Channeling the Big Easy

All photos by Kun Kim

I grew up cooking next to my mother at a young age, but I didn't realize my culinary path until I moved to NYC. This town is an amazing culinary city - the food is much like the city itself - a rich mix of different cultures, traditions and innovation. One can find every type of authentic food from Senegalese to Jamaican to Ukrainian or experience the latest molecular gastronomic creation. Going out to eat in NYC is always exciting, but it's difficult to pin a specific style of cuisine as being "NYC" (with the obvious exceptions of pizza, bagels and matzo ball soup).

If I had to choose my favorite city for its regional cuisine, my pick would be, hands-down, New Orleans. In the past ten years, I've been to the Big Easy four times (a rare occurrence as I tend to not want to return to the same place twice as there are just too many places in the world that I want to see). And every time I visit, I fall in love all over again. Between the food, the music, and the nightlife, New Orleans has so much to offer.

While each trip had a different purpose (visiting my friend at Tulane Law School with my Saatchi co-workers, VoodooFest, our friends' wedding, and volunteering with CulinaryCorps), the main focus for me is always the food (despite the variety in NYC, there is a serious lack of any true Creole or Cajun restaurants). Whether it's muffalettas from Central Grocery, beignets and chicory coffee at Cafe du Monde, fried sausage-stuffed shrimp from Cochon or smoked duck and hot pepper jelly sandwiches from Bayona, each trip planned around what restaurants I want to hit.

So, Jason and I selected A Streetcar Named Desire as our most recent Reel Tasty Brooklyn movie solely to have a NOLA-themed dinner. That's not to say that we aren't entranced by a young Marlon Brando and a mentally unstable Vivian Leigh...but they were merely a vehicle for Jason and I to serve our take on some N'awlins classics.

Our menu for the evening:

Snacks

• White bean dip with tasso and scallions
• Bayona's crabmeat gratin with artichokes and mushrooms

Appetizers

• Cochon's fried chicken liver toasts with hot pepper jelly, onions and parsley and mint salad
• Bayona's grilled shrimp with coriander sauce on a black bean puree

Entree

• Chicken and fresh kielbasa gumbo
• Catfish po'boys
• Corn cakes with granny smith apple and jalapeno
• Braised kale with ham hock
• Fingerling potatoes with Rooftop Farm green and yellow beans

Dessert

• Palace Cafe's Mississippi Mud Pie with homemade hot fudge
• Pecan pie ice cream

During one of the many times that Brando yells "Stella!!!" we served up some Cajun-spiced popcorn. And after Vivian Leigh relied on the kindness of strangers, our guests left with some homemade bourbon-pecan pralines.

With all of this food, it was just like Bourbon Street - including some freshly mixed hurricanes.

Or at least enough to get me through until my next trip to New Orleans.

Mississippi Mud Pie
Adapted from Dickie Brennan's The Palace Cafe cookbook

This recipe is surprisingly easy, but I made two at the same time for the Reel Tasty dinner and it damn near killed me. It requires room in the freezer (always a premium in our kitchen) and takes about three hours to make because each layer has to chill enough before adding another layer. And given my rocky history with gelatin, I was a bit nervous the entire time. The trick is to fold the gelatin mixture, whipped cream and chocolate ganache quickly (before the gelatin has time to solidify). On a side note, other liqueurs would work in this pie as well (hazelnut or coffee would both be great).

Chocolate Cookie Crust
3 1/2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (about two sleeves of Oreos)
6 tablespoons butter - melted

Filling
4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 pounds semisweet chocolate - coarsely chopped
1 ounce unflavored gelatin
5 1/2 ounces amaretto

For the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the cookie crumbs and melted butter in a large bowl. Press firmly over the bottom and up the side of a 9-inch springform pan, using the bottom of the glass to pack the crumbs firmly. Chill for 30 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool then chill until ready to fill.

For the filling: combine 4 cups heavy cream and vanill in medium mixing bowl. Beat until soft peaks form. Add sugar and beat until firm peaks form.

Bring 2 cups whipping cream to a simmer in a saucepan. Pour over the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl and let stand for 5 minutes to melt chocolate. Whisk until smooth. Hold at room temperature.

Bring about 1 inch water to simmer in a medium saucepan. Sprinkle the gelatin over the amaretto in a stainless steel bowl and let stand for several minutes to soften. Place the bowl over simmering water and cook until the gelatin dissolves, stirring constantly. Hold over low heat.

To assemble the pie:
Layer 1 - Spread 1 cup of the chocolate ganache over the bottom of the chilled pie crust. Freeze for 30 minutes.
Layer 2 - Fold 2 tablespoons of the amaretto gelatin with 2/3 cup of whipped cream and 3/4 cup of the chocolate ganache in a bowl. Spread over the first pie layer. Freeze for 30 minutes.
Layer 3 - Fold 2 tablespoons of the amaretto gelatin with 1 cup of the whipped cream and 1/2 cup of the chocolate ganache. Spread over the second layer. Freeze for 30 minutes.
Layer 4 - Fold 2 tablespoons of the amaretto gelatin with 1 3/4 cups o the whipped cream and 1/3 cup of the chocolate ganache. Spread over the third layer. Freeze for 30 minutes.
Layer 5 - Fold 2 tablespoons of the amaretto gelatin with 2 1/3 cups of the whipped cream and 1/4 cup of the chocolate ganache. Spread over the fourth layer. Freeze for 30 minutes.

Spoon the remaining whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe as desired over the top and edges. Chill or freeze until time to serve.