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French Toast (Pain Perdu) Recipe

April 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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It’s been a fun Cajun adventure over the past few weeks. We’re wrapping up our Acadiana (Nova Scotia) > Louisiana  > New Orleans trek with an all time favorite – pain perdu.  Translated, pain perdu means “lost bread”; more commonly, it’s referred to as French toast. Regardless of its’ origin or name, the smell of freshly made pain perdu is one of the best things to wake up to – and is one of the easiest breakfast dishes to make.

Having mastered making low sodium French bread and stuffed ourselves on low sodium Cajun po’boy sandwiches, we barely had enough bread on hand to make this classic French/Acadian/New Orleans  dish! Bon appétit!

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Low Sodium French Toast (Pain Perdu)

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 8-12 slices; ~ serves 4

Serving Size: 2 slices

Low Sodium French Toast (Pain Perdu)

Ingredients

  • 8 slices of low sodium French bread
    • Batter
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup low-fat milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • (spray) cooking oil
  • Low sodium French toast topping ideas: fresh fruit, maple syrup, confectioners' sugar, caramelized bananas or apples,
  • Try making a stuffed French toast: Combine a small amount of (lower sodium) Greek yogurt, fresh berries, and/or roasted and chopped nuts, (or more simply, just use pureed bananas) to use as a filling.

Instructions

  1. Slice the French bread on the bias, roughly 1" thick. (Note: if you make this a stuffed French toast, you'll want to cut the bread slightly thicker than noted below. Slice the bread roughly 1 1/2" in thickness). Set aside.
  2. To make the batter: mix the eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup in a shallow bowl.
  3. Preheat the non-stick pan or griddle. Spray a small amount of the cooking oil, just enough to cover the surface of the non-stick pan. (If you're using a regular griddle, you may need to use more oil to cover the surface of the pan)
  4. (If you plan to make stuffed pain perdu, create a small incision in the middle/horizontal plane of the bread, so as to create a "mini-pocket" - similar to slicing the bread by half it's thickness. Place a small amount of the yogurt and fruit filling inside the bread pocket, roughly 1-2 tablespoons)
  5. Quickly dip each bread slice in the batter, ensuring that both sides have been adequately covered. Remove the bread from the batter.
  6. Make sure the pan is hot. Place the battered bread on the [heated] pan and cook until evenly browned/crisped on each side. (I flip mine frequently to avoid accidental burning).

Notes

Tips to help ensure that our French Toast doesn't turn out soggy.

1. We do not allow our French bread to "sit" in the batter longer than necessary. Basically, it's a very "quick dip", just enough to ensure that the (less stale = more fresh) bread has been completely coated with the batter.

2. The liquid: bread consistency (i.e., dryness or # of days the bread has been sitting): bread thickness ratio can vary significantly from home to home. 3. Try not to "water down" the egg: milk ratio. We're going for more of a custard "feel", and less of a watery solution.

4. Ensure your sliced bread is of the appropriate thickness

5. "Stale" bread that has been sitting out on the counter for a couple of days can sit longer in the batter than if you use freshly baked bread. You can try squishing a small corner of a test piece every 15-20 seconds to see how "saturated" the bread has become.

6. If you've been "multitasking" and inadvertently leave the bread soaking longer than necessary, you can try putting baking out some of the moisture after you've cooked it on the griddle/pan. Place the cooked French toast on baking sheets, and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes @ 350F.

http://lowsodiumblog.com/2012/04/french-toast-pain-perdu-recipe/

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Recipes, Low Sodium Recipes Tagged With: , , , ,

Tracing New Orleans’ Origins of the Famous Muffuletta & Po’ Boy Sandwiches / How to Make The Perfect Low Sodium Po’Boy Sandwich

April 13, 2012 By 2 Comments
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Back in the day, before I started eating low sodium/heart healthy, a trip to New Orleans meant that I looked forward to eating two infamous sandwiches: the po’boy and the muffuletta.  Just thinking about these sandwiches used to make my mouth water.  In today’s post, we’re tracing the origins of these two famous New Orleans sandwiches, and we’ll walk you through a healthy version of one of them.

The po’boy is cornerstone of New Orleans cuisine made famous by Benny and Clovis Martin, two Acadian brothers and former street car conductors turned sandwich shop owners.  During a railway workers strike in 1929, the two brothers vowed to feed their former coworkers, gratis (free) – pledging “We are with you ’til h– –l freezes, and when it does, we will furnish blankets to keep you warm”.  Martin Brothers’ Coffee Stand & Restaurant gave out a lot of free sandwiches: the strike and the Martin’s pledge to stand by their former colleagues and feed the striking workers lasted for several months.  The striking railway workers quickly adopted the nickname, “poor boy” and whenever one approached the Martin Brothers’ sandwich shop, a local would holler out, “here comes another poor boy,” – or, po’ boy in New Orleans dialect.  The po’boy nickname quickly became synonymous with the actual (and formerly free) sandwich itself, and the name stuck.

Today, the po’boy is a complex submarine-like sandwich stacked with many different layers of culinary genius. Individually ingredient by ingredient, and in its entirety, biting into a hot po’ boy sandwich is an experience like no other.  The New Orleans po’ boy is notably distinguished by its use of “New Orleans French bread” — a crispy crust and a light, fluffy interior — French bread made most famous by a (Deidesheim) German immigrant, George Leidenheimer.  Leidenheimer founded his New Orleans’ institution, the Leidenheimer Baking Company, in 1896 — and it’s as they say, “good to the last crumb”.  And that’s just the first layer.

Between the bread, the po’ boy can include a plethora of goodies. Typical concoctions include breaded fried shrimp, catfish or oysters. The “combination” includes hot roast beef, ham, gravy and cheese. My favorites are the fried oyster or grilled chicken po’boy, dressed, easy on the mayo.  “Dressed” means added lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise.  As you can start to see, with all of these ingredients, the po’boy can easily be a heart-stopper – but we’ve found healthier ways to lighten the load (stay tuned).  You can get po’ boys with grilled chicken or fish, and vegetarian sandwiches. They’re made to order, so you can choose  healthier options.

By contrast, the muffulleta (pronounced “moo-foo-LET-ta”) is  just flat out scary.

Created in the early 1900s, Sicilian farmers working at the nearby farmer’s market would stop by the French Quarter’s Central Grocery Store and separately order salami, ham, cheese, olive salad and either Italian bread or a round muffuletta loaf for lunch.  Watching the farmers eat all of these ingredients separately and in a rather clumsy fashion, Salvatore Lupo, the store owner, envisioned a more efficient way to eat: slicing the muffuletta loaf horizontally and piling everything on. Voila — the muffuletta was born! It’s one of the most well known sandwiches in the French Quarter, with people lining up around the block just for a taste.

Here’s why the muffuletta scares me: each sandwich contains approximately 3170 calories, 231g of fat and 9880mg of sodium. Merely looking at one causes my blood pressure to soar. To be fair though, people seem to only eat a half or quarter of a sandwich, but a quarter of a muffuletta is still 2470mg of sodium. All I can say is when you’re in New Orleans, strongly consider resisting this temptation. It’s only a cold cut sandwich.

Having said all of this, just talking about New Orleans and po’ boys got us craving them. Before I knew it, Johanna was preparing her delicious low-sodium French bread and creating the delectable po’ boy sandwich seen in the photo (top).

So now, there’s no need to miss-out on this New Orleans classic!  Here’s how to do it without piling on the sodium:

1.  Bread –   If you feel ambitious (as we did), you can make your own low-sodium French bread.

 

2.  Inside: Pecan Crusted Cajun (Breaded) Oysters

 

3.Dressed. Add tomatoes, Celery Root (Celeriac and Radicchio) Remoulade, and (optionally) low sodium mayo:

4. Then imagine yourself sitting on the veranda at a Louisiana Plantation, eating your po’boy… drinking lemonade, and enjoying the good life. .. (better hop to it and get cooking!)

Laura Plantation

 

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Cooking & Food Tips, Will Travel For Food... Tagged With: , ,

Craving Cajun? Taste our Louisiana Gumbo with Fish and Okra

March 8, 2012 By 2 Comments
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Make a gumbo that’s healthy and flavorful – Yes, it can be done.

When I think of Louisiana, I think of jambalaya, crawfish, blackened anything, and gumbo – Louisiana’s most revered soup. Acadian families in Cajun country cook gumbo with recipes that typically include one of three thickeners: roux, okra or file’ (ground sassafras leaves). These ingredients and “holy trinity” (diced onion, green peppers and celery together), are distinctive characteristics of gumbo.

Most gumbo dishes include seafood, chicken and/or sausage, but they can also be vegetarian. We’ve created a recipe with Pacific cod and low-sodium vegetable stock, easily adaptable to a vegan-friendly meal. If you’re not a fish person, replace the fish with chicken for a delicious chicken gumbo. Either way, the end result is a nutritious, delicious, low-sodium and low-fat gumbo meal.

Traditionally, cooking gumbo starts by creating a roux, then adding vegetables, and so on. However, the roux (thickening agent of flour and fat/liquid – we used broth) can easily be burned this way. It’s also difficult to gauge the thickening effect of the okra, especially for those of us who don’t have an experienced gumbo aficionado in the kitchen to guide us.

So when embarking on this gumbo project, I consulted with Johanna, who’s quite experienced with roux and French cooking. She advised me to break the tradition and add the flour/roux later in the process. And so I did, with great results. Our gumbo had a flavorful broth with a tad of heat and hearty yet succulent pieces of cod and okra. We scooped it over rice and couldn’t stop going back for more.

Adding the flour near the end of cooking allows you to thicken the soup to your desired consistency. If you prefer a gluten-free gumbo or find that it’s a perfect consistency for you without it, simply skip Step 4 and don’t add the roux.

This recipe is fairly simple to make. I’d suggest combining the spices, chopping and assembling all of the ingredients in advance to efficiently follow the cooking steps. Preparing the vegetables and measuring out the spices takes about 4o minutes. Cooking time is about 1 hour, a half-hour of which requires only occasional stirring.

Serving suggestions: serve over rice and/or with French bread.

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Gumbo with Fish and Okra

Yield: Serves 6

Gumbo with Fish and Okra

Ingredients

  • 1/2 Tablespoon Paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure unsalted mild red chili powder
  • Pinch of cayenne * (optional depending on your heat tolerance)
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 cups diced onions
  • ½ cup diced celery
  • 1 cup diced green bell pepper
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • ¾ pound okra, sliced into ½-inch pieces
  • 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
  • 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 quarts low-sodium vegetable stock (or low-sodium chicken stock)
  • 1 16 oz can of stewed tomatoes, drained
  • 1/8 teaspoon lime juice
  • 2 Tablespoons flour
  • 1 ½ pounds of Pacific Cod or other firm whitefish, sliced into 1-2 inch cubes
  • ¼ cup chopped parsley
  • ½ cup green onions, sliced

Instructions

  1. In a Dutch oven or similar pot, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion, celery, green pepper, garlic and sauté 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
  2. Stir in the dry spices. Add Okra, basil, thyme and bay leaves. Stir frequently for 4-5 minutes until onions are translucent.
  3. Add vegetable stock, stewed tomatoes and lime juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Make the roux for thickening (optional). Using a separate saucepan over medium heat: (a) Scoop 2 ladles of your gumbo broth into the saucepan; (b) whisk in 1 Tablespoon of flour until blended in; (c) transfer the roux back into the gumbo and stir for 2-3 minutes; (d) if a thicker soup is desired, repeat the process. If thinner, add broth or water.
  5. Add cubed fish, green onion and parsley to gumbo and cook 5 minutes or until fish is white and flaky. Serve and enjoy.
http://lowsodiumblog.com/2012/03/cajun-gumbo-fish-okra/

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