Fig and Red Wine Preserves

Many years ago, when I was a kid growing-up along the bayous of south Louisiana, my great grandfather, Francois Gaspard,  owned a fig orchard - around a dozen trees or so.

Some of the trees were huge and grew to 20 or more feet tall and produced an abundance of fruit. Every year our families would come together to harvest the fruit and make preserves for the winter.


Grandma had a way of transforming figs into just about any fruit taste you wanted. Strawberry fig preserves was my favorite. You could not tell the difference from the real McCoy when my grandma finished working her magic.

This evening I wanted to experiment with making fig preserves using an unlikely companion - red wine. Merlot in particular. And, I must say, it turned out pretty good. It's so easy to make, too.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. of ripe figs
• 1 cup of red wine, (or pure grape juice)
  
• 1/2 cup sugar

I quartered the figs and soaked them in the red wine over night in the refrigerator.

Using a medium sauce pan I added the figs, wine and sugar and cooked everything on medium-heat for approximately 30 minutes until all of the alcohol was burned off and the sugar had converted into a thick syrup. I stirred occasionally to prevent burning.

The preserves were cooled down at room temperature before refrigeration.

Fig preserve sandwiches with sliced American cheese are great!

It's a good and sweet snack for anyone who is constantly on the go. These turned out great.

Try it. You will like it.

Bon Appetit!

Broccoli and Rice Supreme with Shrimp

Linda Masters, a neighbor and wife of a long time friend, first prepared and served this meal to her husband and me over 20 years ago. It is most delicious and easy to prepare.

I asked her to share her recipe with me so that I can pass it on to you and she agreed. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks Linda!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of cooked long-grain rice
• 2 cups of broccoli, chopped
• 2 boneless chicken breast, boiled and chopped
• 1 cup uncooked shrimp, chopped
• 1 cup onions, chopped
• ¼ cup butter
• 2 (15 oz.) jars of  Cheez Whiz
• 1 can sliced mushrooms
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Boil the 2 chicken breast until tender (using just enough water to cover them), then chop into small bite-size pieces and set aside, but reserve the broth for later use.

In a pan, sauté the broccoli and onions in the butter until they are translucent then slowly stir-in the cream of chicken soup and the Cheez Whiz. Blend together thoroughly on low-to-medium heat for a couple minutes then add the chopped uncooked shrimp and chopped already cooked chicken. Stir and mix well.

In a large bowl add the above mixture and 3 cups of cooked long-grain rice. Mix together thoroughly until well blended. If the mixture seems too dry at this point you can resolve the problem by adding a small amount of the reserved chicken broth to moisten it.

Next, pour the entire contents in a large casserole or baking dish (9 ½ x 12 inch) and bake at 350° F. for 1 hour.

6 servings

Fig Leaf Politics

I may have already discussed with my co-contributors to this publication that inserting personal political opinions is probably not a great idea, and I think I may have agreed not to make a habit of it and keep writing stories about Cajun life and the good ol' days.

But, just this once, I would like to give you my take on how national politics is beginning to take shape in the 21st century.

It is certainly NOT my intention to stray too far from the subject of great Cajun cooking, nor is it my intention to offend anyone personally. Politics affects all aspects of life - including cooking. These are merely my views and historical observations.

So, with that in mind, I shall begin my story:

It all began with Genesis 3: “... the woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So, she took some of the fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate it … and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.”

Fast forward 2,000 years:

Mark 11: “… Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached in he found nothing but leaves; it was not time for figs … and Jesus said, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” The fig tree became withered and his disciples witnessed it.

Fast forward another 2,000 years:

U.S. Congress Bill: H.R. 3200: “…Congress received a health care plan, a voluminous 2,074-pages document, which makes it next to impossible for average American voters to read and comprehend. Democrats are eager to pass this Senate bill before Americans become enlightened about its potentially  harmful side-effects. [my words]

It’s amazing to me how history repeats itself in similar ways.

The U.S. House has skillfully managed to pluck and eat some forbidden fruit and is now trying to make the Senate eat it as well. There are over 2,074-pages (like fig leaves on a tree) hiding something important that is suppose to be there, but is not.

And, I'll bet that you can probably count all the U.S. Senators, on two  hands, who have personally read and reviewed the "Americas Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" plan in its entirety - and that is very shameful!

So, it seems like fig leaves have been used throughout history as a pejorative symbol for covering-up  something which is shameful, or hiding something which is suppose to be there, but is not. The fig leaves hiding the details of this national health plan is no exception.

"Sometimes rushing into something head-first will cause you to loose it" as my old grandpa use to say. I think he may have been right.

In Genesis 3, fig leaves were used by the first man and woman to hide their ‘nakedness’, and in Mark 11 the fig leaves were hiding something that was suppose to be there, (fruit), but was not.

And now,  6,000 years later, it ends with H.R. 3200 and two thousand seventy-four leaves that are hiding something which isn't there.

If I were a U.S. Senator (especially a Democrat) I would seek to wither that tree before it is too late, so that no one will ever have to eat its fruit.

That's my 7 cents worth (inflation) and I'm sticking to it.

Have a nice day. Catch you later. Ahheee!!

Resources: ‘‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009’’.

Boudreaux and His Mule (audio)

'My Way' by Frank Sinatra

Have you ever had a nostalgic yearning for a great song - a song which completely sets the tone for the way that you feel now - in the moment?

Although Sinatra's song, 'My Way',  has been performed by many great artists throughout the years, no one could sing it quite like he could. The words in the song are definitely mine, too.

Skinning and Fileting a Catfish

The reason I filet my catfish this way is because I use the remainder of the fish, after fileting, to make a 'Courtbouillon'.

How to Filet a Catfish

Catfishing with Jacques Gaspard

A lot more time was spent cleaning these cats than catching them. It took 3 men, 4 rods and reels (one broke in half), about 8 ounces of my secret catfish dough bait and 1 hour to catch them. And, it took me more than twice that long to process them. But we had fun!

Too bad we were too busy catching the catfish to catch the catch on film. (wait! ... say that again?)

Well, there's always next time, right?

Enjoy!

Mary Chapin Carpenter - Cajun Music

This is one of my favorite Louisiana songs of all times by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Kinda gets you in the swing of things, don't it?

Makes me want to go out and wrestle an alligator. Ahheee!!