Rouses Magazine - January February 2022

JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2022

A Fresh New Year

HOW TO KEEP YOUR PRODUCE FRESH

Your Fish Is Our Command: WHAT ROUSES CERTIFIED SEAFOOD EXPERTS CAN DO FOR YOU

CITRUS & KALE SALAD WITH HONEY DRESSING

recipe inside

A Fresh New Shopping Experience When we introduced curbside pickup nearly three years ago, we had no idea just how important this service would become to our customers. Curbside pickup is a great contactless solution for shopping during Covid; you can order groceries online and pick them up at a Rouses Market without even leaving your car.

We wouldn’t have been able to launch curbside pickup — or keep up with the demand during the first wave of Covid — without our vendor partners. But we’ve always prided ourselves on our Rouses Markets shopping experience, and we knew we needed our own curbside pickup, shopped and managed entirely

PHOTO BY CHANNING CANDIES

by Rouses Markets team members. So, for the past year, we worked on creating an in-house app for just

on any given day. You can always come in the store to

that service.

get your groceries, or something delicious to eat or

With our new Rouses Shopping App, you can shop our weekly specials and everyday low prices online, place your grocery order online, and choose a pickup time

drink. Or you can order curbside on the app, and set a pickup time that works for you. You pay the same price either way.

that works for you. You can even order alcohol (where

We started rolling out our Rouses Shopping App with

available). You get your own personal shopper, who is

Curbside Pickup at the end of last year, and we’re

a Rouses Markets team member that you likely know.

adding that option to new stores every week. We plan

There is no curbside pickup fee on orders over $35, and

to offer it companywide by the time the next issue of

you pay the same price for groceries that you pay in

our magazine hits stores.

our stores.

Download our new Rouses Shopping App on the App Store — or get it on Google Play — and choose which

Happy New Year!

— Donny Rouse, CEO, 3rd Generation

Rouses Markets shopping experience is right for you

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© 2022 Community Coffee Company

Table of Contents In Every Issue Marketing & Advertising Director Tim Acosta

Creative Director & Editor Marcy Nathan

Art Director, Layout & Design Eliza Schulze

1 Donny Rouse 5 Letter from the Editor

by Marcy Nathan 7 Cookin’ on Hwy. 1 with Tim Acosta 9 Yes, Thank You Bites

by Ali Rouse Royster

Illustrator Kacie Galtier

Creative Manager McNally Sislo

Copy Editors Patti Stallard Adrienne Crezo

Advertising & Marketing Amanda Kennedy Harley Breaux Stephanie Hopkins Nancy Besson Taryn Clement Mary Ann Florey

Fresh Features 11 How to Avoid a Sticky Situation

by Sarah Baird 14 Some Fin to Talk About

by David W. Brown 17 From Head to Roe

by Sarah Baird 23 Aw, Shucks!

by David W. Brown 24 Pot Sticklers

by Marcelle Bienvenu 35 Saying Grace

by Marcelle Bienvenu 39 All Ripe, All Ripe, All Ripe

by David W. Brown 47 Get It Done, Chop Chops with Ms. Linda Green

Fresh Tips & Tricks

Fresh, New Recipes

15 Only the Best Fish Makes the Cut at Rouses

18 Chef Isaac Toups’ Crab Fat Butter

20 Your Fish Is Our Command: What Rouses Certified Seafood Experts Can Do for You

19 Chef Isaac Toups’ Crab Fat Rice

Why You Should Primp Your Shrimp 21 How to Clean and Eat a Lobster 32 Where There’s a Wilt, There’s a Way: How to Store Produce 34 Let the Good Thymes Roll 37 The Big Apples

Chef Isaac Toups’ Gulf Seafood Courtbouillon Chef Isaac Toups’ Brick Roux 21 Cajun Lobster What’s This Here Cocktail Sauce 23 Mosca’s-Style Baked Oysters Oyster-Artichoke Pan Roast

A Treasure Grove

25 Marcelle Bienvenu’s Okra & Tomato Gumbo

41 How to Cut an Onion Without Crying

27 Shrimp Creole

42 How to Tell When Something Is Ripe 44 It’s Nothing to Wine About Dry Buys: How to Store Flour & Other Dry Goods 45 At Season’s Peak

Hwy. 1 Oven Roasted Whole Fish 35 Marcelle Bienvenu’s Aunt Grace’s Apple Cake 39 Citrus & Kale Salad with Honey Dressing 43 Tomato Ricotta Bruschetta

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Shantrell Conerly, the Deli Assistant Manager at our Rouses Market in Downtown New Orleans, helped our

COVER PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

flip t o page 27vfeorr t he co e! recip

Marketing & Advertising Director, Tim Acosta, cook his go-to fish recipe for our cover.

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Our Favorite Kitchen Tips & Tricks

ELECTROLYTE

WATER

Don’t sleep on quality cheese! It can make or break your recipe. Any time I need shredded cheese, I purchase a whole block and shred it myself using the shredding disc on my food processor. You can use a box or plane grater, or even just dice it with a knife. Many pre-shredded cheeses are coated to prevent clumping, which can sometimes affect the flavor and meltiness.

– Kacie Galtier, Designer & Illustrator

My mom is an excellent cook — I love her green gumbo, her smothered squash and zucchini, and her red beans and rice. Any time I ask for a recipe, she tells me she just adds a pinch of this and a pinch of that — in other words, no real recipe. But every dish has a pinch of brown sugar. It’s her magic trick!

– Eliza Schulze, Art Director

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR BRANDS AT WWW.ROUSES.COM

Nothing is worse than a big clump of uncombined flour in the middle of your pancake breakfast. Whenever I need to use dry ingredients in a recipe, I like to run them through a sifter before combining them with the wet ingredients.

My mom is an amazing baker and she swears it makes all your batters smooth, airy and, of course, clump-free.

– McNally Sislo, Creative Manager

Letter from the Editor

By Marcy Nathan, Creative Director

P

ompano en Papillote is an old-school New Orleans dish.

En papillote — pronounced ON poppy-YOTE — is the French way for saying “in paper,” which is how the fish is cooked.

The French have been baking fish and other food en papillote since at least the 17th century. Cooking en papillote seals in the moisture of whatever you are making, even chicken and steak.

Food history has always fascinated me, probably in part because I was lucky enough to grow up in one of the great food cities of the world. Pompano en papillote was invented at Antoine’s Restaurant, my city’s oldest restaurant — the same restaurant that invented Oysters Rockefeller and Eggs Sardou. Antoine Alciatore, the founder, created the dish in honor of balloonists from his native France. And now that I think about it, the parchment does sort of puff up like a balloon during baking.

Cooking food in paper is one of those cooking techniques that seem to come and go, and these days it’s rare to find Pompano en Papillote or any fish en papillote on a New Orleans menu. In a city that loves dinner and show — think Bananas Foster and Cherries Jubilee — I don’t know why. In a somewhat theatrical display, your fish comes to the table still in the parchment paper in which it has been cooked. When the waiter slices open the parchment, there’s a rapid release of the built-up steam, eliciting “ooohs” and “ahhs” from everyone at the table.

OK, I admit it’s true that the best thing I make for dinner is usually reservations, but I can make fish en papillote, after a lesson with chefs Greg and Mary Sonnier. (Their exquisite restaurant, Gabrielle, is on my short list when people ask, ‘Where should I eat?’)

If you want to throw a dinner party your friends will never forget, or at least actually enjoy, hire a private chef for a hands-on dinner. Greg and Mary taught us how to make fish en papillote and Oysters Gabie, possibly my favorite restaurant appetizer ever. But first they had to teach 12 adults how to cut a heart out of a piece of parchment paper, like a kindergartner making Valentines. (First you fold it in half, then you cut it

to form a perfectly symmetrical heart shape when opened.) The hardest part of the dish is folding that parchment heart around the fish. The paper needs to be pulled tight, very tight, like lid-on-a-new-jar-of-pickles tight, so that the fish, vegetables and herbs are completely encased; otherwise, the steam will escape and the fish will be dry.

You can steam just about any firm fish in parchment — I like flounder — from speckled trout, redfish and grouper to amberjack, mahi-mahi, even mullet. All you need is fresh herbs for flavor, vegetables for color and texture, a splash of liquid to help create the steam, and a bit of fat, like a pat of regular butter or crab butter (see page 19).

In a pinch, you can use aluminum foil instead of parchment paper. (Your fish will cook a bit more quickly, too.) And if you want a no-fuss version of fish en papillote, at Rouses Markets we sell our own in-house, freshly prepped, cook-in-the-bag fish with garlic butter and vegetables in our Seafood Department. Our bags can be cooked in the microwave or oven, so you can save those paper hearts for Valentine’s Day. You’re welcome.

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FEEL-GOOD FROZEN TREATS

©2021 Wells Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cookin’ on Hwy. 1

W

By Tim Acosta, Advertising & Marketing Director

hen I was little, my dad started me out fishing on Lake Boeuf, which is a big shallow lake near Raceland that is surrounded by freshwater marsh. The lure of Lake Boeuf was probably how close it was to our house, but it’s also easy to catch bass, perch and sac-au-lait in Lake Boeuf (sac-au-lait, or “sack of milk,” is the Cajun French name for crappie, or white perch). And it spills into all of these little canals and bayous and swamps, and eventually into Lake Des Allemands, the Catfish Capital of the Universe.

or run down to the passes of Four Bayous and Coup Abel; we also fished north of the island in Barataria Bay as well. My buddy Phil and I used to take his kids and mine fishing to Dularge and Cocodrie, just south of Houma. It was easy for the kids to reach their limits there.

Some days we’d have to run out pretty far to find clear water, though. My oldest, Nick, would complain that Phil and I just wanted to run our boats…well, that may have been a little bit true... Those were some good times we had, for sure!

I think of those days every time I pass the Theriot Canal Boat Launch on Hwy. 308.

I ran into Phil in the parking lot at one of our stores in Thibodaux a few months back. His boat was hitched to his truck.

Phil had been fishing but not catching, and he complained about spending the whole day out there around Dularge just burning gas.

You don’t need to following fishing reports to know when the fish are biting in Lake Boeuf. You just need to look at how many vehicles are in the parking lot at the launch.

March to June — even early July — the lot is almost always full.

When my boys were little, my wife, Cindy, and I took them to Grand Isle. My fatherin-law, Mr. Anthony Rouse Sr., had a camp down Apple Lane. We’d go out in the boat to fish by the rocks in the Gulf of Mexico,

I told him I was going inside to catch my limit in our Seafood Department.

we can get our hands on, and we always have. And we don’t just have the best local Gulf seafood in our stores; you can catch salmon and flounder from Alaska, and steelhead from Idaho. Our certified seafood experts will gut, scale and dress any whole fish for you. They can even fillet it for you.

I caught the red snapper on our cover in the Seafood Department at our Rouses Market on Baronne Street in New Orleans.

We cooked it whole with the head intact, which keeps the fish full of flavor. You can use a fork or spoon to scrape the flesh off a whole roasted fish, and the bone will peel right off. Or you can use your hands, like our art director, Eliza, did. She picked the fish on our cover clean as soon as we finished the photo shoot. It was like a cat got ahold of it.

There’s always something fresh and local on ice at the store — drum, catfish, tuna — all caught in the deep waters of the Gulf. We buy as much fish out of the Gulf of Mexico as

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M Yes, Thank You Bites

By Ali Rouse Royster, 3rd Generation

“All you need to say is no thank you, No thank you I’m alright.

All you need to say is no thank you, And take one no thank you bite.”

y kids used to watch a cartoon called T.O.T.S. featuring Pip the Penguin and Freddy the Flamingo. In one episode the two sang a song imploring kids to take a “no thank you bite” before refusing to eat something. My husband, Billy, and I still use the phrase to remind the kids to try a food. I usually do not resort to singing the song by the same name, though. You’re welcome, children. Now please eat your food.

(completely delicious) dish, my mind was changed. I am fairly certain I ate that dish every time we went to Cinclare that winter.

One food that I had to remind myself to take a “no thank you bite” of was salmon. For whatever reason, I had it in my mind that I liked lots of fish, but not cooked salmon. Honestly, I have no idea what kind of traumatic event I had with salmon in my younger years that cemented this in my mind; it must have been so horrible that I completely blocked it out.

My first dish was an oven-roasted salmon topped with an avocado salsa. To be honest, it wasn’t great. I haven’t made it again.

Out on a date night a few years ago, my husband and I were at our favorite spot, Cinclare, in Downtown Thibodaux. Their seasonal menu had just changed, and one of the items was a bronzed salmon. Everything about it sounded delicious, but I was still skeptical because…salmon. Which was so silly! So I took a page out of the cartoon script and gave it a shot. With that one

After trying salmon at a few other restaurants, I decided to try my hand at cooking it at home.

I’m not going to lie, I was intimidated. (I can’t explain it. It’s just a fish!) But I looked up a few recipes. They were all fairly simple sounding, so I gave it a good ol’ college try.

I waited awhile to try another recipe.

Then another.

Then I came across a delicious salmon recipe that uses my favorite quarantine impulse purchase, an air fryer. The air fryer cooks the salmon without drying it out. It is a fabulous option for a quick, healthy, fresh weeknight dinner.

Now I am now longer Ali Rouse Royster, salmon scaredy-fish; instead I’m Ali Rouse Royster, at-home salmon chef!

Get the recipe for Ali Rouse Royster’s air fried salmon at www.rouses.com.

mouse-pointer Get our favorite Mardi Gras recipes and learn about Mardi Gras traditions all over the Gulf Coast at www.rouses.com.

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PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

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R O U S E S J A N U A RY | F E B R U A RY 20 22

How to Avoid a Sticky Situation

By Sarah Baird After determining the correct ingredients and proper cooking technique, there’s no weightier decision when preparing a recipe than selecting the right kitchen tools for the job. Sauteeing tilapia in a stainless steel pan will produce a completely different outcome than if a nonstick pan is used, and paella will be much smoother if constantly stirred with a wooden spoon than a silicone one.

If you’ve always been curious which utensils are best suited for which meal-prepping purposes, never fear! We’ve outlined it for you. spoons to dry completely in a place with good airflow to prevent bacteria from developing. Also, if you’re concerned about keeping the aesthetic appeal of your wooden spoon pristine, avoid using it with ingredients that could stain, like blueberry pie filling or within a mile of turmeric. While it won’t impact the functionality of the spoon, you might end up with an unexpectedly purple- or yellow-hued utensil.

Arrow-Circle-Down WHEN TO USE A WOODEN SPOON: Is there anything a wooden spoon can’t do? This kitchen catchall is the go-to stirring, sampling and scooping tool for a reason — not the least of which is its au naturel material. Remarkably durable and sturdy with just-enough friction — making them ideal utensils for viscous pots of rice or thick brownie batter — wooden spoons don’t conduct heat like metal spoons. They won’t “shock” high-temperature mixtures like candy, meaning that these non-reactive tools can be used in even the most challenging stovetop situations. Wooden spoons won’t scratch surfaces, including nonstick pans, and can be trusted not to change or absorb flavors from acidic, pungent recipes.

(Looking at you, tomato sauce.) Plus, wood simply feels softer to grip, particularly if you’re constantly stirring something over a long time, like risotto. They’re environmentally friendly and don’t have the potential to release chemicals into dishes if used incorrectly (read: over high heat) like some plastic kitchen tools.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT DON’T USE IT WHEN ... ... there are obvious cracks in the wood, or the spoon has split. Always allow wooden

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT TRY THIS PRODUCT: A food-grade mineral oil (which runs around $6) is critical for ensuring the longevity and functionality of your wooden spoons. Any time the woodgrain begins to look a little dry, blurry or worn, pour a bit of mineral oil onto a soft cloth and give the spoon a rub. Allow it to soak in overnight, rinse off any excess, and your wooden spoon will be good as new. With proper care, wooden spoons can be the sort of family heirlooms passed through generations alongside storied dishes and skillets.

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WHEN TO USE A SILICONE SPOON (OR SPATULA): Looking for the perfect tool to scrape down the sides of a stand mixer while you’re whipping up a carrot cake? The

silicone spatula is your new go-to. With thin, flexible edges perfect for smoothing out icing or making the mashed potatoes atop a shepherd’s pie crest into perfect peaks, silicone spoons and spatulas have a distinct wheelhouse of skills. Nonstick, stain-resistant and pliable enough not to damage even the fussiest pans while sizzling breakfast sausage or flipping fragile crepes, silicone utensils often come in a set featuring multiple sizes, ensuring that the spatula you use while cooking is just the right shape for the job. But buyer beware! Shoppers should ensure the construction of whatever silicone tool they’re buying is 100% high-grade silicone without any “filler” material, which could cause unexpected melting at high temperatures or in the dishwasher.

(That’s right, the magic words: Top-quality silicone tools are dishwasher safe.)

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT DON’T USE IT WHEN ...

... you’ll be doing a lot of pan scraping.

While silicone has a lot going for it, the manmade material just can’t match up to wood when it comes to toughness. If you’re planning on scraping up fond from the bottom of a pan, best to err on the side of nature.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT TRY THIS PRODUCT: If you’re a loyal silicone spatula user, consider expanding further into the silicone cookware universe by investing in a silicone baking mat. These nonstick, ultra-flexible sheets line baking trays and cut out the need for keeping an endless roll of parchment paper in your cabinet. Silicone baking mats can be used upward of 2,000 times before being replaced, making them a walletfriendly gift (and long-term investment!) for the galette and macaron baker in your life.

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Everything from cobbler to cornbread to pot pie benefits from a cast iron preparation, thanks to its seamless stovetop-to-oven transition abilities.

Arrow-Circle-Down WHEN TO USE CAST IRON: There’s always a lot of chatter in home-cook circles about the merits and drawbacks of cast iron — including, but not limited to, the ongoing debate about whether you can clean it with soap and water — but those who are dedicated fans are loyal for a reason. Handy and homey with high heat retention, cast iron should be your chosen vessel for stovetop deep-frying because it can keep oil at the correct temperature for long periods, ensuring whatever you’re crisping up to golden brown — whether chicken legs or okra — won’t become excessively greasy. Well-seasoned cast iron is also superior for searing steaks and baking. Everything from cobbler to cornbread to pot pie benefits from a cast 12

R O U S E S J A N U A RY | F E B R U A RY 20 22

iron preparation, thanks to its seamless stovetop-to-oven transition abilities. What’s more, they last pretty much forever with proper care, meaning the cast iron you buy today will not just serve you well, but maybe your grandchildren as well. (Oh, and for the curious: You can definitely wash your cast iron pans with a mild soap. Just make sure to dry it well and oil generously immediately afterward.)

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT DON’T USE IT WHEN ... ... you’re cooking something highly acidic and the pan is brand new. When a cast iron pan is “well-seasoned” and broken in over the course of months or years, acidic dishes using ingredients like citrus juice are completely fine. But try cooking an acidic meal in a freshly purchased cast iron skillet,

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PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

and you risk being left with a metallic-tasting meal (not to mention a stripped pan). Cast iron also isn’t the most hospitable cooking vessel for eggs, so keep your nonstick at the ready for any sunny-side-up breakfasts.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT TRY THIS PRODUCT: Thanks to its ultra-high smoke point, grapeseed oil is the “seasoning” oil of choice for most cast iron enthusiasts and professional chefs. For the uninitiated, seasoning the cast iron simply means heating oil in the pan and allowing it to absorb into the pores of the metal, creating a rough-and-tumble layer that prevents the cast iron from rusting and eventually making the pan’s interior smooth and slick. Grapeseed oil accomplishes this best, but canola oil and flaxseed oil are good options.

WHEN TO USE A STAINLESS STEEL PAN: Stainless steel is all about two words: browning and crusting. Forgivingly tough, non-reactive (acidic foods like tomatoes — welcome!) and with a thin profile that makes heating easy to control, stainless steel pans are a reliable kitchen workhorse. As well suited for caramelizing onions or stir-frying tofu as searing off a pork shoulder to get the perfect bark, the lack of coating on stainless steel pans allows for crispiness that you just can’t find when using nonstick pans. (Avoid uneven heating and too much sticking by always preheating your stainless steel pan for three to five minutes and adding oil before use.) Endlessly versatile, there’s a reason stainless is the staple of professional kitchens.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT DON’T USE IT WHEN ... ... you’re cooking items that have an ultrahigh potential to stick — even with the best preparation — like lightly breaded chicken cutlets or crumb-coated snapper filets.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT TRY THIS PRODUCT: Keeping a bottle of distilled white vinegar on hand can go a long way toward cleaning up any blemishes or issues that might arise with your stainless steel pan. Vinegar can easily remove “overheating” spots on stainless steel with a quick swipe of a soft cloth, and get rid of hard water stains as part of a 3-to1 vinegar and water mixture. Bonus? It’s probably already in your pantry.

WHEN TO USE NONSTICK: Sometimes, you just need the ease of an omelet sliding gently from pan to plate or a guarantee that your thinly pounded, lightly breaded pork schnitzel isn’t going to fall apart at the crucial flipping moment.

That’s where a nonstick pan comes in. Ideal for delicate foods that need to be treated tenderly, like flaky fish, nonstick pans work best over low-to-medium heat. The ease of cleanup also means they’re perfect for making gooey, cheesy weeknight quesadillas, or even impressing guests with perfectly fluffy pancakes with minimal mess.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT DON’T USE IT WHEN ...

... you want to get a good sear on a piece of meat or create a pan sauce. The coatings that make nonstick pans so useful in many circumstances can become altered under the extremely high heat required by searing, ruining the pan. Also, never put a nonstick pan in the oven.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT TRY THIS PRODUCT: If you’re looking for an alternative to the traditional Teflon nonstick pan, consider purchasing a ceramic nonstick pan. Sure, they might not be quite as slick at the classic, but with greater scratch resistance and longer heat retention, more and more people are choosing to keep both types in their kitchen arsenal.

Sarah Baird is the author of multiple books,

including New Orleans Cocktails and Flask, which

was released in summer 2019. A 2019 Knight

Visiting Nieman Fellow at Harvard University,

her work has been featured in The New York Times,

Washington Post, Saveur, Eater, Food & Wine and

The Guardian, among others. Previously, she served

as restaurant critic for the New Orleans alt-weekly,

Gambit Weekly, where she won Critic of the Year in 2015 for her dining reviews.

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Some Fin to Talk About

By David W. Brown

F

or Rouses Markets, offering the best products, including seafood, at the lowest prices is everything.

When you are talking about creatures harvested from the sea, to ensure quality, you have to go the extra mile and do things a little bit differently. The telltale signs are subtle but important, and how the seafood is handled every step of the way must be expertly done.

Seafood moves very quickly from the sea to your shopping cart, and along the way are several quality checks by the best in the business.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Below: Tommy Williams of Great Escape Fisheries in Slidell, LA ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Opposite: David Maginnis of Jensen Tuna in Houma, LA Photos by Romney Caruso

“The first thing is to know who you are buying from,” says Denise Englade, the Director of Seafood for Rouses Markets. The seafood group buys straight from the source to make sure Rouses sells only the freshest fish possible. To that end, Denise and her team work with producers, processors, and fishers directly.

“For the majority of our fish — especially our local fish — we buy it whole, and then we fillet it at the store level,” she says. This

is important because when you get a whole fish that still has its scales and its skin and its belly lining (among its other parts), you are ensuring that the fish, first, stays fresher on the bone, and second, has the parts necessary to allow for a more in-depth inspection of its quality.

When the certified seafood experts at Rouses Markets get a fish, the first thing they do is look in the fish’s belly. “You want to make sure the belly bones, as we call them, and the belly wall, is fresh and the bones are poking through,” says Englade. Next, when the Rouses team member threads up the spine, he or she is looking for red blood — in other words, that it has not yet oxidized.

For a head-on fish, the fish experts check its gills, which should also have nice, fresh, red blood. When the gills have turned brown, that means the fish has been around too long, and has begun oxidizing.

A lot of people pay special attention to the eyes of a fish to determine freshness — that cloudy eyes mean trouble — but Englade says that isn’t always true. A saltwater fish pulled from the Gulf would immediately be packed in ice, which would cause its eyes to be cloudy. Because the Rouses seafood team handles so many types of fish from so many sources, they have to be meticulous.

Rather than looking at eye cloudiness, a fish inspector will look at eye concavity.

Fish pulled from the sea, whether fresh or saltwater, might or might not have cloudy eyes, but a fresh fish would definitely have round and plump eyes. If the eyes are sinking in, that’s a sign of age.

In addition to the vendors checking the fish the moment it is received, each fish must again pass an inspection before it even makes it through the door of your local Rouses.

“We have receivers at the back of the store for all our incoming products, but that receiver is not allowed to receive seafood.

They are required to call a seafood specialist to first take a look at that product and ensure that before we received it, that it meets our specifications,” Englade explains.

Some fish Rouses recieves filleted before delivery, such as catfish, some Atlantic salmon, and tilapia, to name a few. To inspect them for freshness, the seafood specialists at every Rouses look at the boxes they come in to check for things like the process date and the day they were caught. Both vendors who help supply Rouses, and the Rouses team members themselves, are looking at that to ensure maximum freshness.

Once the fish makes it to the display cases in Rouses seafood departments, the teams track the date it arrived, and only the freshest seafood gets sold. Anything carried for too long is rotated out, as customers need time as well to take the fish home and store it before cooking it, which can sometimes be days later.

“We want to make sure that products are going fresh to our customer. On any given day, we have fresh seafood coming in so that the customer can feel confident that what they are buying is quality, fresh seafood,” she explains.

Every Rouses has the same core seafood items — basically any seafood you can think of off the top of your head: head-on shrimp, peeled shrimp, catfish, tuna, scallops, among many others. On top of that, stores stock fish that happen to be caught at any given time; it might be drum or sheepshead or speckled trout or rockfish.

“In the world of seafood, it’s day to day,” says Englade. “Just because something is in season doesn’t mean someone is going to catch it.” Weather conditions, rain, hurricanes — those problems can be unrelenting.

And when that happens, Englade and her team never rest on their laurels. “We are aggressive and we will have the best products of anyone out there. We will have the availability. We do that by building relationships with our vendors and fishermen.”

And any seafood that Rouses doesn’t carry, but that can be commercially fished, is available for special order with 48 hours’ notice.

Englade says it is fun to introduce new seafood from other areas to Rouses customers. “We keep true to our local

fishermen, making sure that we’re working with the fishermen, crawfish farmers, and our shrimp guys in the area. And we make sure that while we’re supporting local, we are also offering seafood from all over.

And that’s really is my passion. And I do love it.”

David W. Brown is a freelance writer whose work appears in The Atlantic, The New York

Times, Scientific American and The New Yorker.

His newest book, The Mission: A True Story, a rollicking adventure about a motley band of

explorers on a quest to find oceans on Europa, is in bookstores now. Brown lives in New Orleans.

Only the Best Fish Makes the Cut at Rouses ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Just like beef and pork, there are different cuts of fish. Our most popular cut is a fillet, a cut from the side of the fish. Depending on the type of fish, we have fillets available skin-on and skinless. A fish steak is a crosswise cut made from large fish such as salmon, tuna or halibut. We leave the vertebrae, skin and bones intact for this cut. Most customers choose fish steaks for grilling because they hold up so well. Fish loins are the filet mignon of the seafood case.

These prime cuts are taken lengthwise across the backs of large fish like tuna, swordfish and shark. They are thick and flavorful.

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From Head to Roe

By Sarah Baird

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urprising friends with a new culinary delight ranks among life’s greatest pleasures for me.

The thrill of vicarious discovery as they go from “I’m not so sure about this!” to grabbing a third, fourth and fifth enthusiastic bite is like reliving my own first time eating the delicacy all over again. Recently, I’ve been introducing as many people as I can to the mild, earthy flavors of Louisiana paddlefish “caviar,” gushing about why tinned Spanish sardines are mind-expandingly unctuous, and offering up the glittering, orange-hued jewels known as crab fat and roe at every family gathering.

Formally known as crab tomalley — the “guts” of the crab, if you will — crab fat is the sweet-meets-briny, gelatinous and ultra-rich innards that too many home cooks (and even chefs) have long overlooked, discarding it into oblivion when they should have been serving it up at a premium on gilded shells.

Perhaps most precious of all these jiggly insides is the crab roe, which appears seasonally as pinprick-sized, bubble-like egg bundles in female crabs and, depending on who you ask, could put any fine Russian caviar to shame.

“Crab fat and crab roe are basically the same thing,” says Isaac Toups, owner of Toups’ Meatery in New Orleans and author of 2018’s Chasing the Gator: Isaac Toups and the New Cajun Cooking. “You can buy it, or you can harvest it yourself. Just crack open the carapace of a female crab and look for the golden nuggets. My mama likes crab roe better than the meat!”

And while, like Toups’ mama, I would count myself among the minority of diners who prefer the more viscous entrails of most seafood to the actual meat itself, cracking open the carapace (read: exterior shell on a crab’s back) and rummaging around for the gem-like pocket of roe inside a crab’s body is a little easier said than done for those of us who haven’t

been treasure hunting for the stuff since childhood. But if you’re dedicated to going completely sea-to-plate — and getting your hands as dirty as possible along the way — there are a few tricks to remember for this labor-intensive extraction process.

Some people suggest boiling your crabs before attempting to remove the roe to make the carapace easier to remove. However, doing this runs the risk of making the crab fat you’re after congeal into a goopy, not-sotasty lump, so try to work raw if you can. Also, understand what you don’t want. While most of the unfamiliar parts of the crab’s interior are edible and delicious, the feather-like gills (or “lungs”) along the body’s interior are not for snacking. (An old wives’ tale posits that they’re toxic, but they just taste bad.) What will make your life a little easier is setting aside a small bowl dedicated to the crab tomalley before starting to work with the crabs; this keeps the messy situation more contained.

After putting your freshly purchased crab to “sleep” humanely, use a sharp kitchen knife to cut out the triangle-shaped section colloquially known as the “apron” from the crab’s belly. (This makes the carapace easier to remove.) Then, it’s showtime. Place your thumbs on either side of the crab’s top shell and, approaching from the back — that’s the side without the big front claws — muster up all the hand strength you have to pop the shell right off. (Typically, this works, but if you need to use an instrument like a knife to help, there’s no shame.) Underneath the carapace, like opening a chest full of gold, you’ll

“To me, the best thing to do with crab fat or roe is to make crab fat butter. It really freezes well,” says Toups. “You can then pull it out when you want and use it for crab fat rice, which I always love, especially with couvillion. It’s also great to use for roasting oysters.” ©NOLA.COM | THE TIMES-PICAYUNE W W W. R O U S E S . C O M

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quickly discover the warm-hued crab fat and roe you’ve worked so hard to find.

Just like wine has its terroir and oysters have their signature regional bivalve flavor, the crab fat and roe from different crab varieties are surprisingly distinct. Blue crab fat skews delicate and sweet (a perfect jumping-off point for newbies), while green crab fat has a tangier, umami underbite, and Dungeness crab fat is rich and custardy.

One thing all crab roe and fat have in common, though, is their health properties.

Much like other types of seafood, these crab entrails are chock full of omega-3 fatty acids, which help with everything from lung functioning to cardiovascular health, as well as protein and Vitamin A. “To me, the best thing to do with crab fat or roe is to make crab fat butter. It really freezes well,” says Toups. “You can then pull it out when you want and use it for crab fat rice, which I always love, especially with couvillion. It’s also great to use for roasting oysters.”

Couvillion — the rich, brothy tomatobased Cajun seafood stew, typically made with redfish and head-on shrimp — plated up with a heaping portion of crab fat-flavored rice is a snapshot of Gulf Coast decadence that’s unrivaled. (Bonus points if you incorporate some of the crab fat butter into the couvillion itself!) But seafood-atop-seafood layered dishes aren’t the only way to utilize the magic of crab roe.

In Vietnam, a crusty loaf of bread is often soaked in spiced crab fat then cubed and baked for a brackish bread pudding experience. Crab roe is traditionally a key ingredient in she-crab soup, and is also a popular addition to the Hong Kong breakfast porridge, congee. The roe from green crabs is called masinette in Venice and can be eaten straight from the shell, formed into a pate, or even sauteed with fresh local herbs.

Many Chinese diners revere dense and creamy crab fat as “ocean gold” both for its difficulty to harvest and, of course, price. In Suzhou, an eastern Chinese city, “crab roe cream” is an ancient combination of crab roe and cream braised in Shaoxing rice wine and seasoning that’s then mixed with lard and pepper. Initially created to preserve the crab roe before the days of refrigeration, the dish has grown increasingly popular in recent years. Crab roe tofu — soft bean curd cooked in a broth of (you guessed it!)

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PHOTO BY DENNY CULBERT

crab roe — is a summertime delicacy in the Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and has become such a cultural touchstone that it’s a dish players can purchase (or cook!) in the role-playing adventure video game, “Genshin Impact.” And if real-deal crab fat and roe are elusive in China, snackers can always pick up crab roe-flavored sunflower seeds — a poppable staple — at convenience stores across the country.

Perhaps most famously, the late Anthony Bourdain devoured his fair share of crab fat at the legendarily cramped, 18-seat Swan Oyster Depot in San Francisco, where he ordered an off-menu item known as the “crab back” — crab roe, liver and other innards served in the back shell of the crab — with plenty of fresh sourdough for dunking into the salty, custardy brine. “Unicorn juice,” Bourdain called it, “the brains, the fat, the magic.”

Toups likes to get an early start on incorporating his crab roe-spiked compound butter into meals, adding it to scrambled eggs in the morning or spreading it on biscuits.

(Pro tip: Freeze your crab roe butter in an ice cube tray for easy-to-thaw, perfectly sized biscuitsmearing portions.)

So sure, crab fat and roe might not have

Recipes from Chasing the Gator: Issac Toups and the New Cajun Cooking, available wherever cookbooks are sold.

reached caviar levels of popularity here in the United States yet, but I’ll keep serving them up like the precious rarities they are, gaining a legion of converts one tiny spoonful at a time.

CRAB FAT BUTTER Makes 2 pounds

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 pound crab fat (from about 20 to 30 female crabs) 1 pound unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, softened 2 tablespoons minced garlic 1 cup white wine Grated zest of 2 lemons 2 teaspoons ground Aleppo pepper (or paprika or crushed red pepper flakes) 2 teaspoons ground white pepper 1 teaspoon kosher salt

HOW TO PREP: Push crab fat through a fine mesh sieve to remove all shell particles. Chill crab fat in the fridge until ready to work with it.

In a small skillet, melt one of the cubes of butter over medium heat. Add garlic and heat for 2 minutes, until aromatic. Add wine and cook over medium heat until it reduces to 2 tablespoons.

Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Transfer reduced wine mixture to a stand mixer bowl. Add crab fat, remaining butter cubes, lemon zest, Aleppo pepper, white pepper and salt.

Fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed for 30 seconds, until all ingredients are well incorporated, scraping down the sides once or twice. You just want to mix the butter, not whip it. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can mix it together by hand with a rubber spatula. Do not use a whisk.) It is done as soon as you don’t see any chunks of plain butter.

Use immediately or save it by packing into a Tupperware container, rolling into logs in plastic wrap like cookie dough, or placing in a ramekin covered tightly with plastic wrap. In the fridge, it will last for a week but it freezes well when formed into logs and wrapped tightly with plastic. You can pull it out, slice off what you need, and put it back in the freezer for up to three months.

CRAB FAT RICE Serves 6-8

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1/2 cup water 1 cup Crab Fat Butter (recipe above) 4 cups cooked white rice Kosher salt 2 bunches green onions, green tops only, finely sliced HOW TO PREP: Combine water and crab fat butter in a large cold skillet. Heat skillet over low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter has melted and dissolved into the water, but is not boiling. (It’s important to keep the heat low so the butter doesn’t break.)

Gently fold in the rice over low heat, stirring occasionally until warmed, about 3 minutes.

Mix in green onions. Adjust salt to taste and serve.

GULF SEAFOOD COURTBOUILLON Serves 6

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, divided 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced 1 small red bell pepper, finely diced 1 large rib celery, finely diced 1 teaspoon kosher salt 2 bay leaves 7 cloves garlic, minced 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/2 cup tomato paste 1/4 cup dry white wine 6 cups fish, crab or shrimp stock 1 teaspoon picked and minced fresh thyme 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper 3 to 4 pounds mixed seafood (see note following) Jasmine rice or any medium-grain white rice, for serving HOW TO PREP: In a Dutch oven over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter until it quits bubbling. Add the trinity (onion, bell pepper and celery), salt and bay leaves, and cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and sweat for 1 more minute. Remove the vegetables from the pan and reserve. Make sure you get all the vegetables out, but there’s no need to wipe or clean the pan. There’s still a lot of flavor in the fat that’s leftover.

In the same Dutch oven over medium heat, make a brick roux (recipe below), using the remaining 4 tablespoons butter and the flour and adding the tomato paste once the roux hits blonde. When the tomato paste begins to brown, add the vegetables back to the pot and stir.

Add the wine and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon until all the brown bits have come up. Add the stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until fully incorporated after each addition. Add the thyme, paprika, cayenne and white pepper, and stir.

the fish for an hour, until it breaks down, and add the rest of the seafood 15 minutes before it is done).

Adjust salt to taste and serve over rice.

Note: Chef allows 6 to 8 ounces of seafood per person, in any combination of fish, peeled shrimp, and crabmeat. He prefers flaky white fish like speckled trout or redfish, either whole filets or filets cut into 2-inch slices. (Or you can do like Maw Maw Toups and put a whole gutted and scaled fish in.)

The crab will break apart to thicken and season the stew, so don’t splurge on jumbo lump; backfin or claw meat will work fine.

Do pick through the crabmeat to remove any bits of shell. (Chef dips his fingers in a cup of water as he picks through the crab. The bits of shell sink to the bottom when you dip, so you don’t flick it back into the crab.) For shrimp, go with peeled and deveined extra jumbo 16/20s (that is, 16 to 20 per pound).

Ratiowise, Chef tends to do equal parts by weight of fish and shrimp and go lighter on the crab because it’s expensive.

BRICK ROUX Brick roux is blonde roux cooked with tomato paste.

As soon as you have blonde roux, take the paste (or even tomato puree or tomatoes crushed by hand) and caramelize it with the roux.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/2 cup tomato paste HOW TO PREP: In a Dutch oven or heavy skillet set over medium heat, make a blonde roux with the butter and flour. Once the roux is ready, add the tomato paste. Stir that in and let it caramelize until it starts sticking to the bottom. Cook it until it browns a little. I smash down the tomato paste evenly across the bottom of the pot to increase the surface area that is caramelized by the heat. This should take about 10 minutes total, and results in a brick red roux with a charred tomato flavor. Makes 3/4 cup.

Bring the mixture up to a simmer over medium heat and cook uncovered for 45 minutes.

Add the seafood and cook for 15 minutes, until the fish breaks apart easily. (If you are using a whole fish instead of fish filets, cook

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Your Fish Is Our Command What Rouses Certified Seafood Experts Can Do for You The next time you are at the seafood department of your local Rouses Market, be sure to take advantage of what our certified seafood experts can do for you. Here are a few ways they can help you with every type of seafood we sell.

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Prep your fish or seafood

Whether you order fish or crustaceans, the Rouses seafood team can do more than count and weigh your selection.

You can get your whole fish purchase processed at no additional charge. Need your fish filleted? Let the professionals handle it for you. Want scraps for a seafood stock? Consider it done.

A seafood expert will wrap your selection separately, and when you get home, it’s ready for the pot. Your wish is their command.

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Steam or boil your seafood in-house

Every seafood department at Rouses has pots prepared for boiling and steamers at the ready for any items you choose. Whether you want your seafood steamed or boiled right then or before tomorrow’s big game, the Rouses Markets team has you covered. Boiled lobster? Done.

Steamed lobster? Just say the word and it’s cooked, packed up neatly, and ready for you to take home. No request is too unusual: Want your clams dropped in a crab boil for a nice Cajun kick? The Rouses certified seafood experts can do it.

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Tell you where your seafood was caught

Rouses certified seafood experts can tell you where every item of seafood that we sell was caught. Rouses keeps a list of country of origin for every item in the department. If it’s a product of the United States, or if it’s an imported product from anywhere on Earth, they can give you the information you need to know about what you are taking home and feeding to your family.

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Give you some cooking tips

We weren’t all born knowing how to boil crabs or bake salmon. Rouses has an extensive and diverse selection of seafood on offer year-round. If you want to try something new, but don’t know how to prepare it, ask a certified seafood expert! The team at Rouses can tell you the best ways to get the most flavor and best texture from your selection, as well as advice for clean handling and cooking to safe temperatures.

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Why You Should Primp Your Shrimp ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT The worst part of cooking shrimp is deveining it. Indeed, the prospect of deveining a shrimp is enough to make one consider using chicken instead.

The question is: Do you really have to do it? Like, what if you just left the vein there and ate a shrimp, no questions asked?

From a food safety standpoint, there’s no need to devein shrimp. The vein, which is actually the shrimp’s intestines, is perfectly fine to eat. That said, there can be a bit of grit in there, which is contrary

Make special orders

Looking for a type of seafood that you don’t see in the display case? A Rouses certified seafood expert can help.

If it swims in the water and can be fished commercially, Rouses has partners locally and around the world who can fish it from the sea just for you. Just ask us to special order it, and it’s yours!

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to the tender nature of shrimp that diners expect.

Ultimately, it’s going to come down to laziness.

Deveining a shrimp is the superior culinary move — soignée, as chefs say: a graceful flourish.

HOW TO CLEaN AND EAT a

LOBSTER

PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

CAJUN LOBSTER

perfec tinfeo’sr valen t ! day

Makes 2 servings You can cook lobsters much the same way you do crawfish.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 2 11/2 pound Maine lobsters Rouses Down the Bayou Seafood Boil 4 bay leaves 8 red potatoes, washed 1/2 pound Rouses Cajun Smoked sausage 1 cup brussels sprouts 1 ear of corn, peeled and halved HOW TO PREP: Fill a large pot two-thirds full with water.

Stir in Rouses Down the Bayou Seafood Boil (it has the garlic and onion flavor you are looking for), and add potatoes, plus some bay leaves for even more Cajun flavor.

Cover, and bring to a boil on high heat.

Uncover, reduce heat to medium, and cook until potatoes start to soften, 8 to 10 minutes.

Add the lobsters. Cover, and cook until lobster shells are bright red, 5 to 6 minutes.

Add Rouses Cajun Smoked Sausage, corn and Brussels sprouts, and cook for 3 minutes more.

Drain and serve with drawn butter.

WHAT’S THIS HERE COCKTAIL SAUCE Makes about ¾ cup of sauce We replaced the Worcestershire sauce with a mix of anchovies, lemon zest and apple cider vinegar, which gives it more kick.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: ½ cup ketchup 3 tablespoons of drained prepared horseradish 1 tablespoon of anchovy paste 1 tablespoon of lemon zest ½ tablespoon of apple cider vinegar Hot sauce, to taste Pinch of salt HOW TO PREP: Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl until well combined. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary; refrigerate until chilled, at least 15 minutes. Loop the shrimp over the edge of a cocktail glass and top with the chilled sauce. Repeat. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve.

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PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

Aw, Shucks!

By David W. Brown What happens if you buy a big bag of oysters from the certified seafood experts in your local Rouses seafood department, and when you get home, discover

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to your horror that you don’t have a knife to get the oysters open?

ho among us has not lost every single knife we own on the same day we bought a big bag of oysters from Rouses? It happens to someone

nearly every day.

First, you should know that, year-round, Rouses Markets sells the best, freshest shucked oysters you will ever eat. No knife needed. Most stores have oysters in the shell, too. Those are the oysters this story is concerned with.

If you need to open an oyster but lack a knife, reach for your toolbox. There should be a screwdriver.

A flat head screwdriver. (So help me, if one of you writes to complain that your Phillips head screwdriver didn’t work…)

You are going to work the screwdriver into the hinge of the oyster.

Once you get it nice and wedged in there, you are going to twist and pop it open.

If you need to open a bunch of oysters (technically, a “colony” or “reef” of oysters) when you don’t have a knife, heat up the ol’ grill.

Once it’s smoldering and ready for cooking, place your oysters on the grill, big side down and facing away from you. After about 15 minutes, those oysters will open up. (You should have them facing away in case they explode open. That way, the juice won’t scald you.)

Let’s say you don’t have a knife, you don’t have a screwdriver and you don’t have a grill, but you do have oysters. You probably have an oven. Set the oven to 450 degrees, and while it is climbing to that temperature, get yourself a cookie sheet. Place the oysters on it, big side down, and slide the pan into the hot oven on the middle rack. After about five minutes or so exposed to heat, the oysters’ shells will be slightly open, and they’ll be ready to eat.

If, perchance, you do not have a knife, a screwdriver, a grill or an oven, there may be hope yet.

The last method I offer you is the microwave method.

It involves placing the oysters in a microwave-safe dish and cooking them in a microwave at full power for a few minutes. This is going to be a bit like making microwaved popcorn; there is no exact time, but you’ll know when it’s done. Stick around the microwave, because somewhere near the one-minute mark, you’re going to hear a pop. That’s the sound of oysters opening up (and possibly making a bit of a mess, which is, unfortunately, unavoidable with any oyster preparation method). Usually, if one has popped open, they are all slightly ajar, and that means they’re done and ready for dinner. And you, against all odds, have managed to open an entire bag of oysters with nary a knife in sight. Bon appétit!

MOSCA’S-STYLE BAKED OYSTERS

OYSTER-ARTICHOKE PAN ROAST

Makes 2 servings Chicken a la Grande is the most famous dish at Mosca’s, the iconic roadhouse restaurant on Highway 90 in Avondale on the West Bank of New Orleans. But an Italian pan roast with oysters, Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs named for the restaurant runs a close second.

Makes 2 servings

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 pint of oysters, drained 1 clove of garlic, chopped coarsely ½ cup chopped Italian parsley ¹⁄₃ cup olive oil ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper ¼ cup Italian-style bread crumbs 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese Squeeze of lemon HOW TO PREP: Preheat the oven to 400°F. Layer oysters, garlic, parsley, olive oil, crushed red pepper, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese in a shallow baking dish.

Add a squeeze of lemon over the top.

Place in preheated oven and bake until bread crumbs are toasty and the mixture bubbles beneath, about 15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes, uncovered. Serve hot.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 pint Gulf oysters, drained ½ stick butter 2 tablespoons minced shallots or onions 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 8 (canned) Italian artichoke hearts, drained and chopped Salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste ½ cup Italian-style bread crumbs ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese HOW TO PREP: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Arrange the oysters in a shallow baking dish in one layer, and set aside.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring until just soft, about 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Pour the shallot mixture over the oysters.

Distribute the chopped artichokes over the oysters, and dust with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

Place in preheated oven and bake until heated through, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve hot.

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Pot Sticklers

By Marcelle Bienvenue

“There are many versions of all types of gumbos. As my good friend, the late Ella Brennan, explained to me while we sipped on Sazeracs, there are no rules for making gumbo, except one: It must be delicious.”

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ew dishes are as recognizably regional as gumbo; everyone knows where it comes from, no matter where they live or even if they’ve ever had it. But unless you’re a local to gumbo country, you might not know how varied the gumbo options are. When I participate in conversations about gumbo, I always make it clear how I feel about Louisiana’s trademark dish: I am a purist.

I do not care to have seafood of any kind in my chicken and sausage gumbo. When making a wild duck gumbo, though, I like to add freshly shucked oysters to the pot a few minutes before serving; that was my father’s favorite gumbo, since he was an avid sportsman. In my seafood gumbo, no meat of any kind — just crabmeat, oysters and shrimp. This is not to say that I don’t sometimes enjoy a gumbo that has both

meat and seafood in it. I strongly believe that there are no rules when it comes to gumbo — make it however you want to tickle your taste buds.

Now, let’s talk tomatoes. For my part, I strongly oppose adding tomatoes to a chicken and sausage (usually Andouille) gumbo. But, when I was working at Commander’s Palace in the 1970s, I noticed there were tomatoes in their seafood okra gumbo. The result wasn’t red, but was a brownish-red or sienna-colored, and it didn’t have a pronounced flavor of tomato. I called my mother and told her. Her reply? “Don’t eat it.” I reminded her that when she put up smothered okra during the summer months, she cooked it with diced tomatoes — homegrown or from the can. “That’s different,” she said.

Seafood okra gumbo was the favored option on restaurant menus of the day. Back then, and before Chef Paul Prudhomme arrived on the culinary scene in the Crescent City, I don’t think chicken and sausage gumbo was even available in a New Orleans restaurant.

The cut okra was added to the pot of seafood okra gumbo at Commander’s Palace, another departure from our standard seafood gumbo recipe in St. Martinville, which was made with smothered okra prepared during the okra season and frozen for later use in gumbos. Smothered okra is a thick concoction that usually contains diced tomatoes and is often served with shrimp or chicken over rice, and added to Cajun-style seafood gumbos.

Because I like to research, I checked out some recipes in some of my collection of Cajun and Creole cookbooks.

I began writing my food column, “Cooking Creole,” for The Times-Picayune in 1984, not long after Leon E. Sonia, Jr. passed away. I got a copy of his cookbook, La Bouche Creole, and used it often as a reference book. His version of chicken and sausage gumbo does not call for any tomato products, but his seafood gumbo has tomato paste and whole tomatoes. I noted that he doesn’t include okra in the latter recipe, but in his okra seafood gumbo, there are canned tomatoes and ham.

When I checked out River Road recipes, the chicken and okra gumbo does have ham and tomatoes. The shrimp gumbo has tomatoes, but no ham.

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PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

Creole Feast: 15 Master Chefs of New Orleans by Nathaniel Burton and Rudy Lombard, published in 1978, features chefs and cooks from New Orleans restaurants such as Broussard’s, The Caribbean Room, Dooky Chase, Chez Héléne, Corinne Dunbar’s and the Bon Ton. Leah Chase’s Creole gumbo incudes hardshell crabs, Creole hot sausage, smoked sausage, cubed beef, cubed smoked ham, chicken wings and shrimp. No tomatoes and no okra. Nathaniel Burton from Broussard’s made his okra gumbo with shrimp, okra and tomatoes.

Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Cooking features Cajun seafood gumbo with Andouille smoked sausage — no okra and no tomatoes. His seafood filé gumbo has tomato sauce, crab, oysters and shrimp.

In his recipe for shrimp, okra and Andouille smoked sausage gumbo, he includes okra, peeled and chopped tomatoes, Andouille and shrimp.

So there you have it. There are many versions of all types of gumbos. As my good friend, the late Ella Brennan, explained to me while we sipped on Sazeracs, there are no rules for making gumbo, except one: It must be delicious.

Marcelle Bienvenu is a cookbook author and food writer. A native of St. Martinville, in the heart of Cajun country, Bienvenu wrote Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic and Can You Make a Roux? and Stir the Pot: The History of Cajun Cuisine with Eula Mae Dora, and other books and cookbooks. She also co-authored five cookbooks with Emeril Lagasse.

MARCELLE BIENVENUE’S

OKRA & TOMATO GUMBO Serves 6 to 8 This Creole gumbo uses a combination of tomatoes and okra as a thickener instead of a roux. If you don’t have fresh okra, frozen (unbreaded) okra will work.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 4 tablespoons butter, separated 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme 1 bay leaf 1 large yellow onion, minced 1 red bell pepper, minced 1 tablespoon finely chopped Italian parsley 6 large vine-ripe tomatoes, peeled, cored and finely diced 6 cups seafood stock 1 pound fresh okra, trimmed and cut into ½-inch thick pieces 1 pint shucked Gulf oysters, and their liquor 1 pound Gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined Cooked white rice, for serving

My mom was born Henrietta Toups in Thibodaux. Bonnie, as she was called, spoke Cajun French, could dance the two-step and cooked a mean Cajun gumbo. By specifying a Cajun gumbo, I mean a gumbo cooked with a roux, although her roux wasn’t always the same. Chicken and sausage gumbo meant a dark roux (and no okra). She made her seafood gumbo — always shrimp and often shrimp and crab — with a lighter roux (and always with okra).

My mother had strict gumbo rules. If you didn’t make that roux, it wasn’t gumbo. She would never mix seafood in her chicken and sausage gumbo, and she never put meat of any kind in her seafood gumbo.

Oh, and no tomatoes. Ever.

And, yes, cher, use filé, but only at the table to jazz up an already cooked gumbo. Do not put filé in your gumbo at the boil (though my mother had heard, to her horror, that some people did).

HOW TO PREP: In an 8-quart Dutch oven over mediumhigh heat, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter.

Add the thyme, bay leaf, onion and bell pepper; cook until golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

Add the parsley and tomatoes; cook until tomatoes break down, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low; cook until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the cut okra and cook until okra is tender and flavors have melded, 20 to 30 minutes. Stir in the shrimp and oysters with their liquor during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Add contents of the skillet to the tomato stock. Stir and season with salt and pepper; discard bay leaf.

Serve with rice.

Oh, wait. Bonnie did sometimes break her no-seafood-in-her-chicken-andsausage-gumbo rule if fresh oysters were available. She’d ladle them in at the very end, bring her gumbo to a boil, and then turn it off and let the oysters steep. Oh, my. The flavor memory lingers still.

Ken Wells, The Gumbo Belt, Rouses Magazine, May/June 2019

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SHRIMP CREOLE Serves 6 This is an easy, at-home version of our signature Shrimp Creole, which we serve on our Hot Bar at Rouses Markets.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 4 large tomatoes 2 tablespoons salted butter 1 large stalk celery, chopped 1 small green bell pepper, diced, about 1 cup 1 large yellow onion, diced, about 1½ cups ¼ cup tomato paste 1 bay leaf 2 teaspoons salt ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste 1 teaspoon paprika 3 cups seafood stock 1 teaspoon hot sauce 6 dozen 21-25 count Gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined ¼ cup chopped parsley, for garnish Hot rice, for serving HOW TO PREP: Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water just until the skin breaks, about 1 minute.

Remove the tomatoes from the water, and let cool slightly before pulling off the skin.

Seed and dice the tomatoes, then set them aside.

Melt the butter in a large pot over high heat. Add the celery, bell pepper, onion and diced tomatoes, and saute for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes are nearly dissolved and the vegetables begin to caramelize. Reduce the heat to medium and add the tomato paste, bay leaf, salt, cayenne pepper and paprika. Allow the mixture to simmer for an additional 3 to 4 minutes, until the vegetables are a rich caramel color.

Add the seafood stock and reduce the mixture to a low rolling boil; let cook over medium heat for 25 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer for an additional 10 minutes, or until the shrimp are pink and cooked through. Add the hot sauce and gently stir to incorporate.

Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes, uncovered. Remove the bay leaf and discard it. Garnish shrimp Creole with chopped parsley and serve over rice.

PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

HWY. 1 OVEN ROASTED WHOLE FISH Makes 6 servings

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: One fresh whole 3-pound red snapper, cleaned and scaled 2 fennel bulbs, with their fronds 1 red onion, thinly sliced 1 lemon, thinly sliced 1 bunch fresh green onions, bottoms only 3/4 cup Italian olive oil 3 sprigs fresh dill 3 sprigs fresh thyme Salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste Lemon pepper, to taste 1 pint assorted cherry tomatoes 1 jar long-stemmed Italian artichoke hearts 1 jar Castelvetrano olives 3 tablespoons capers 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 stick of butter, cut into pats ¼ cup finely chopped Italian parsley HOW TO PREP: Preheat the oven to 425°F. Separate the fennel bulbs and fronds from the stalks. Roughly chop the bulbs. Finely chop the fronds. Set aside.

Make 3 diagonal slits about 3 inches long on each side of the fish, slicing almost through to the bone. Lightly coat the cavity of the fish with olive oil; stuff with some of the red onion slices, lemon slices, green onion bottoms, dill and thyme.

Lightly coat both sides of the fish with olive oil, and season with salt, black pepper and lemon pepper.

Spread the chopped fennel bulb and remaining red onions in one layer on a heavy rimmed baking sheet. Place the fish on top. Arrange the tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, capers, minced garlic, fennel fronds and remaining lemon slices on the fish, and top with pats of butter.

Place the pan in the preheated oven and roast the fish, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until the flesh just flakes. Transfer the fish to a platter. Using 2 forks, lift the fillets off the bone. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.

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APPLES

BERRIES

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Apples continue to ripen even after they are picked, and they release ethylene gas, which continues to soften the skin and flesh day after day. Keeping apples cold helps to slow the emission of this gas. Place them loose in the fruit crisper drawer of your refrigerator, and if your refrigerator seems dry, add a damp paper towel to keep them fresh longer. Apples stored this way can last two months or longer.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Leave berries unwashed until you are ready to use them. You can keep them in the container in which you bought them, in the fridge for a couple of days.

But to make them last longer, place unwashed, uncut strawberries in a clean glass jar, screw on the lid and refrigerate.

Your berries should stay fresh for at least a week. This works for all other berries, as well.

BROCCOLI & CABBAGE ASPAR AGUS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Stash fresh asparagus in the refrigerator. Make a fresh cut on the bottom of the spears, place them upright in a glass or jar with about an inch of water, loosely cover with a plastic bag, and store in the refrigerator for up to four days.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Store unwashed heads of broccoli and cabbage wrapped loosely in damp paper towels (with plenty of airflow) in the refrigerator. Use within three to five days.

BRUSSEL SPROUTS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Brussels sprouts are part of the same family as cabbages. Store in a produce bag in the coldest part of your refrigerator and eat them earlier rather than later, especially if you don’t like intense flavors. Brussels sprouts will last up to two weeks in the fridge, but their flavor will intensify the longer you wait to cook them.

CARROTS BEETS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Fresh whole beets can stay fresh in the refrigerator for two to three weeks. Before refrigerating, separate beets from the leaves. Store the whole beets, unwashed, in separate plastic bags in the vegetable drawer. Store the greens separately. The leaves will last for up to three days.

BELL PEPPERS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Store bell peppers, unwashed, in a plastic bag in the vegetable crisper.

Keep them dry — moisture can cause them to rot. Red, orange and yellow peppers will last four to five days; green bell peppers will last about a week.

the surface encourages spoiling. Wash, dry and wrap them in a clean dishtowel or paper towel, and tuck them inside an open plastic bag; this helps protect them from ethylene gas produced by fruits such as cantaloupes that you might have in your fridge. Store in the refrigerator on a high shelf — not the crisper — for up to two weeks. Zucchini and yellow squash should be stored this way, too.

EGGPLANT ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT The best place to store eggplant is not in the refrigerator. Instead, keep eggplant at room temperature away from direct sunlight. Use within three days of purchase.

FRESH HERBS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Store fresh herbs in the refrigerator, wrapped in a damp paper or cloth towel, or stems-down in a water-filled glass, vase, or jelly jar in the fridge with the tops covered by a bag. Your herbs will last a week or two this way, with cilantro and other tender-leaved herbs having the shortest lifespan and rosemary and thyme lasting among the longest. The only exception is basil. Basil does best at room temperature, out of sunlight. Use as quickly as possible to avoid its turning brown.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Carrots can be stored for up to a month in the refrigerator. To prevent condensation from forming, wrap the carrots in a paper towel and store them in a plastic, mesh or open cloth bag in the refrigerator’s vegetable bin. Excess moisture will cause them to rot.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Keep green onions with roots intact.

Store in a jar of water on the windowsill.

They will last for months, and they will continue to grow.

CELERY

GREENS

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Wrap whole, uncut celery bunches tightly in aluminum foil, and store them in the refrigerator crisper drawer. They can maintain their freshness anywhere from two to four weeks.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Stow unwashed kale, spinach and other greens in the refrigerator, wrapped with a damp paper towel with plenty of airflow for up to two weeks. Keep kale away from ethylene-producing fruits and vegetables (bananas, apples, melons, peaches and tomatoes) to avoid spoiling. Soak in cold water to get rid of any sand or dirt before cooking or eating.

CUCUMBERS, ZUCCHINI & YELLOW SQUASH ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Cucumbers need to be thoroughly dried before storing — excess water on

GREEN ONIONS

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MUSHROOMS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Store packaged mushrooms in the fridge, unwashed, for up to a week. Mushroom packaging is designed to “breathe” and release the ethylene gas emitted from the mushrooms. Store loose mushrooms in a partially open Ziploc bag. Rinse mushrooms before using, or brush them with a dry cloth.

Let the Good Thymes Roll

ONIONS & SHALLOTS ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Moisture and light lead to mold and sprouting of most onions, and shallots, so store them away from sunlight in a dry, well-ventilated spot. Properly stored whole, unpeeled onions will last this way up to three months. There is an exception, though. Vidalias contain more moisture than red, yellow and white onions, and will start to rot after a few days if left out of the refrigerator. Once any onion has been cut, you should store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container and use it within ten days.

mouse-pointer Find these recipes and more at www.rouses.com!

Rosemary Pair with Shallots & Lemon mouse-pointer Try in: Mixed Nuts with Shallots

POTATOES ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Don’t store sweet potatoes in the fridge or their centers will harden; instead, keep them in a cool, dry, dark place. They’ll last that way for up to two weeks. Potatoes should also be stored in this way. Keep the onions away, though. They emit ethylene gas that will age and rot potatoes.

TOMATOES

Oregano

Mint

Pair with Artichokes & Zucchini

Pair with Cucumbers & Watermelon

mouse-pointer Try in: Minestrone Soup

mouse-pointer Try in: Watermelon Blackberry Minty Twist

Thyme

Basil

Pair with Carrots & Eggplant

Pair with Tomatoes & Strawberries

mouse-pointer Try in: Coffee Glazed Carrots

mouse-pointer Try in: Tomato Soup

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Store tomatoes stem side down at room temperature until fully ripe, then store them in the refrigerator up to five days until ready to use. Bring tomatoes back to room temperature before eating so they can recover their flavor.

WINTER SQUASH ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Whole winter squash — acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash — will keep for a month or more if stored in a cool, dark, ventilated area. Cut, wrapped squash should be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated. It will last that way for up to a week.

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Saying Grace

By Marcelle Bienvenue On the Fridays after Thanksgiving, my mother had a ritual. She would take stock of her pantry, checking to see if she had what she needed to make fudge, pralines, cookies and cakes. If she had to restock any items, we set off for the grocery store to get the ingredients. When we returned home and put up our purchases, she made a pot of coffee while we waited for Mama’s half-sister, Cina (also known as Aunt Grace or Nanny), who would come to deliver an apple cake, which we enjoyed with our demitasse coffee.

Cina made several cakes during the holidays and delivered them to her friends and family members.

Since Cina passed on her recipes for pralines and apple cakes, I continue making these for Christmas giving.

The recipe does not stipulate what variety of apples — it calls only for three cups, peeled and chopped. When I was a youngster, we only had two apples: red and green. We didn’t call them Red Delicious or Granny Smith.

These days, there are so many kinds of apples — Fuji, Pink Lady, Gala, Braeburn and Golden Delicious. Oh my, so many choices. This year, I’m going to use my current favorite, Honey Crisps, as I find them ideal for baking.

The cake batter is easily put together, and once the pans are shoved into the oven, the house is filled with the wonderful aroma of warm cinnamon and apples — so much better than aromatic candles.

-------------------THE RECIPE: Aunt Grace’s Apple Cake

3 cups Honey Crisp apples (or your favorite variety, cored, peeled and chopped) 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped 1 tsp. salt 11/4 cups vegetable oil 2 eggs, lightly beaten 2 teaspoon vanilla HOW TO PREP: Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Makes 2 loaf cakes or one 9x13 cake

Lightly oil two 9x5-inch loaf pans, or one 9x13-inch baking dish.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 2 cups sugar 3 cups all-purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour, apples, baking soda, cinnamon, nuts and salt. Mix together.

Add the oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir until well combined.

Divide batter equally into the prepared loaf pans, or into a large rectangular pan, spreading the mixture evenly.

Bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Slice cooled cake and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT To store: After the cakes are completely cooled, they can be wrapped and stored in airtight containers in the freezer for about two weeks. When ready to serve, defrost, then warm in the oven before slicing to serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

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A Treasure Grove

The Big Apples

1 Cosmic Crisp 2 Envy 3 Fuji 4 Honeycrisp 5 Golden Delicious 6 Koru 7 Granny Smith 8 Jazz 9 Pazazz 10 Pink Lady 11 Gala 12 Red Delicious Firm, slightly tart, great for baking

Sweet, low acidity, floral notes

Flavorful, sweet, juicy

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Cara Cara seedless navel oranges have a bright orange exterior and distinctive pinkish-red flesh. They’re sweet and have a tangy, cranberrylike zing.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Small, seedless, easy-to-peel Clementines are the smallest of all mandarin oranges. They’re perfect for snacks for grown-ups and kids of all ages.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Meyer Lemons are sweeter and juicier than regular lemons and have a thin, edible rind.

Crisp, sweet, berry notes

Firm, slightly tart, great for baking

Crunchy, complex, vanilla notes

Bright, acidic, great for baking

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Moro Blood Oranges are named for the color of their flesh: bright red to deep maroon.

The flavor is intensely orange with hints of fresh raspberry. They have virtually no seeds and thin skin, making them easy to peel.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT The Tangelo is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit. The bright red-orange Minneola is an extra juicy and flavorful variety.

Firm, balanced, pear notes

Rich, acidic, slightly tart

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Tangerines belong to the mandarin family of oranges. They are known for their bright, vibrant orange skin and tart flavor.

Tangy, effervescent, floral finish

Mild, low acidity, notes of honey

Sweet, mild, notes of melon

Food from around the corner and around the world.

There are nearly 350 fruits and vegetables in our Produce Department every day, including almost a dozen different kinds of apples and more than 100 organic selections. Our great local farmers provide as much of our produce as possible.

Some fruits and vegetables, like cherries and avocados, just grow better elsewhere. To get those items on our shelves, we work with farmers all over the United States — even worldwide!

— so we can bring you produce at peak season all year long.

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ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Massaging kale will soften the leaves and make them easier to eat.

It will also help release the sugars within the leaves to balance out their bitter flavor.

Remove the stalky ribs and place the leaves in a large bowl. Add a bit of olive oil on top, plus a pinch of salt. With clean hands, rub the kale leaves together between your fingers until they just start to wilt, about 3 minutes for most kale. We used lacinato kale — also known as dinosaur or Tuscan kale — for this recipe. It is more tender and delicate, and does not need to be massaged for as long as heartier varieties.

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All Ripe, All Ripe, All Ripe

By David W. Brown

F

CITRUS & KALE SALAD WITH HONEY DRESSING Makes 4 servings

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 bunch lacinato (dinosaur) kale Italian olive oil, for massaging 1 navel orange 1 pink grapefruit 2 mandarin oranges ½ avocado, sliced Salt, to taste ¼ red onion, thinly sliced in rings ½ cup chopped pecans 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar 1/2 teaspoon honey, or more for a sweeter dressing Lime or lemon juice, to taste ¼ teaspoon freshly chopped tarragon or a pinch of dried tarragon HOW TO PREP: Rinse, dry and massage kale with Italian olive oil.

Peel citrus fruits, removing as much pith as possible, and slice them into wheels.

Remove any pits.

Plate the massaged kale on a serving dish and layer sliced fruit, including the avocado, on top of it. Sprinkle with salt, and garnish with sliced onion rings and chopped pecans.

Whisk together extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, honey, lime juice and tarragon until well combined; taste and adjust seasoning as needed, then drizzle over salad just before serving.

PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

rom salad dressing to seafood, lighter fluid to lettuce, everyone already knows that Rouses Markets means the best local goods in one place. When it comes to produce, however, not every item is always in season locally. This means that when tomatoes aren’t growing in Louisiana, Rouses has to go out and find the best tomatoes being grown somewhere else in the country — or even the world. You might not realize it, but when you walk into a Rouses down the road, you are also getting your passport stamped in New Zealand, Italy, Chile, Argentina, and elsewhere.

“Whenever it’s not in season here, it’s in season somewhere else,” says Rob Ybarra, the director of produce for Rouses Markets.

First and foremost, he says, Rouses always buys local whenever possible. When something goes out of season here, the company casts its net widely, looking not only for the most delicious item grown elsewhere, but also for those most safely and responsibly grown.

A farm’s sustainability and ecology practices are paramount for the produce team when choosing any grower.

“Everybody can grow tomatoes,” he says, using one example. “It’s a science. But you have to look at food safety, and whether the growers are doing their due diligence in that regard.”

One reason the locally sourced produce is so great is that many of the Rouses suppliers have been vetted by state and local universities. “How are they growing? What are their growing practices? Are their growing practices safe?” says Ybarra, rattling off a few essential items on the checklist. “There are different ways to measure that, and different organizations that will grade them from a safety standpoint, and from a U.S. sanitation standpoint. And when growers meet the standard, they receive their seal of approval. So that’s what we look for.”

Rouses does the same for the farms it does business with elsewhere in the world, as well.

“They have to have meet certain criteria that

How to Fan an Avocado

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Hold the avocado firmly in one hand. Using a sharp chef’s knife, carefully cut the ripe avocado in half lengthwise around the pit.

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Rotate the avocado, keeping the knife steady while working your way completely around the pit. Remove the knife and set aside. Twist the two halves away from each other to separate.

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To remove the pit, firmly tap into the pit with your chef’s knife, or strike the pit with the heel of the chef’s knife. Gently twist the pit to dislodge it, and then pull it out.

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Gently peel the skin off of each half.

Thinly slice each half into strips, using the palm of your hand to gently press the avocado down in one direction only. The pieces should naturally fan out in whichever direction you push them.

speaks all about food safety first before we even consider them.”

The produce team at Rouses Markets even encourages suppliers to begin including QR code stickers on their products so that Rouses guests can see where and how the fruits and vegetables were grown.

After the safety standard is met and exceeded, the Rouses produce team gets going on flavor and variety. Different times of year mean different flavors for the local W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 3 9

flip e t h pagise for t h ! recipe

palate. Right now, grapefruits are coming from the Southern Hemisphere. “They will blow your mind,” says Ybarra. “Great tasting, nice sugar level on them, and the skin is thinner, not thicker.” Grapefruit from California has a much thicker rind.

“One of the best tasting grapefruits, in my opinion, are the ones from Mexico.” He says the Rio Grande Valley in Texas has great grapefruits, but farmers there are still recovering from last year’s severe freeze.

The local Rouses area had a short satsuma season, and as that season has ended, Florida’s satsuma season has begun. The team has been meeting with Florida growers, and the fruit, says Ybarra, is just tasting fantastic. “Our main supplier for citrus has been around for close to a century, which is Sunkist. They handle our domestic import season. And so we formed a really good partnership with them. And they provide our mainstays like the navel oranges, like clementines, like mandarins.”

He adds that the team is also starting to source fruit from Florida and Alabama that they are really excited about as well.

It’s not just citrus. Right now, he says, apples are also having a moment.

“Fall is my favorite season because it means apples,” says Ybarra. “That means apples from Washington, which are the first in season. They have tremendous taste, and are some of the best-tasting apples you can buy right now.” The east coast isn’t to be ignored, however. “I just had some Macintosh apples last week from New York that were out of this world.”

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south,” he explains. “To use apples as an example, I have tasted apples from just about everywhere — and I’ll tell you which orchards in the United States grow the besttasting apples from New York, from Oregon, from Washington.” He knows this because he and the team actually go out and taste them. Rouses keeps tasting and inspection teams ever on the move, traveling to states and countries and profiling the quality of produce on offer. They measure the Brix of the fruits from farms — and not only the apples. It could be strawberries, cantaloupes, watermelon — you name it.

He compares apples to ice cream. “If you look at how many varieties — how many new flavor profiles — of apples there are, you’re looking at probably bit more than thirty varieties, thirty flavors. It’s unbelievable!”

When choosing which to stock, the Rouses team looks at something called the “Brix level,” a measurement of how much sugar a food or drink contains, which impacts the sweetness, the tartness, the overall balance of the apple, just as wine drinkers might do the same for a glass of pinot noir.

When you are browsing the apple display at Rouses, quality doesn’t stop at America’s border. You might not realize that the fruit you are holding is a world traveler.

“When America’s Apple season is over, this summer the apples we carry will come from Chile and Argentina and New Zealand,” he says. “Those are the three main countries that we source apples from.”

When it is winter in the Earth’s Southern Hemisphere, it is summer in the North.

Likewise, spring in the North means fall in the South, and vice versa. How does Rob Ybarra and the Rouses team know where, say, the best apples are to be found in the Southern Hemisphere? And not just apples, but the best apples — because those are the only ones Rouses stocks.

The answer, he says, is experience.

Rob knows produce from the Gulf South and worldwide because he has been doing this for forty years and counting.

“I’ve tasted all kinds of apples, and all types of alternatives for the winter, the summer, in the northern hemisphere and

As for his favorite apple, he prefers Honey Crisp. But he is always keeping an eye on the thriving apple industry. “There are some apples that are coming up in popularity, including Envy apples and Cosmic Crisp apples. “What I hear from producers is that Jazz apples and Pazazz apples this year are going to be some of the best-tasting apples that we that we’re ever going to have.”

He is particularly excited that the Jazz apple is having a great year, because, he says, “What better than Jazz apples for our own customers in New Orleans in Louisiana with Mardi Gras coming? I think it’s going to be a great celebration. We’re going to celebrate Jazz apples with Mardi Gras season, and I am so excited about that.”

Apples and other produce travel here on ships, barges, planes, trains and automobiles. One fruit that flies first class, says Rob, is the golden dragon fruit from Ecuador. “I’ll tell you that if you’ve never had a golden dragon fruit from Ecuador — look, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a better fruit than that. It is off the charts, and now is the time for them.”

The purple dragon fruit, he says, is popular with chefs because of how beautiful they are on the plate. But flavorwise, he says it’s gold all the way.

“It is also probably the healthiest fruit you are ever going to taste and eat and enjoy,” he says, describing them as a cross between a kiwi and the greatest strawberry you’ve ever had. “When I head to the store later on, if I see golden dragon fruit, I’m going to grab some. I can’t stop eating those things!”

Tomatoes are another produce item really growing in popularity. “We source tomatoes from greenhouse growers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Again, it’s about the best seasonal product.” Greenhouses move

production as the seasons change. In the winter season, they come from the Southern Hemisphere.

“It’s the beefsteak, it’s the Roma tomatoes, it’s the grape tomatoes — those are the tomatoes that that are in season,” he says.

“When Florida comes in season, we get Florida tomatoes. When we have local tomatoes, we’re definitely all over that, because our local tomatoes are the Creole tomatoes. That’s an unbelievable tasting tomato.” Rouses customers can’t get enough of those locally grown Creole tomatoes.

There are some up-and-coming varietals that are growing in popularity, too.

“Tomatoes are becoming like apples — they’re getting sweeter and sweeter,” he explains. “There’s one called a Cloud Nine tomato that you have to actually try just to know how tasty it is. The ones we carry have won awards.” Orange and yellow tomatoes are also a favorite for shoppers.

“If you just can’t eat tomatoes because of the acid, the orange and yellow ones are actually lower in acid and much easier to eat because of it. But I’ll tell you what: Tomatoes have really been, to me, one of the surprise fan favorite categories in recent years, because a lot more people are eating them for health reasons,” he says.

It’s not just the produce that makes him happy to go to work each day. It’s also the farmers who grow it.

“When you hear from the grower, the actual farmer of the fruit, and you hear in their voice how excited they are — that’s what gets me excited. Just hearing them and their voice and their enthusiasm and pride in their product: It just makes me happy. It makes me happy because I know that our loyal customers are going to be happy, and everybody’s going to have a good eating experience.”

That, he says, is a win-win. “Our grower is going to be able to partake in a good sale, we’re going have a good sale for our customers, and then our customers are going to eat something that’s really good, and really good for them. It’s a win-win all the way around.”

How to Cut an Onion without Crying Why does chopping onions make you cry? It’s not only because it’s a chore.

Onions absorb sulfur in the soil they grow in, which builds sulfur compounds called amino acids sulfoxides in the individual cells within the onion. Cutting or crushing an onion releases an enzyme called allinase. The allinase mixes together with amino acid to create sulfenic acid. The sulfenic acid quickly changes into syn-propanethial-S-oxide, which turns into a form of sulfuric acid, and the gas from the sulfuric acid is what causes your eyes to sting and tear up.

So how do you avoid, or at least minimize, the tears?

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Using a well-sharpened knife will help you cut quickly, and damage fewer cells, and release less alliinase, and so on, which all leads to less crying for you.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Turning on a vent while you chop may help keep the gas from hitting your eyes. Goggles are a much better and proven solution.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT We’ve heard that pushing your tongue to the roof of your mouth or chewing gum helps, but keeping a piece of bread in your mouth while you slice is the way to go. The bread will absorb some of the sulfuric compounds before they have the chance to reach your eyes.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Your best bet is to freeze an onion before slicing it. The enzymes in the onion are less reactive when they are cold. Even cooling the onion for a few minutes in the freezer helps, or soaking it in cold water before slicing it.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Finally, the more pungent an onion is, the more likely to trigger tears — more sulfur equals a more pungent flavor.

Choose a sweet onion such as a Vidalia. They are less likely to make you tear up. Vidalias are grown in low-sulfur, sandy soil, so they are naturally low in sulfur compounds, which gives them their signature mild sweetness.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT You can run tap water over the onion as you cut it. The running water dissolves the chemicals. That’s pretty tricky, though, and only works for the first few steps in the onion-cutting process.

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How to Tell When Something Is Ripe ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Look for avocados that yield to firm, but gentle, pressure — the fruit should feel a little mushy, but not soft; that means it is ready to eat. Ripe Haas avocados are darker in color than avocados that aren’t ready to eat. Look for avocados that are dark green to nearly black. To ripen an avocado, place it in sunlight. Warmer temperatures ripen fruits faster.

Or place your avocados in a brown paper bag along with a banana and roll the top closed. Ripe bananas release a lot of ethylene, which triggers ripening in mature fruit. The paper bag traps the ethylene gas and speeds up the ripening process.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT One of the best ways to tell if a pineapple is ripe? Smell it! Ripe pineapples typically have a sweet smell at the bottom, near the base of the pineapple. Color is another indicator. The more yellow a pineapple is, the riper the fruit will be.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Melons like cantaloupe should be firm all around, but not too soft or too hard, and have a sweet smell at the button end. Melons should always feel heavy for the size. You can ripen a melon in a paper bag with a banana or apple, too.

4 2 R O U S E S J A N U A RY | F E B R U A RY 20 22

PHOTO BY ROMNEY CARUSO

TOMATO RICOTTA BRUSCHETTA Makes 4 servings

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 2 cups multicolored cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes ²⁄₃ cup plus 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil Kosher salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1 pound fresh ricotta cheese 1 sprig fresh rosemary 1 sprig fresh oregano 8 (¾-inch) slices of ciabatta bread HOW TO PREP: Preheat the oven to 400°F. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the tomatoes with the garlic, crushed red pepper and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and season with salt and black pepper. Place pan in preheated oven and roast the tomatoes until they burst, about 20 minutes, stirring once halfway through. Remove from oven.

Pour the remaining ²⁄₃ cup of olive oil into a medium bowl. Crush the rosemary and oregano between your fingers and submerge them in the oil. Add the tomatoes and their juices and stir gently; let stand for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Arrange the ciabatta slices on a baking sheet. Place in preheated oven and toast for 10 minutes, or until crisp.

Spread the ricotta on the toasted ciabatta slices. Spoon the tomatoes and some of the infused oil over the ciabatta, then sprinkle with salt and serve.

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It’s Nothing to Wine About ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT No corkscrew? No problem!

You can use a key, wire hanger, a pair of scissors or even a serrated knife as a stand-in for a corkscrew — just be careful not to cut yourself. Insert the key or other household item into the cork at a 45-degree angle and twist it like you would a corkscrew. After a couple of rotations, the cork should pop out. If you have a toolbox on hand, you can use a screwdriver to twist a long screw into the cork using the same motion as you would with a corkscrew, until there is only about an inch or so left showing. Then grip under the screw with the backside of a hammer and yank the cork out. Or put your foot into it.

Insert the bottom of the wine bottle into the bottom of a flat-soled shoe — the corked end should be facing out. Smack the shoe’s sole against the wall until the cork comes out. When all else fails, you can use the handle of a wooden spoon to push the cork into the bottle instead of pulling it out.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT You can chill any bottle of wine or beer in under ten minutes.

Wet a dishcloth or few sheets of paper towels. Shake off the excess water (but don’t wring it out) and wrap the cloth or paper towels around the bottle. Stick the bottle in the freezer for about ten minutes, and your bottle is perfectly chilled. This works on bottled beer in even less time.

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Dry Buys: How to Store Flour & Other Dry Goods ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Refrigerated spaghetti sauce will keep for about seven to 10 days. For best quality, do not store spaghetti sauce in an opened metal can — refrigerate in a covered glass or plastic container after opening.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT In the pantry, commercial peanut butter may last six to 24 months unopened, or two to three months once opened.

Natural peanut butter may last several months unopened, or up to a month once opened. Placing peanut butter in the fridge can extend its shelf life. Jam or jelly that has been continuously refrigerated will generally stay at its best quality for about one year.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Olives that have been continuously refrigerated will generally stay at their best quality for about 12 to 18 months. Open pickles taste best for one to two months if you refrigerate them, but should stay good for another month or two.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT The shelf life of apple cider vinegar is two years unopened, and one year once you’ve broken the seal on the bottle.

You don’t have to refrigerate apple cider vinegar once it’s opened. Instead, store it in a pantry or cabinet, away from direct sunlight.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Once opened, rice should be stored in the pantry or cupboard in a tightly closed container to keep out moisture and other contaminants. If stored properly, milled rice — for example, white rice — will keep almost indefinitely this way.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT If you don’t go through flour quickly, store it in the freezer or fridge, preferably in an airtight container. Flour will keep this way for at least one year.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Granulated sugar stored in a covered container can last up to two years in the pantry after opening. Brown sugar can be stored in its original bag, or any type of re-sealable, moisture-proof plastic bag; it should be used within six months of purchase and opening.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Many of us store our coffee in the freezer, but you want to keep your grounds dry, so skip any storage spots exposed to moisture — that includes the refrigerator, freezer or a shelf above your stove. We recommend storing grounds in the pantry or cupboard instead, and using ground coffee within a week or two of opening and whole beans within a month.

At Season’s Peak ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Broccoli rabe, or rapini, is broccoli’s bitter cousin. It has long, thin leafy stalks and small broccoli-like florets. Its hearty green leaves, starchy stems and buds are all edible. Broccoli rabe keeps fresh for two or three days when stored unwashed in the refrigerator’s vegetable drawer, wrapped with a damp paper towel or sealed in a plastic bag. For more extended storage, blanch and freeze.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Parsnips look like cream-colored carrots, but that’s where the resemblance ends. You can eat them raw—parsnips have a sweet, nutty flavor — but they’re much better cooked. Try them roasted, or boiled and mashed like potatoes. Trim off green tops and store in a plastic bag in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator for up to one week.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Purple-top white-glove turnip roots and rutabagas look strikingly similar. Turnips are sweeter and squatter than rutabagas, which tend to be longer and leaner. Both are great mashed and roasted. Storage: Turnip roots and rutabagas can be stored, unwashed, tightly wrapped in a plastic bag in the vegetable drawer for up to 2 weeks.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Leeks are a member of the onion family, which includes onions, shallots, garlic and chives.

Though they look like giant green onions, they’re sweeter and have a much milder flavor. The winter leeks out now tend to be fatter and shorter than summer leeks. Keep fresh, unwashed, untrimmed leeks in a loosely wrapped plastic bag in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator for up to one week. Leeks are grown in sandy soil. Rinse them well under running water to remove visible dirt or sand, then slice and soak to remove any remaining grit or dust before eating or cooking.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Hearty green kale, a relative of the cabbage, is available year-round, but December through February is the peak season for this leafy green. Stow unwashed in the refrigerator, wrapped with a damp paper towel with plenty of airflow for up to two weeks. (Keep kale away from ethyleneproducing fruits and vegetables (bananas, apples, melons, peaches, tomatoes, etc.) to avoid spoiling. Soak in cold water to get rid of any sand or dirt before cooking or eating.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Strawberries from such locally famous areas as Ponchatoula, the self-proclaimed “Strawberry Capital of the United States,” arrive in stores in January. Keep on the countertop if you plan to eat right away, otherwise store whole, unwashed strawberries in a partially closed container lined with paper towels in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Cara Cara seedless navel oranges, Moro blood oranges, clementines, redorange tangerines, minneolas tangelos and grapefruits are fresh and ripe right now.

Pomelos, which look like oversize grapefruits but are sweeter and less acidic, are also in season.

These are the largest of all citrus fruit. We also have Meyer lemons, which are sweeter and juicier than regular lemons, and yellow-and-green striped Pink Zebra lemons. Most citrus will keep at room temperature for three to five days, or longer in the vegetable drawer of your refrigerator, stored loose, out of any plastic bags. Turn them occasionally to allow airflow.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 4 5

4 6 R O U S E S J A N U A RY | F E B R U A RY 20 22

Get It Done, Chop Chops Regular readers of Rouses Magazine know Linda Green, a New Orleans culinary legend known locally as the “Ya-Ka Mein Lady,” after the spicy noodle soup she is famous for. The Creole dish is touted as a hangover cure, and thousands of New Orleanians can attest to its restorative powers. She is also a caterer who has partnered with Rouses Markets over the years to sell her famous smothered duck and smothered pork chops, among other soul food staples, from the Tchoupitoulas store.

As a child, Ms. Linda learned how to cook standing in the kitchen with her mother, also a celebrated New Orleans caterer. Here she was, Linda Green, this little girl with a big knife and a chopping board, chopping up the “holy trinity” of all Cajun cuisine: onions, celery and bell peppers. From the time she could hold a knife, she also had to handle garlic (aka “the pope”) as well as parsley. But those days in the kitchen were about more than learning to cook: They were about learning how to make her way in the world.

“As I look back on my life,” she says, “I used to be in the kitchen as a child with my mom, and I appreciate all the stuff that she showed me, and our long talks in the kitchen, with her telling me things.”

She shared with Rouses Magazine a few simple vegetable chopping tricks that might make your time in the kitchen a little easier and a little more rewarding.

ONIONS

BELL PEPPER

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Ms. Linda says to first peel the onion by taking a knife and slicing all around. After you remove the skin and the first layer or two of onion, she advises chopping the onion in half. Afterward, lay the two halves down and get to work. “That’s what I do: Cut straight down in rows, then come across and cut them again. That’s how they come out so pretty and even,” she says. She also recommends Vidalia onions for the sweetness they can bring to a dish.

Nothing, she says, can top a sauteing yellow onion, though.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT It’s not so different to cut a bell pepper than to cut an onion. Cut away the stem and seeds, cut the bell pepper in half, and clean it out. Lay the bell peppers with the insides down, like cups turned upside down. Then, just like the onion, cut it in rows, and then again crosswise. As for what recipe is best to cook them in? “Bell peppers in red beans is nothing nice!” she says. “I learned that from my mother when I was a little girl. Bell pepper makes the best flavor for red beans.”

GARLIC

CELERY

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Take your cloves of garlic and lay the flat part of your knife across one. Smack down on it with the heel of your palm, and the peel will fall right off. After that, start chopping.

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT There’s nothing hard about chopping celery. Cut it as close to the stem as possible, and discard that root end. After that, wash it, and slice down the middle of the stalks. Chop it into cubes — including the leaves. “We don’t throw those leaves away,” she says. “Cut them up real fine and cook with them.”

ARROW-CIRCLE-RIGHT Red onions are sharper and more pungent than white and yellow onions. If you like the deep purple outer color, but find the flavor too astringent for eating raw, soak red onions in ice water as you prep your other ingredients to eliminate some of the bite. This will also make them extra crisp.

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 4 7

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second helpings Mouse-Pointer Story: Make Soup Even Better

GO TO WWW.ROUSES.COM FOR STORIES AND RECIPES FROM PAST ISSUES.

mouse-pointer Story: Chef John Folse’s Gumbo

mouse-pointer Recipe: Uncle Tim’s White Beans

mouse-pointer Story: Bisques Not So Quick

mouse-pointer Story: Chicken Soup for the Bowl

mouse-pointer Recipe: Okra & Tomatoes

mouse-pointer Story: Smothered and Stewed

Mouse-Pointer Story: 100 Ways To Improve Your Cooking

mouse-pointer Recipe: Uncle Rob’s Chili

by David W. Brown

by Ken Wells

by Marcelle Bienvenu

by Marcelle Bienvenu

W W W. R O U S E S . C O M 4 9

Celebrate

with the best on the Gulf Coast

Get the Best King Cake on the Gulf Coast Shipped Right to your Door!

For 62 years, the Gulf Coast has celebrated Mardi Gras with our hand-crafted, gourmet cinnamon dough king cakes. Choose traditional or your favorite filling, shipped anywhere in the Continental U.S. Order online at www.rouses.com.