Tag: Louisiana Eats

Cajun Meatball Fricassée Recipe

If you’re looking for a dish that will taste like it’s from your Cajun grandma’s Sunday dinner table, then look no further. This recipe for Meatball Fricassée from Acadiana Table is a perfect, classically cajun recipe that is as delicious as it is relatively simple to master. Meatball Fricassée is a classic Roux-based recipe that is sure to please even the pickiest of eaters. The combination of dark roux, chicken stock, ground pork, short rib, and beef chuck create a delicious and hearty meal that is perfect for any night of the week. So if you’re looking for a new way to spice up your dinner routine, give this recipe a try.

While there are many ways to make a classic Roux-based recipe, this Meatball Fricassée recipe is one of the best, as it makes excellent use of dark roux. A Roux is a mixture of flour and fat (usually butter) that is used to thicken soups and sauces. This recipe uses a store-bought dark roux, but your dish will always be benefitted from making your own.

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds of ground beef chuck (80/20 fat content)
  • 2 pounds of ground pork
  • 1 pound of ground short rib
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1 cup of whole milk
  • 4 tablespoons of dark roux
  • 4 cups of chicken stock
  • 1 cup of Parmesan cheese
  • 2 green bell peppers, diced
  • 4 large yellow onions, diced
  • 1 cup of diced green onion tops
  • ¼ cup of minced garlic
  • 2 cups of diced celery
  • 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary
  • ¼ cup of chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 tablespoon of dried thyme
  • 1 tablespoon of dried basil
  • 1 tablespoon of dried oregano
  • 8 cups of cooked Louisiana long-grain white rice
  • 6 slices of white sandwich bread
  • 1 cup of crumbled Ritz crackers
  • 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper
  • 4 tablespoons of olive oil, divided
  • 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 dashes of Tabasco hot sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of white pepper
  • 3 tablespoons of kosher salt
  • 3 tablespoons offreshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. You’ll want to begin this delicious cajun recipe by preheating your oven to 400ºF. Then, take your white sandwich bread and remove the outer crusts, placing the crustless slices into a large mixing bowl. Pour your whole milk over the bread and crack the eggs into the mixture as well. Add in your Worcestershire sauce and the cheese. Then, with your hands, break up the bread pieces, combine it all together, and leave the mixture to soak.
  2. Take a large skillet and place it on the stove over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the cajun cooking “holy trinity,” that is – onions, bell pepper, and celery. Only sauté the ingredients until they’re tender, and then add your garlic, parsley, and herbs. Continue to cook until your onions begin to brown (about 8 minutes). Once they begin to brown, remove the skillet from the heat and let it cool.
  3. In another large mixing bowl, add in all your meat and break them into small pieces. Mix all the meat together evenly, and then combine the meat with the egg and break the mixture. Add in your vegetables and herb mixture next, and combine it all together. Add your ritz cracker crumbs along with the spices and a few dashes of Tabasco, and then form the mixture into golf-ball sized meatballs of a uniform size.
  4. Take a large cast-iron pot with a heavy lid, and heat it over medium-high heat. Add in your remaining olive oil, and then once the oil reaches the smoking point, add the meatballs in batches, browning them on all sides.
  5. On a large sheet tray that’s lined with aluminum foil, line up all of your meatballs, and insert them into the oven, allowing them to bake for 45 minutes. Once done, remove them from the oven and keep them warm.
  6. As the meatballs are baking, you’ll make the gravy by adding your holy trinity to the pot and browning the celery, bell pepper, and onions. Brown them for 5 minutes, add your dark roux to the pot, and pour in your chicken stock. Stir all of the vegetables until the roux is completely melted into the stock, and the contents of the pot are thickened.
  7. Lower the heat of the stove burner to a simmer and add your baked meatballs to the gravy. Cover the pot, and allow it to cook for an hour.
  8. When you’re ready to serve, you’ll ladle your meatballs and gravy over a mound of white rice and garnish withgreen onion tops. Serve alongside warmed French Bread, and enjoy!

For more delicious recipes, click here.

Louisiana Restaurants Featured by Acadiana Local

A New Orleans native and promoter of South Louisiana cuisine and Louisiana restaurants has become a viral sensation for his TikTok videos celebrating small businesses, their owners, and their cuisine, according to his NOLA.com profile piece.

Gerald Gruenig, now age 32, revealed to NOLA.com that he was born and raised atop the Po-Boy Bakery, a Gentilly hot-plate and sandwich shop that was owned and operated by his father Gary “Koz” Gruenig. Gerald’s family home was located on the second story of the restaurant, which provided him not only a unique perspective of the patrons, business practices, and meals of a mom-and-pop style restaurant but an appreciation for the one-of-a-kind cuisine as well.

Gruenig reflected on his childhood experience by saying that by growing up in Gentilly in such close proximity to the University of New Orleans, he was always exposed to “the full monte of people,” referring to professors, students, athletes, and regular neighborhood folk. He also said, “it gave me an appreciation for the working class of everywhere. It was one of those things where you don’t realize how unique or lucky you are to be brought up the way you were.”

Gerald Gruenig, who had established a routine in serving and supporting the patronage of his father’s restaurant, had his journey altered by Hurricane Katrina destroying the Po-Boy Bakery with floodwaters in 2005. Soon after, Greunig’s parents gutted and sold the building in 2006, moved uptown, and opened Koz’s, a new restaurant in Harahan, which remains in business to this day.

Gerald then stayed on the Northshore for four years, graduated from Fontainebleau High School, and earned a full athletic scholarship to Nicholls State University where he started on the offensive line and eventually worked his way up to team captain. When asked about his time in Thibodaux, he said that the city had “introduced me to rice and gravy culture.”

Upon graduating from Nicholls, Gruenig took up a career in sports broadcasting with his internship at WDSU-TV in New Orleans, became a weekend sports anchor at KALB-TV5 in Alexandria, and then eventually joined the Sports team at KLFY in Lafayette in 2014.

After a year of working for KLFY-TV, Gruenig began his highly-popular Acadiana Eats segments, which afforded him the opportunity to highlight the Southern cuisine  at Louisiana restaurants that he had been enraptured by since birth. Later in 2016, he transitioned to hosting KLFY’s long-running morning show, Passé Partout, and according to Gruenig, “my focus drastically changed from sports to jumping into the food scene.”

Since beginning Acadiana Eats, Gruenig has visited over 300 locally-owned restaurants in the Acadiana Area. In speaking about this feat, he said, “I really fell in love with the Lafayette area. I’m making friends with people in New Iberia, Breaux Bridge, and all over. I’ve never had a problem jumping in anywhere, so when we go shoot a segment, I’ve been in that type of place before, because I’ve lived all over the state. The reward is not the food. The reward is the phone call I get from a restaurant after a segment airs. We’ll put a restaurant on Acadiana Eats, and they’ll sell out completely. We’ll put someone on TV, maybe, that’s struggling, and they’ll call me in tears because that segment saved their business. And this has been going on for years. Like I say, we ain’t new to this, we true to this.”

Gerald Gruenig’s Acadiana Eats segments have attracted a dedicated and devoted following of fans who follow his journey from one mom-and-pop restaurant in South Louisiana to another via his social media presence on TikTok and Instagram. He is heralded for his featuring of South Louisiana restaurants and cuisine, the small family-run establishments.  It’s also his “down-home approach and crackling bonhomie” that sets him apart. His tone isn’t “encyclopedic, analytical, or critical,” it’s an honest showcasing and championing of South Louisiana cuisine and those who make it. Gruenig said of his aim, “I’m just trying to put a restaurant in the best light because I know how hard it is on families, the people who work at these restaurants, man. It’s not an easy life.”

For more Louisiana-related articles, click here.