NOLA!

Dear KyleW,

I hope you won't end-up hating me for this, I just can't resist sharing this with you.

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Morning Call in Metaire, New Orleans, has been serving café au lait with beignets since 1870, when the establishment had curbside service and was located in the French market. In the 1970s, Morning Call moved to Metaire, also known as Fat City. It is still run by the same family and offers the same simple menu and almost-unchanged prices ($1.10 for coffee and beignets).

Morning Call's method of preparing café au lait—French for "coffee with milk"—also remains unchanged. The traditional French-drip method is used with a custom blend of chicory and dark roast. The ground chicory root is added to the coffee beans before brewing, giving the coffee a heavier body and heightening its flavor with a slightly bitter, nutty taste. Two parts whole milk is boiled, then added to one part coffee for the New Orleans standard café au lait.

Served with the coffee are beignets, traditional New Orleans deep-fried pastries, which are served hot with a generous dusting of confectioners' sugar. The word "beignet" comes from the French word for "fritter" and is also known as the doughnut of the South. At Morning Call, the dough is typically made in batches, using twenty-five pounds of flour and a bit of the beignet from the previous batch as a "starter." The recipe below has been adapted for home use by replacing yeast with self-rising flour.

RECIPE

MORNING CALL BEIGNETS
Makes 1 dozen or (½ dozen)

3 (1½) cups self-rising flour
2 (1) teaspoons sugar
½ (¼) teaspoon salt
¼ (1/8) teaspoon baking soda
1 (½) cup whole milk
½ (¼) cup buttermilk
Cottonseed oil, for frying (Grapeseed oil is fine if you can't find cottonseed oil)
Confectioners' sugar, for serving

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Add milk and buttermilk, and combine thoroughly; do not overmix. A firm dough is desired (additional flour may be added if necessary). Set aside to rise, about 15 minutes.

2. Transfer dough to a lightly floured board; roll to approximately 1/8 inch thick. Using a sharp knife or pastry wheel, cut into 3-inch squares.

3. Heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat until a deep-frying thermometer registers 375°. Add the squares to the hot oil, turning over once until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the beignets to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar, and serve immediately.

In moderation, I guess it's okay!


:p :p

[ May 18, 2001: Message edited by: pooh ]

LOL!

If you try it, KyleW, please let me know how it turns out.

:rolleyes:

I was in NOLA about a week before Mardi Gras and never again will I go around that time. It was too hard to get around and I didn't get to eat everywhere I wanted such as the above mentioned restaurants. I was also with people who aren't really that into food.

Did the Cafe Du Monde beignet thing. Was good but the main location by the French Market smelled so terrible. Horsey smell and after effects of too much alcohol.

A great place I did go too was Uglesich's. I know that they've been getting almost too much hype, but the food is excellent and relatively inexpensive. The location was another thing! I almost got hit by a piece of roofing that blew off one of the neighbouring dilapitated houses! :eek:

Next time I go to NOLA... all I'm going to do is eat!!!!

You went to some good ones!!!I bet it was beautiful and probably getting pretty warm.
May in New Orleans.sigh.
Beignets, cafe du monde (I still drink coffee and chickory often) and hours of conversations on life...still one of my all time favorite places...just down from Central and Progress grocery (home of muffalotta)....

Hmmmm....New Orleans was not on my agenda for a while, but just reading your post moves it up another couple notches.
I wanna get to DC to see my grandmother, and the Dupont market.
Gotta do the Green market in NYC and visit with you NEasteners.

I'd love to show you around NY, shroom...just say the word.

Hey you two!!!

Can I tag along? :D ;)
cc

Kyle do you put fil in your chicken and sausage gumbo instead of rue? I tried to get soft shells this past weekend (supposed to be an incredible year for them) but the restaurants were out.....bummer.....
Nothing like soft shell with lump crab and brown butter, parsley....hit of lemon and a huge smile.

Yep the more the merrier....but I have to warn you, when I hit NYC I move...Gracies, Zabar,Several pastry shops, 2nd street, etc...there's this incredible store on 24th that is the best hands down....Garden of Eatin....wonderful. Not as many chocolate places in NYC as there used to be anyone know whatever happened to KRONS? They even had an outlet in New Orleans at Uptown Square. Map in hand, market bags and credit card at the ready...there is one bakery in Brooklyn I've wanted to visit for several years now. I had some shipped down for a David Ruggerio book signing. Incredible!!! Olive pits in the oven fire that the textured bread cooked in...now this is bread.

You know NY better than I thought. Maybe YOU can show US around :p.

I was hoping you'd join in, cape!

Now that we're totally off topic...

What's the topic again?

:confused:

Um that would be New Orleans....I can remember reading Gourmet at 12 years old, yearning to discover the majic that the writers discribed. The coffee Pot next to oh poop, what is the name of the hurricane bar... anyway this restaurant had an incredible breakfast with callas (rice balls) and had a buttermilk salad dressing PRE Ranch...Commander's Palace is a dream, I must have eaten there when Emerile and Paul were cooking there....Camilla Grill, what a treat, the service well outshone the food.
Galatoires....who could serve fruit cocktail on ice cream and have it be a HIT> or the FrenchMarket in the 70's what a great place for pecans and soft shells....Always Central Grocery, the smell will knock you out, but muffs are amazing there....I still have olive salad in the fridge and pantry, they actually use a St. Louis meat proveyer (Volpi) for their sandwiches. Hmmmm or the pastry shop that is in an ancient building next to the Square...or Busters of old that was a DIVE a real DIVE and in 1977 was on Burgundy....red beans, rice and sausage and if you even looked alittle down on your luck your sausage was a bigger serving. May/April brought outrageous festivals, Paul Prudhomme coooking pasta with cream (of course) and tasso with shrimp at a festival in the Square...always beignets and coffee...
Mother's on Poydras has a sandwich that is hard to replicate...Ferdi....the guy who is pulling out his last nickle is next to the guy whipping out the $100 bill. They always load me up with ham scraps and bones...must be the way I wax poetry over my red beans that have their ham bone infusion. Spice shops with walnut ketchup. Boiled crawfish with corn, potatoes and garlic....plentiful Abita beer....oh yeah this is one of my favorite places to play.

Anyone heard of Leah Chase?

She's probably the best for fried chicken in N.O.!

Oh sure! and they cut it to get 13 pieces...
I ate on Robertson 20 years ago...soul food.
NOTHING like sweet potato pie.

You will find some of Leah Chase's recipes in
IN JULIA'S KITCHEN!

:p

Hey CC,

If you tag along, I will have to tag along too, as a chaperone!! :eek:

[ May 31, 2001: Message edited by: Kimmie ]

Thanks Margaret~ It's been a rough week and for the life of me I had a spelling blip....knew rue was wrong....
I'd love to see your DC
Anyone remember LeRuth's in Gretna? What a man what a restaurant....late 70's early 80's one of the top restaurants in the US....

I spent a couple of weeks in NOLA in August...as I recall, I drank my way from one end of town to the other and spent all night in jazz clubs around Bourbon street. Do you mean they make food there too???? Seriously, I think my favorite meal there was the soft shell crab in this junky little diner called, I think, Frank's Place.