Louisiana: Hunt for beer and supplies

Today we had lunch in Lafayette at Don's Original Seafood and Steakhouse. For an appetizer we enjoyed fried alligator tails and crawfish bisque. The tails were done just right but the bisque seemed a bit thin. For the main entree, I ordered the crab platter; fried soft shell crab, crab au-gratin, stuffed crab, crab gumbo and some other crab dish, plus a baked potato, with no crab. If your going to call it a crab platter, why stop at the potato? Go ahead an stuff some crab in there too! Not a bad dish, stuffing was a bit dry but the meal was enjoyable overall. For an beverage accompaniment I had the Louisiana Abita Amber with just enough flavor to come through the rich food but not to overpowering.


Next we stopped at Macello's Wine Market to view the beer selections. They have a nice selection of Belgium beers as well as other imports and the largest selection of local beers.

Abita Pecan Ale
Abita Restoration Ale
Abita Jocamo
Surprisingly no Abita Christmas beer?
Dixie Lager
Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager
Heiner Brau, local microbrewery. Marzen style.
Full Sail LTD #02
Corsendonk(Cant find in Austin)

Our next stop was Joey's Meats a good place to pick up specialty foods and frozen Cajun favorites. In addition to restocking our freezer we picked up a fresh frozen rabbit and turtle meat! I enjoyed a wonderful rabbit dish in Belgium with a beer gravy and I would like to replicate it. Below is the rough plan for the dish, partially in French with translation help from Marie.

Lapin avec biere aux pommes de terre et petits onions et sage.
Rabbit cooked in beer with sage, onions and potatoes.

1 clean rabbit, quartered, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic, coat in bag of flour.
1 - 2 large onions sliced into rings
New potatoes, sliced
Carrots
Garlic minced
Green Onions, chopped and tipped, save tips for garnish
olive oil
sage, rosemary, thyme, other spices TBA
Abita Pecan Ale, or other amber ale. (I think Corsendonk was used in Belgium)
Flour for gravy.
Chicken stock or water.

Sear the rabbit on all sides then remove, Saute sliced onions and garlic in large roasting pan, add new potatoes, add spices and turn up heat. When hot add rabbit, then deglazewith beer. Lower to simmer, let cook for 30 -45 minutes,water may need to be added during cooking. Skim fat, remove rabbit then use flour for gravy. Use reduction as gravy.

(Check cooking times, etc, still under development) (Uncle Doc's recipe has cooking time of 2 hours, talk about good has 45 minutes)


Tempura Fried Turtle Meat with pepper piquant or sweet and sour sauce.
(See Uncle Doc's recipe for turtle soup)

No recipe yet.