Master List: Feb. 23 Holy Smoke Recipes

The following list of meatless recipes assembled by the Clarion Herald staff includes recipes that were published in the Feb. 23 printed edition of Holy Smoke, as well as many more that did not make it into the printed edition due to space contraints.
CAROLYN'S CRAWFISH DIP
 
1 package (12 or 16 ounces) frozen cooked crawfish tails
  8 ounces sour cream
  8 ounces cream cheese
  6 green onions, chopped
  1 tablespoon lemon juice
  2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  2 tablespoons soy sauce
¼ cup chopped parsley
  1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
  1 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
24 to 32 Ritz crackers, crumbled
  1 teaspoon salt
     Pepper, to taste

Directions

Allow crawfish tails to thaw and chop finely. Keep all excess crawfish liquid. Let the cream cheese soften at room temperature to make it easier to mix. Combine all ingredients. Adding the Ritz crackers at the end is important because it helps soak up the excess crawfish liquid and binds the mixture together. Do not add extra salt until the end because the crackers will add salt to the dip. Play around with the amounts of lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, Tabasco sauce and garlic powder until you get something just right for you. Best when allowed to chill in the refrigerator for at least four hours, and even better overnight.

*This recipe was named in honor of Finney’s wife, his first taste-tester.
Peter Finney Jr.
Executive Editor
 
 
TURTLE SOUP
 
1 stick butter, melted
2 onions, finely chopped
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
1 to 2 teaspoons yellow mustard
    Dash Tabasco sauce
    Dash Lea & Perrins sauce
    Salt to taste
    Lemon peel
½  cup green onion tops, finely chopped
½  cup parsley, chopped fine
3 to 6 hard-boiled eggs
1 pound fresh water turtle meat
    Sherry, to taste
 
Directions

Wilt onions in melted butter and add salt. When onions begin to soften, add bell pepper and cook until onions are clear. Add turtle meat (chopped into small pieces) and fry just until no longer raw. Add enough water to cover and simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally and adding water if necessary. Add mustard, Lea & Perrins sauce, Tabasco sauce. Sauce will be thin but will thicken as other ingredients are added. Separate the hard-boiled eggs. When the meat is cooked down, mash the yolks and add to the soup to thicken it. Chop the whites finely. Add lemon peel, salt and pepper to season. Add a few green onion tops and cook down until soup is fairly thick. Just before serving, add egg whites, parsley and remaining green onion tops. When serving, add sherry to taste.

Jonelle Foltz
Executive Assistant
 
 
 
PAN-SEARED SESAME-CRUSTED TUNA STEAKS

  4 tuna steaks (about 1-inch thick)
  2 tablespoons vegetable oil (you can also use sesame oil but note that it burns quickly)
  ¾ cup sesame seeds
     Kosher salt and ground black pepper

Directions

Spread sesame seeds in a shallow dish. Pat tuna steaks dry with paper towel. Rub tuna with oil on both sides, sprinkle with salt and pepper and press in sesame seeds to coat. Heat remaining oil in 12-inch, nonstick skillet over high heat until it begins to smoke, then swirl oil around to coat pan. Add tuna steaks and cook about 1 minute without moving steaks. Reduce heat to medium-high and continue cooking until seeds are golden brown, about 1½ minutes. (Note, the test kitchen said medium-rare was preferred by their staff, but I don’t like to see pink or red, so I cook a little longer until they are barely pink inside because when you let rest, they cook all the way through.) Carefully flip steaks with tongs and let cook on other side. It takes about three minutes for medium, but again I just cut with a knife until I see they get the way I like them cooked. Serve with one of two sauces that you can make ahead:
 
GINGER-SOY SAUCE WITH SCALLIONS

¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup water
2½ teaspoons sugar
  1 medium scallion, sliced thin
  2  teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1½ teaspoons toasted sesame oil
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions

Combine all ingredients in small bowl, stir to dissolve sugar.
 
AVOCADO-MANGO SALSA

  2 ripe avocados
  3 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about two limes)
  1 ripe mango
  1 small seedless cucumber, diced in ½-inch pieces
  2 scallions, cut in ¼-inch pieces
  3 tablespoons fresh cilantro
  1 small jalapeno pepper, chopped in very small pieces (you may want to use less)
  1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper (more to taste)

Directions

Cut avocado and mango into small chunks and mix in all ingredients. Serve within an hour or store in airtight containers in refrigerator for up to three hours.
 
Christine Bordelon
Associate Editor
 
 
BETTY'S BBQ SHRIMP

  8 pounds large shrimp, unpeeled
½ pound butter
  1 cup olive oil
  8 ounces chile sauce
  3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  2 lemons, sliced
  4 cloves garlic, chopped
  3 tablespoons lemon juice
  1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
  2 teaspoons paprika
  2 teaspoons oregano
  2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
  1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
  3 tablespoons liquid smoke
     Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Wash shrimp. Spread out in shallow pans. Combine remaining ingredients in saucepan over low heat and pour over shrimp. Refrigerate, basting and turning shrimp every 30 minutes while refrigerated several hours. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve in soup bowl with French bread.
 
Mike Comar
Business Manager
 
 
NANA'S APPLE PIE
 
Crust

1½ sticks very cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  3 cups all-purpose flour
  1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  1  tablespoon sugar
     cup very cold vegetable shortening
  6 to 8 tablespoons or ½ cup ice water
     Pinch cinnamon or ground cloves, optional

Directions

Place diced butter in refrigerator while preparing the flour mixture. Put flour, salt and sugar into steel-bladed food processor and pulse a few times. Add butter and shortening and pulse again, 8 to 12 times, until butter is the size of peas in the mixture. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse again until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump the dough onto a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut the dough in half and roll each piece into a circle on a well-floured board, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the board. Add optional pinch of cinnamon or cloves at this stage. Take one of the rolled dough halves and fold it in half. Place dough in pie pan and unfold to fit the pan, without stretching it. Trim pastry to ½ inch beyond edge of pan. (To prevent soggy bottom crust, brush unbaked bottom crust with a slightly beaten egg white and refrigerate for 30 minutes) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Filling

  6 to 8 apples (Gala, Winesap or any sweet, tart, firm cooking apples), peeled, cored and thinly sliced, about 8 to 10 cups
  1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ to ½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ to ½ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grounded