Top 5 Mardi Gras Recipes

The Best recipes for Mardi Gras

We have been to many Mardi Gras celebrations in our travels. My husband went to a crawfish festival in Gillette WY before I started joining him on the road. He was out there building our nations biggest Power plant. I was so jealous that he got to go without me a few months later I decided that I was going to start traveling with him. That same year we attended a Mardi Gras Festival in the streets of Deadwood South Dakota. It was so much fun but none of this compared to the southern experience of Mardi Gras that we were able to be a part of when we were working in SETX building one of our nations biggest fuel refineries.

Crawfish Etouffee for Mardi Gras

With this recipe PMGK had me at Crawfish. Add in one of his amazing sauces and you are in for a real treat. I’ve been calling him the sauce man for years. He knows his sauces and with this dish he has taken traditional Etouffee to the next level. If you don’t already know what I mean you need to make this recipe for Mardi Gras. You’ll soon be calling him the sauce man too.

Bourbon Chicken for Mardi Gras

Bourbon Chicken is a dish named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana and for the bourbon whiskey ingredient. The dish is commonly found at Cajun style and Chinese restaurants. When we were living in the south we ventured into Louisiana a few times. For some good food and some gambling. The horse races and the buffets were a few of our must haves. Southern food is like nothing else and the people are such a breath of fresh air. Plus, it was only 20 minutes from where we were living so we couldn’t pass up the experience.

Jambalaya for Mardi Gras

What I love about Jambalaya is that you can just throw all the ingredients in one pot and it comes out with such a great flavor and ready to dish up. It’s so simple anyone can make this recipe. Plus, sausage and shrimp all in one dish. Whoever came up with this idea is a genius.

Oysters Rockefeller for Mardi Gras

My favorite thing about Oysters besides eating them, of course, is shucking them. I’ll admit I was intimidated when I was helping PMGK shuck these for the video but after the first two, I felt like a pro. I’ll never be even half the cook he is but he really makes it seem so easy. When I’m in the kitchen with him I feel empowered like I can make any dish. When you’re done preparing a recipe like his Oysters Rockefeller you’ll wonder how you managed to pull off making something so fabulous. Your guest will also be in awe.

Crawfish for Mardi Gras

We Chose this Crawfish video for the top five for a few reasons. It’s our newest crawfish video and most people don’t have access to live crawfish. We really do recommend getting them live if you can. The experience is what it’s all about. Just watch my daughter and husband in this video it’s priceless. We’ve had some really good times showing the little ones how to prepare live crawfish. We have caught them ourselves in the gulf coast and we’ve been able to buy them live at amazing deals. Once we got such a good deal on a bag that was way more crawfish than we needed. We made half the bag and used my resources from my side business to sell the rest. We had them in the bath tub to keep them alive until the person came to pick them up but they were such a good deal they were sold within the hour. This is what PMGK is all about. Using what you have to make cooking and eating not only a Gourmet experience but also a fun one.

Are you ready for your Mardi Gras party?

If we’ve helped you decide what you’re going to make for your celebrations then we’ve done our job. If you’re still undecided I’d like to make just one more suggestion that didn’t make the list. Boudin. I tried it for the first time when we were in the south and I fell in love. It has such a unique flavor that you just can’t find anywhere else. To me it’s not Mardi Gras without it.

Oysters Rockefeller – Cleaning, Shucking and the Recipe

The Best Oysters are Rockefeller

Oysters Rockefeller are a great way to kick off any celebration. New Orleans Mardi Gras is certainly no exception. And as you may or may not know, the original recipe was developed in the French Quarter at local restaurant called Antoine’s back in the 1800’s. This recipe has since gone platinum. And you as you can see in the picture below, they are fairly inexpensive to buy and with this recipe, they certainly live up to their name, “Rockefeller”. I think I paid about 58 cents a piece is all and the results were spectacularly “Rich”.

What kind of Oysters do you have?

These are West Coast Oysters. You can tell they aren’t from the East Coast because of the Greenish color, instead of brown, and they’re a bit more long gated as well. They should always be scrubbed and rinsed before shucking. This will help eliminate any grime getting into the shell. Personally, I like to rinse them out after anyway. But some folks will freak out if you drain the “liquor” from the oyster before serving because there’s so much flavor there. But for Oysters Rockefeller, there is so much flavor added to it through out the recipe, in my opinion, it really doesn’t matter. The important thing is that no one breaks a tooth trying to eat them.

Shucking Oysters

I’ll show you, in the video below, how to properly shuck these things and lay them out on the half shell. There’s really nothing to it once you learn the tricks. But it’s important to lay them down on something that will keep them stable so they don’t teeter back and forth. Some people, restaurants included, press the round shell backs down into Rock salt, and that’s great for serving but I just use cup cake pans to keep them from moving and it works great for broiling.

Oysters Rockefeller

To make this recipe, you need a few key ingredients but the main thing is to make it green like money. As the story goes, when this recipe was created, someone in the restaurant exclaimed that these Oysters were as rich as Rockefeller. Others think it has to do with the color of money itself. Either way, the name stuck and now the world can enjoy them for any occasion.

If you’re interested in other Cajun recipes and food celebrated in New Orleans and at Mardi Gras, check out my Boudin, Crawfish Etouffee and my Jambalaya!

Oysters Rockefeller Ingredients:

1 doz Med/Lrg Oysters
2 cloves Garlic, ground
1 Green Onion, ground
1 sprig of Fresh Parsly
4 oz Baby Green Spinach
2 tbsp White wine, can sub ice water or white grape juice
1 stick of melted butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp Crab Boil or Crawfish Seasoning (Old Bay is fine)
1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 tsp Basalmic Vinager
1/3 cup Fresh Parmesan Cheese, grated
1/4 cup Bread Crumbs, optional

Be sure to watch the full Oysters Rockefeller Video Tutorial so you can see, step by step, exactly how to make them from scratch.

How to make Boudin – Cajun stuffed Blood Sausage

The Best Boudin

If you love Cajun recipes then you’re going to love Boudin. And this recipe is by far the best I’ve ever had and I’m not just saying that, either. I’m telling you that this is hands down 1st place, blue ribbon material right here. This recipe could easily compete with Dj’s, Zummo’s or your grandma and grandpa’s recipe, it’s that good!

Boudin Dressing

Once you’ve cooked the bulk of this recipe it can be served as is, turned into sausage links or rolled into Boudin Balls and deep fried. The majority of the ingredients is virtually the same for all 3 recipes, only one is served as a dressing, one get’s stuffed like sausage and the other gets dipped in an egg wash and breaded before they’re fried. They are all delicious and fun to make but today we’re going to focus on stuffing hog casings to create Links that can be smoked, grilled, baked or pan fried.

Stuffing Boudin into Casings

In order to stuff the casings, however, you’re going to need a mixer with a meat grinder and horn attachments to form the links. Another thing you’re going to need, obviously, is the casings themselves. You can purchase Hog, Lamb or edible artificial casings from your local butcher or order them online. I was fortunate enough to find Hog Casings, here locally, at my Harmon’s Grocery store. They matched the bone marrow price in the meat department, which ran about $1.29 per pound, and 1 lbs. of these Hog casings goes a long way. Plus they store in your refrigerator for up to six months if you keep them soaking in salt water.

Remember that Mardi Gras is in full swing, starting today(Fat Tuesday), so be sure to check out Crawfish Etouffee and my Homemade Jambalaya recipes.

Boudin Ingredients:

4 cups white rice, cooked
1 lbs Ground Andouille Sausage
1/2 lbs Chicken liver
1 Celery stalk, chopped
1/2 Red Onion, chopped
3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
1 Jalapenos, chopped
1 Bell Pepper, chopped
1/2 cup Fresh Parsley, chopped
1/2 cup Scallions

2 Cups Chicken Broth
1 Cup Clam Juice
2 tbs Butter
1 tbs kosher salt
2 tbs freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs Worcestershire
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 cup Red Wine

Use Hog, Lamb or Artificial Casings for Stuffing the Boudin.