Chef Recipe: Crab Calas with Remoulade Sauce

From Denny:  Chef Poppy Tooker is a New Orleans icon, much loved and respected as she is interesting.  She is like a walking trivia foodie encyclopedia and she sure does relish telling the tall tales of Louisiana food and history.

Check out some of her latest trivia offerings and appearances to tantalize your mind as much as your tastebuds:

* Louisiana's Crystal Hot Sauce was used in WWI Army field rations. I'm a bigger fan of Louisiana Hot Sauce.  It's milder than Tabasco and less vinegar.  Goes great on eggs in the morning.

* Camellia red beans are the finest grade of red beans.  Camellia buys up all the Hayward (finest top grade) beans, leaving grades A and B for the rest of the country.  Hayward grade beans are named for the family that founded Camellia in New Orleans back in 1923.  They still own it today.

Can we ever imagine the Monday wash day without Camellia red beans?  Life might never have been the same in New Orleans.  Even Louis Armstrong might not have been known for his endearing signature statement, "Red beans and ricely yours."

* Her radio show is "Louisiana Eats"
* Hosted Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin
* Hosted Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame
* Celebrates the food of many religions like the feast day of Purim, a Jewish festival to Saint Joseph's Day and Saint Patrick's Day for the Catholics.
* Got UNESCO to recognize New Orleans as an International City of Gastronomy


Poppy Tooker is energetic, upbeat, enthusiastic and forever entertaining as she teaches you a new dish to cook.  Sure works for me! :)  Check out her latest offering.

Crab Calas with Remoulade Sauce

From: New Orleans Chef Poppy Tooker

Yields 18 calas

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice
6 tbsp. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 lb. claw crabmeat
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 tbsp. hot sauce
2 eggs
Oil for frying

Directions: Mix the rice and dry ingredients together thoroughly. Add the crabmeat and green onions. Add the eggs and hot sauce. Mix thoroughly into a tight batter. Drop by tablespoonfuls into hot oil (360 degrees) and fry until brown. Drain on paper towel. Serve hot with remoulade sauce for dipping.

Recipe: Sweet Rice Cakes

These rice cakes date back to the 1800’s when African-American women would carry baskets of them piping hot, wrapped in a clean towel through the streets. They strolled through the French Quarter yelling, “Belles calas, tout chauds! Calas!” and for a small price you had a warm tasty breakfast a la street food.

It’s also a great way to use up that leftover boiled rice during the week. Make sure you enjoy some café au lait with your calas this morning!

Sweet Rice Cakes

(Belles Calas Tout Chauds – this is the old recipe)

From: Louisiana Keepsake

Ingredients:

½ cup rice

½ cake dissolved yeast

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon nutmeg

3 cups boiling water

3 eggs, well beaten

1 heaping Tablespoon flour

Powdered sugar
(In Louisiana almost everything gets doused and drowned in powdered sugar!)


Directions: Cook a half cup of rice in the boiling water until mushy. When cold, mash well and mix in a half-cake of dissolved yeast. Set to rise overnight.

The next morning, add the eggs, continue beating, and add the sugar and spoonful of flour. Beat into a thick batter. Let it rise for 15 minutes then add ½ teaspoon nutmeg.

From a large spoon, drop the batter a spoonful at a time into hot lard to fry (peanut oil these days is smarter), hot oil should be 400-degrees F. When brown, take out, drain, and wrap in cloth to keep hot.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with café au lait for breakfast!