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This recipe is based on one from Justin Wilson, a Cajun cook who used to appear on TV. It’s simple and very rich. This is a dish I don’t serve to guests. Most people don’t really know gizzards and it seems like a dirty trick to invite someone to dinner and then serve them food they may not want to venture. The idea of having guests is to serve, not force your own ideas of great food. Imagine my surprise tonight to wander upstairs to the kitchen for a second helping and find my daughter and her new friend slurping down the gizzard gumbo. I didn’t even know anyone was here. I may have to rethink my position on the whole gizzards and guests idea. 12/30/2021 . . . I updated the presentation of this recipe on the blog. I first published it in June 2012! Same great recipe by the late Justin Wilson. Many thanks to those of you who have visited my blog over the years.
- Ingredients
- 10 Tbsp. butter
- 10 Tbsp. flour
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 3 cups cold water, divided
- 2 cups dry white wine
- 1 lb. chicken gizzards, chopped
- 1 lb. Louisiana hot sausage links (Andouille), sliced
- 1 tsp. hot sauce (like Tabasco)
- 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp. salt
- File powder to taste, optional
- Serve over rice
To make white rice: stir 1 cup rice into 2 cups boiling liquid and let simmer, covered, on low heat for exactly 25 minutes–don’t peek, don’t stir, just let it simmer with the cover on for exactly 25 minutes. That’s it. Yield: 3 cups cooked white rice.
Chicken Enchiladas
I really like this dish. The original recipe called for frying each tortilla in oil, which I have done many times. As far as flavor goes, I don’t see much advantage to doing it that way. This way works just fine and is much faster and less messy. It’s probably better for us, too. I don’t see why you couldn’t use a low-fat cream cheese for the filling and a fat-free Half n Half instead of cream if you wanted to.
Stir fry 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast (or use leftover chicken meat) with 1 cup chopped onion. Be sure that chicken is thoroughly cooked. Add one 7-oz. can diced green chiles and 8 ozs (1 package) of cream cheese. Heat and stir until cheese is melted.
Spread filling down center of a flour tortilla and roll up.
Place rolled tortillas into a greased 13 x 9″ baking dish. I’ve tried using a spray-on oil, and it works, but is so slippery that it’s hard to deal with.
Continue filling and rolling tortillas until you’re out of filling, which makes 10-11 enchiladas.
Sprinkle with shredded cheese: Monterrey Jack, Colby, cheddar, or a combination of them.
Pour cream over all, about 2/3 cup or more.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.
Serve with favorite salsa.
Ingredient List
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 cup chopped onion
1 7-oz. can chopped green chiles
8 oz. (1 pkg) cream cheese
10-11 flour tortillas
1-1/2 cups shredded cheese: Monterrey Jack, Colby, cheddar, or combination
2/3 cup cream
Beer-Batter Halibut
Beer Batter
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. soda
1 cup beer
1 egg
Stir dry ingredients until mixed, then whisk in egg and beer. Whisk until smooth. Let stand while you prepare the fish. I think the batter will cover about 2 lbs of halibut. Start with one batch and either make more or throw away the leftover.
Cut halibut into 1″ chunks, approximately. Dredge halibut through flour, you’ll probably need about a cup of flour for this.
Deep fry in batches at 375 degrees until golden brown. I deep fry in canola oil using an old Fry Daddy that I bought at a garage sale. Drain on paper and serve with cocktail sauce or tartar sauce or lemon juice or malt vinegar or nothing at all. Delicious!
Heat oil in deep fryer to 375 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients with egg and beer.
Whisk until the batter is smooth.
Take the skin off the halibut. Today I used two pieces this size.
Cut the skinned halibut into 1″ approximate chunks.
Dredge halibut in flour before dipping into batter. I put about a cup of flour into a 1 gallon bag and place 8-10 pieces of halibut into it and shake the bag. Then I remove the pieces and put them into the batter, making sure each piece is coated.
From the batter into the deep fryer. Don’t overcrowd it or the pieces will stick together and/or it won’t cook well.
Lift the pieces out when they turn golden, just a few minutes.
Put the pieces onto paper to get rid of excess oil. I use a paper-lined bowl.
Yeah. Yum.
Tortellini Salad
This is another dish I make frequently when I’m in a hurry. There are no specific ingredients, just a description. I buy fresh tortellini, any flavor or size package, from the deli section of the grocery. Prepare it according the directions on the package. While that water is boiling, fry up about a pound of Italian sausage, either bulk or links. If using links, slice them once they’re cooked . . . or before cooking. The goal here is to try for pieces of vegetables and meat which are of the same size as the tortellini. Don’t ask me why, it just seems to be more pleasing to the eye. Once the sausage is cooked, remove to a large serving bowl. In the same frying pan as you cooked the sausage, heat olive oil and stir-fry onion, pepper (bell, Anaheim, whatever kind seems good to you), garlic, zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms, parsley, and/or cherry tomatoes (or chopped tomato flesh). Once the vegetables are sauteed appropriately, add them to the sausage in your big serving bowl. Once the tortellini is cooked, drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. Add tortellini to the bowl. Add a can of sliced black olives and a can of artichoke hearts (or cooked fresh or frozen). You don’t need to have all these ingredients all the time. Make a vinaigrette of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. When I made this dish the other night, unexpected visitors showed up and I couldn’t keep them out of the tortellini long enough to make the vinaigrette so I just splashed balsamic vinegar over the top and then drizzled olive oil over all, stirred it around and served it to rave reviews. It’s really not a fussy dish. Serve with garlic bread. You’ll be the toast of the neighborhood, or at least the toast of the house.
Cook 1# Italian sausage and place in large serving bowl.
Stir-fry in olive oil all, or some, of the following ingredients: zucchini, yellow squash, parsley, garlic, cherry (or chopped regular) tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, pepper (bell or Anaheim). Add a can of sliced black olives and artichoke hearts.
Add to the sausage in the serving bowl, along with cooked tortellini. Drizzle with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette. Stir. Serve. Tastes great with garlic bread.
Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp is a simple “first fruits of Alaska summer” dessert. Yummy!
Mix together 5-6 cups chopped rhubarb, orange zest, 1/3 cup orange juice, 3 Tbsp. quick tapioca, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1 pint sliced strawberries. Let stand 15 minutes.
Pour into a buttered 9 x 9″ baking dish.
Mix together in a separate bowl: 1-1/2 cups rolled oats, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter. Sprinkle over rhubarb mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until browned and filling bubbles burst slowly.
Tastes great topped with whipped cream, milk, or ice cream.
I made quiche today because my time to cook has been so sporadic that I wanted to make something that could be thrown into the refrigerator when finished, yet would make a nice lunch or light dinner without any further preparation. Quiche is basically a custard pie. If you have an uncooked pie crust and eggs and cream (or evaporated milk for you Bush types), all the other ingredients can be whatever you want. The basic custard proportions are 1 egg to 1/2 cup cream. Today I made two 9″ quiches and used 6 eggs and 3 cups cream. I’ve made quiche using canned salmon, ham, cheese, or broccoli. There are a lot of different things you can put into it. I have another recipe for quiche which calls for smoked salmon and uses cream cheese. Some day I’ll make that and post pictures/recipe. It’s sublime. For now, you get this.
Quiche
Quiche
4 Tbps. butter
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced onions
2 handfuls asparagus, trimmed (tips kept longer than stems for even cooking)
1 garlic clove, minced
6 eggs, beaten
3 cups whipping cream
1/2 tsp. sugar
Salt and pepper
2 9″ unbaked pie crust
1 cup cheese, shredded (any kind)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Saute mushrooms in butter until nicely browned, remove from skillet and set aside. Saute onions, asparagus, and garlic until onion is transparent and asparagus is cooked al dente. Set aside. Mix together eggs, cream, sugar, salt, pepper. Prepare pie crusts into pans and distribute mushrooms and asparagus mixture evenly across the crusts. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Pour the egg mixture over all. Place pies into oven and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 300 degrees and bake an additional 30 minutes. A knife inserted into pie should come out clean.
Saute mushrooms in butter until nicely browned.
Saute onion, asparagus, and garlic. Distribute evenly across pie crust, along with sauteed mushrooms.
Sprinkle evenly with shredded cheese. I used a Monterrey Jack/Cheddar blend.
Mix together eggs, cream, sugar, salt & pepper. Pour over the other ingredients in the pie crust.
Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower heat to 300 degrees and bake 30 minutes more. Remove when knife inserted into center comes out clean. Can be served hot, warm, or cold.
Didn’t last long
This is a great dish when you’re feeding a crowd. It should be prepared the night before, but I’ve done it just a few hours ahead and it’s still delicious. I also have a similar recipe which uses green olives and no tomatoes. Some day I’ll make and post that one.
Mediterranean Chicken Mancini
Mediterranean Chicken Mancini
2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into serving size portions (apx. 8 pieces from each breast)
1 cup chopped red onion
4-6 plum tomatoes, chopped or 2 14oz. cans
1 cup pitted prunes
8 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. oregano
6 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. capers, drained
1 tsp. paprika
4 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Mix all ingredients together in a 13 x 9″ baking dish. Marinate overnight. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1-1/2 hours. Serves 6-8.
Mix everything together in a 9 x 13″ baking dish. I usually add the chicken last. And this day I didn’t have red onion, only yellow. Still tastes good.
Add the chicken pieces. Marinate overnight. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for an hour and a half.
Mediterranean Chicken Mancini served with Lemon Artichoke Orzo and Eggplant au Gratin.
This is a simple, yet hearty meal we affectionately call Brunch for Lunch. I used to make this after church on Sundays and sometimes before school on weekdays. It is easy to add more ingredients or change the ingredients to what you have on hand.
- Brunch for Lunch
Brunch for Lunch
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2# bag of frozen Southern style hash browns (cubed potatoes)
1# bulk breakfast sausage (or use bacon or ham or chopped links or whatever meat you want or no meat at all)
Optional: sliced onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, and/or chopped tomatoes.
6 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese (or Parmesan or whatever kind of cheese you have)
You will need two skillets (1 very large apx 14″ and 1 medium apx 12″). In the biggest skillet, melt butter over high heat. Add frozen hash browns and let fry on high heat until browned. Meanwhile in smaller skillet, fry breakfast sausage until cooked through. Turn the hashbrowns when brown and add sausage to the top of the hashbrowns. Don’t turn again until bottom is browned. Meanwhile, saute the optional ingredients over medium heat in the smaller skillet until they are cooked. Add to the top of the sausage in the hashbrown skillet. Scramble the eggs in the smaller skillet until cooked through. By this time the hashbrowns should be browned and you should start turning them so they cook through and are browned a little. Stir in the meat and veges. Add the eggs and stir in. Once the potatoes are all cooked, sprinkle cheese over the top. Turn the skillet to low. Turn the medium skillet upside down on the large skillet to make the cheese melt faster on the top. Once the cheese is mostly melted, remove the medium skillet and serve. Serves 6-8.
- Melt butter in very large skillet.
- Fry bulk sausage in medium skillet.
- Fry frozen hash browns in large skillet.
- When the sausage is cooked . . .
- add it to the top of the hashbrown skillet.
- Make scrambled eggs in the medium skillet. It picks up bits of the sausage or veges previously cooked in it. (Just cook beaten eggs over low heat, nothing more. It’s simple.)
- Stir sausage into hashbrowns in skillet.
- Add eggs to the hashbrown skillet.
- Sprinkle cheese over top.
- Flip the smaller skillet upside down to act as a dome over the larger skillet so the cheese melts.
- Finished.
Final word: yes, the cretins here put ketchup on it. I use Tabasco.
Oat Pancakes
My kids are home from college and they’ve brought friends with them. The friends are from Sweden. We talked about the use of airplanes instead of cars in Alaska and I pulled out the Alaska maps so they could get oriented. I pointed out Nome where I was born and Naknek where I graduated high school. One girl asked if all the food was flown to Nome. They use barges for the most part, I said. When I was a young child, my mother placed her food order for the year and she got very excited when the ice moved out so the barge could come in. At this point of the conversation with the Swedes my youngest daughter started laughing. My pantry could probably feed a family for several months. I’m not a survivalist or preparing for the apocalypse, it’s just the “waiting for the barge” mentality. I have never been able to shake the food stockpile habit. My daughter laughed because her friends would come over to bake cookies or what not and they would decide to double or triple the recipe and her friends would say, “We’ll have to go to the store if we do that.” And my daughter would reply, “No, it’s no problem. Look,” and off to the pantry room they would go, to look at pounds of chocolate chips and boxes of graham crackers and cases of sweetened condensed milk. It’s not normal in this city. You can take the girl out of the Bush, but you can’t take the Bush out of the girl. That’s what I always say.
So, I am cooking for a crowd of about ten people now. This morning I made Oat Pancakes. Please note that this must be started the night before, so planning is involved.
The night before, combine 2 cups rolled oats and 2 cups buttermilk. Cover and let stand in refrigerator overnight.
In a medium bowl stir together 1/2 cup flour, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/3 tsp. salt. I do this part the night before as well. That way when I wake up there are only a few steps remaining.
The next morning beat 2 eggs and melt 4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter. Stir into oat mixture just until blended.
Stir in dry ingredients, just until moistened. If the batter seems too thick, add a tablespoon or two of buttermilk to thin it out.
Lightly grease griddle. I spray mine with canola oil. Spoon batter, about 1/3 cup for each pancake, onto griddle, and spread out to make circles about 4 inches in diameter.
These pancakes cannot be hurried. There is a tendency to not cook in the middle if you try to use high heat and hurry things along. No more than medium heat should be used. It does take time. When they begin to look dry around the edges and bubbles form throughout, then flip them over.
Oat Pancakes
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
4 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 cup flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
In a large bowl, combine oats and buttermilk. Cover and let stand in refrigerator overnight.
The next day, beat eggs and add to oat mixture, along with butter. Stir together just until blended. In a medium bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; add to oat mixture and stir just until moistened. If batter seems too thick, add more buttermilk (up to 3 Tablespoons).
Preheat a griddle or wide frying pan over medium heat; grease lightly. Spoon batter, about 1/3 cup for each pancake, onto griddle, and spread out to make circles about 4 inches in diameter. Cook until tops are bubbly and appear dry; turn and cook until other sides are browned. Makes about 1-1/2 dozen pancakes.
My friend Jan really likes these lemon bars and asked me to post the recipe here. I make these frequently.
Lemon Bars
Lemon Bars
Crust:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) cold butter
In a large bowl use a pastry cutter to mix the flour and powdered sugar and then cut in the butter until it is pea-sized. Distribute evenly across a greased 13 x 9″ baking dish and press down. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Topping:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup flour
While the crust bakes, prepare the topping by whisking together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest. Whisk in the baking powder and 1/2 cup flour. Pour over hot crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool and then cut into bars. Consume.
Mix together flour and powdered sugar. Cut in cold butter. Yes, must be butter and must be cold.
Distribute evenly across a greased 13 x 9″ baking dish and press down. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
Whisk in baking powder and flour.
Whisk together until it is all fully incorporated. It will get foamy on top as it sits while you wait for the crust to finish baking. I believe this is the baking powder reacting with the lemon juice.
Pull the crust out of the oven. The indentations where the butter melted is normal.
Stir down the egg mixture and pour it over the crust. Scrape the bowl. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees, until light golden brown.
Remove from oven and let cool. A sprinkling of powdered sugar over the top would make it look nice. You’d have to wait until it cooled thoroughly, though. I’ve never had these last long enough to cool off. They’re just that good.
Foods Passion 