Intro by John Dufresne
Remy Powell is a ten-year-old kitchen prodigy. She has been cooking and putting her own spin on recipes since she was three. Her family’s New Orleans roots and her love of Southern food inspire her creations.
Remy’s appetite for adventure won her the coveted place as a national contestant and fan favorite on MasterChef Junior, Season 9, on FOX (and now streaming on Hulu). She was also named as winner of the prestigious statewide Florida Future Chef Championship.
As part of the championship, Remy’s chicken dish, Sunshine State on a Plate, is in the process of being added to school lunch menus across the state of Florida. She developed the recipe during her stint on the show and garnered praise from Gordon Ramsay himself.
The following pages feature an excerpt from her upcoming cookbook.
Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a blast. Our family is so lucky to get to be part of it almost every year. We go to my great-grandmother, Coco’s house which is close to many parade routes. Can you believe people throw out beads and stuffed animals and toys right from the floats? We show all of our loot to Coco in between parades. Afterwards, Coco feeds us her famous red beans and rice. It’s a New Orleans favorite, and one of mine too. My Bubbe is from St. Bernard parish, so we like to catch a parade there as well. My Great Aunt Stacey and Uncle Alfie bring us to a bar and restaurant in St. Bernard called Brewster’s. It’s owned by our cousin, Ted. We park in Brewster’s parking lot and enjoy their fat and juicy burgers before the parade. The adults love Brewster’s specialty drink called a Boomalache. If you have a chance to visit, try one and let me know if you like it.
New Orleans is known for its Cajun and Creole cuisine. Mardi Gras is the perfect excuse to get into your kitchen and see what you’ve been missing. Bon appetit, and as we say in Louisiana, Laissez les bon temps rouler! That means let the good times roll!
Shrimp and Grits with Tasso Cream
This is my family’s favorite brunch recipe, but it’s great at any meal. Rich and creamy grits are topped with one of the most incredibly flavorful shrimp and cream sauces you will ever taste.
It calls for Tasso ham, which is a smoked, spiced and cured meat popular in Louisiana. If you can’t find it, you can substitute regular ham.
I’ve tweaked the recipe, but the original comes from the book New Orleans Classic Celebrations, by Kit Wohl. The shrimp and Tasso cream was created by Chef Donald Link. Not only is he one of my Bubbe’s favorite chefs, but he’s been nominated many times for a James Beard Foundation Award, and won for Best Chef: South and American Cooking. One of my dreams is to win a James Beard Award. Maybe they’ll create a category for cookbooks by kids and nominate me. What do you think? If you like my book, please write to the James Beard Foundation and suggest it.
I Hate with a capital H to devein shrimp, y’all. Lots of people in New Orleans cook shrimp without deveining them first, but if you ask me, that’s just gross. A way to get around deveining them is to buy them already deveined from your market. Fresh is better than frozen, but deveined frozen shrimp are easier to find and usually cost less too. If none of those options work for you, you can always beg a parent or sibling to do your dirty work. Just don’t tell them I suggested it.
If you can find them, please buy wild Gulf shrimp. They’re the best, both for their texture and taste. If you can’t find Gulf shrimp, then try to get something wild and local. I promise you your finished dish will taste better.
The best way to make this recipe is to make the stock first and then set it aside to cool. If you’re short on time and don’t want to make a stock, you can use chicken broth. It won’t be as flavorful, but I, for one, would happily eat it.
Shrimp and Tasso Cream
3 tablespoons butter
¼ cup diced onion
¼ cup diced celery
¼ cup diced Tasso ham
½ tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
¼ plus ¹/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ plus ¹/8 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoons flour
½ cup shrimp stock (or more if needed to thin)
½ cup heavy cream
Dash lemon juice
Dash hot sauce
3 tablespoons canola oil
20 large Gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined as instructed above
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon ground pepper
Chopped chives for garnish
Melt two tablespoons of the butter in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Add the onion, celery, ham, thyme, cayenne, paprika and cook for a few minutes until they are almost soft. Add the garlic and stir for another couple of minutes. Add the other tablespoon of butter and let it melt. Add the flour and stir to make a roux.
Gradually add the shrimp stock and reduce it by half. Add the cream and reduce, stirring occasionally until the sauce has thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice and hot sauce.
Heat the canola oil over medium heat in a large saucepan until it’s hot but not smoking. Salt and pepper the shrimp, then add to the pan. Cook for about two minutes on each side and drain excess oil from the pan. Pour the gravy over the shrimp, reduce heat to low and simmer for another 5 minutes. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.
Lagniappe: This shrimp and Tasso cream would be delicious tossed with pasta, on top of rice, or even with the sofkee recipe you’ll find later in this book.
Creamy Grits
There are many creative grits recipes out there. Restaurant Zea’s in New Orleans are an inspiration for these.
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup 5-minute grits, preferably Jim Dandy brand
Salt to taste
Bring the cream to a boil. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil again. Add the butter and a little salt. Add the grits. Turn the heat to low and simmer for five minutes. Taste and adjust salt.
To plate:
Make three small circles of grits and using a spoon make craters. Fill the craters with tasso gravy and then place the shrimp. Garnish with chives.
Serves 6
Lagniappe: Grits can be like a blank canvas before you paint on it. Your “colors” are the tasty bites you either place on top or stir into them. Many people love to add cheddar cheese or a cheese blend. Consider stirring in some finely chopped jalapeno or serrano chiles and some Parmesan cheese. Serve “loaded” grits in places where you would normally have a potato or rice—with roast chicken, a perfectly cooked medium rare steak, and of course as a side for eggs and bacon, eggs and corned beef hash, fried green tomatoes. The possibilities are as large as your imagination.
Calas
Calas are an old-time Creole rice fritter made with leftover rice, sugar and eggs and then dusted with powdered sugar. People had mostly forgotten about them until culinary activist, Poppy Tooker, made them popular again. Enjoying calas is like tasting a little bit of history. You can make a sweet or a savory version depending on your mood or the meal you want to serve them with. I like them sweet.
This is Ms. Tooker’s recipe and was one of the first dishes I made when auditioning for Master Chef Junior.
Sweet Calas
2 cups cooked rice
6 tablespoons flour
3 heaping tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon vanilla
Vegetable oil (for deep frying)
Confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
In a bowl, combine rice, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix until the rice is coated with dry ingredients. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
Add about an inch of vegetable oil to a frying pan and heat on medium to 360°.
Carefully drop rice mixture by the spoonful into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar. Serve hot.
*Note: Hot oil is dangerous, and you should never, ever attempt to fry something without an adult’s help.
Serves 4
Easy King Cakes
King Cakes are served in New Orleans throughout the entire Mardi Gras season. They’re like a giant sweet Danish with a plastic baby hidden somewhere in the cake. If you get the baby in your piece, it means you have to buy the next king cake. Normally king cakes are made with yeasted dough, but I’m giving you a great hack. Use Pillsbury Flaky Cinnamon Rolls and make your own purple, green and gold colored sugar for the top. Purple, green and gold are the colors of Mardi Gras, and are so pretty on this cake!
2 cans Pillsbury Flaky Cinnamon Rolls with Buttercream Frosting
1 cup granulated sugar
Purple, green and yellow food color
Preheat oven to 375°.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.
Open the cinnamon roll package and separate the rolls. Smoosh them down a little so they look more like ovals than circles.
Place them on the baking sheet so they form a big oval. Leave a little room between each roll, because they expand as they bake.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes. You want them to be golden brown. They should not be gooey.
While the cinnamon rolls bake, divide the sugar equally into three bowls. Tint the sugar with the purple, green and yellow food coloring.
Let the cinnamon roll cake cool for about 5 minutes when it is done. Use the buttercream frosting that is included to frost the top of the cake.
Now for the fun part. Sprinkle a strip of purple sugar on top of the cake. Now make a strip of green sugar. Next, you guessed it, is the yellow sugar. Keep doing this going around the cake until the entire top looks gorgeous with Mardi Gras colors.
If you would like to insert a plastic baby in your cake, you can order some online. Just make sure you warn the people there’s something plastic in the cake and they might bite into it. Another option if you don’t have a plastic baby is to use a large, dried bean, such as a lima. Once the king cake has been baked, insert the baby or bean into the cake from the bottom. The insert point should be visible in order to alert the lucky guest.
You can also make mini-individual king cakes with cinnamon rolls. Bake as individual rolls then remove a circle in the middle using a small cookie cutter. Frost and sugar the cakes the same way you would a big one.
We’ll of course announce when Remy’s cookbook comes out. In the meantime, you can keep up with her Instagram feed (@chefremypowell) and occasional guest entries on her grandmother’s blog, TheBigEasyCook.com.