterilized bottles; cover with boiling hot vinegar. Cork at once. Keeps virtually forever at room temperature.

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

Festive Sweet Potatoes

6 yams, roasted until tender and cooled, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch rounds
½ cup butter, melted
1 can (1 lb. 4 ounces) crushed pineapple, well-drained
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup pecans
½ cup dry vermouth
1/8 tsp. Cinnamon
1/3 tsp. Nutmeg

Juice and grated zest of one orange
Mix the juice of the orange with the butter
Mix the grated zest of the orange with the brown sugar
Layer yam slices in a 2-quart buttered casserole with the other ingredients, ending with the brown sugar. Bake in 375 degree oven until the sauce thickens, about 1 hour. Yields 8 servings.

ROLLED SANDWICHES (Finger Sandwiches)

Rolled Sandwiches

This way with finger sandwiches is so old it's new. After slicing you have neat little spirals of sandwiches with contrasting layers of bread and filling. Ham salad, chicken salad, shrimp or crab salad and pimento cheese work beautifully. Make sure there are no large chunks in your filling or the bread will tear. A very elegant way to entertain.

Trim crusts from fresh sandwich bread. Put slices between 2 damp tea towels (flour sack towels are perfect) and roll with rolling pin. Spread slices with desired filling. Roll up and seal edges with melted butter. Roll up each sandwich in waxed paper or plastic wrap like a carpet; twist ends tightly. Store in refrigerator. You may cut each sandwich into four smaller cylinders to serve if desired for ease of handling.

CHEESE BALL VIEUX CARRE

Vieux Carre Cheese Ball

1 (8-ounce) pkg. Cream cheese
1/4 pound Cheddar cheese, grated
1 pound blue cheese
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp onion juice*
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup chopped parsley
1 small jar chopped pimientos


Have all the cheeses at room temperature. * This modest amount of onion juice is made by grating a small piece of onion, placing the pulp in a clean cloth and squeezing/twisting it to extract the juice.


Cream the cheeses with the Worcestershire sauce and onion juice; easiest to do with an electric mixer but it can be done by hand. Store in the refrigerator overnight. Shape into a ball and roll in the nuts, parsley and pimiento. Place in center of tray on platter and arrange assorted crackers and chips around it.


Storage: Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate. Take out of the refrigerator about half an hour before serving.

RAW MUSHROOM SALAD and VARIATION (WITH SEAFOOD)

I think this may be the best of all salads.

Raw Mushroom Salad.

Wash and drain 1/2 lb. of firm white mushrooms. Then slice them fairly thinly and put them in a bowl with olive oil just to moisten (the mushrooms will soak most of it up almost immediately) a pinch or two of black pepper and the juice of about a whole lemon. Finely dice about half a clove of garlic and toss together. Just before serving shave Parmesan cheese over the salad using a vegetable peeler until it looks good to you. That's it.

Variation

Raw Mushroom and Chilled Seafood Salad

To your mushroom salad simply add cooked and chilled seafood of choice. Shrimp, Scallops, Crawfish etc. Toss together and serve.

PECAN PIE

PECAN PIE

½ cup light corn syrup
½ cup dark corn syrup
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp melted butter
½ Tbsp. Vanilla
1 Tbsp. Bourbon
Grated zest of one orange
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans
1 uncooked 9-inch deep dish pie crust-boughten or homemade
1 ½ cups pecan halves for the top

Combine corn syrups, eggs, butter, Vanilla and Bourbon, orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well. Fold in chopped pecans. Pour mixture into pie crust. Place pecan halves on top of pie, making concentric circles. Bake in oven at 350 for 1 hour, or until a knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean.