LOUISIANA PASTALAYA
November means waterfowl season on both the Chesapeake Bay and the Louisiana Bayou of New Orleans area native and Duck Camp Dinners chef Jean-Paul Bourgeois. This hearty one-pot pastalaya is a traditional Cajun riff on jambalaya, using pasta instead of rice, and made even more decadent with duck meat.
Serves 10.
Best cooked in the Joe.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 lbs. smoked sausage (like andouille), cut in half moons
- 4 whole ducks, simmered in water until tender, with meat picked from the bones and reserved
- 3 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 4 cups onions, diced
- 1 cup celery, finely diced
- 4 green bell pepper, finely diced
- 2 Tbsp. minced fresh garlic
- 2 tsp. Cajun seasoning
- 8 cups duck stock (liquid that was used to cook your ducks)
- 2 lbs. fusilli pasta (can also use bow-tie, penne, rigatoni)
- 2 cups green onion, sliced
- 4 bay leaves
- 3 Tbsp. of cooking oil
- 1/2 cup Italian flat parsley, chopped
- Hot sauce, to taste
METHOD
In a heavy-bottomed pot, add cooking oil and sausage over medium-low heat. Once the sausage starts to render its fat, add the mushrooms. Cook on medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes. Add onions and garlic and cook for 15-20 minutes. Add bay leaves, bell peppers, and celery, cooking for an additional 15-20 minutes. At this point, the mixture should look brown and deeply roasted. This is what helps give pastalaya its iconic color and rich flavor. Add your stock and Cajun seasoning. Bring to a boil. Add your picked duck meat and pasta to the liquid. Bring pot back to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the pasta is al dente. Remove the lid and add green onions, parsley, and hot sauce. Fold into mixture and serve.
Recipe courtesy of Jean-Paul Bourgeois and photo courtesy of Denny Culbert.
SEAFOOD FRITTERS
The Eastern Shore of Virginia is, for all intents and purposes, clam country. In fact, the Old Dominion State has the largest clam fishery in the United States, hauling in hundreds of millions of both farm-raised and wild varieties, from little necks, cherrystones, and razors along the coastal peninsula’s Chesapeake Bay shorelines to quahogs off the banks of the Atlantic Ocean. And if you’re not eating them raw or roasted, there are few ways better to indulge than the local delicacy of a pan-fried fritter.
CHESAPEAKE OYSTER STUFFING
A round of oysters is always cause for celebration, and this time of year on the Chesapeake Bay, that shows up in the form of oyster stuffing. Whether stuffed into a bird or cooked in a cast-iron pan, it’s a time-honored tradition during the holiday season. Or, as Harris’s book reports The Baltimore Sun putting it in 1914, “Inside the oyster belt at Thanksgiving time, it is nothing short of heresy to fail to serve turkey with good old-fashioned oyster stuffing.” Throw it into a Joan and consider it tradition.
SEARED HANGER STEAK WITH CHARRED SCALLION SALSA
There was a time not that long ago when you’d walk into certain butcher shops, ask for a hanger steak, and get a quizzical look. Perhaps that’s because, for some time, the secondary cut was also known as a “Hanging Tender,” hailing from inside the ribcage (in fact, it’s part of the diaphragm), as well as “the Butcher’s Steak,” with those cunning meatmongers often keeping this deeply flavorful, textured specimen for themselves. “But the gig is up,” says Pryles, who shares her pan-cooked version with us, featuring wagyu, no less, and a bright salsa to boot.
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