Laissez l'etouffee..

Tonight was the night for Spinach and Mushroom Etouffee. The recipe was actually easy to follow, and was finished cooking quickly. I made a couple of small modifications, namely in adding in some tomato paste to add a little more depth to the cream of mushroom and cream of celery base, and using a bit more paprika to add to the smokiness of the dish.

I will say that the recipe is nothing like what Staci and i ate at Gumbo Ya-Ya's. It was good, but it wasn't on-par with traditional creole food. I'm going to keep looking around the net to see if i can find a vegetable etouffee or similar recipe so that I can try this again. Keepign the garlic, green pepper and onion a very small chop helps the overall dish. The bigger the pieces, the more apparent they are in the sauce, which only distracts from the texture of the chopped mushroom. Also, I'll probably use fresh spinach in my next attempt. The frozen spinach that I used tonight almost overpowered the complete taste palate. I think that had I cooked the dish for longer, maybe in a slow cooker, the spinach may have been tamed. Staci also thought that the cream of celery was too strong of a forefront taste, so if I use this recipe again, I'll likely use 2 of the cream of mushroom.

Outside the realm of "good for you food", I made Kheer tonight. Kheer is a rice dessert usually made with milk, cardamom, sugar, pistachios or cashews and raisins. I have my own recipe that I use most of the time, but this recipe is pretty close to how I make it. I usually add in some red or golden raisins, and on occasion, coconut flakes. It's a very sweet dessert, which means that you can usually get away with eating a small portion.

Try it! You might like it...or maybe you'll order pizza.