Raw shrimp, preferably Wild-caught American, peeled and deveined, passed through a milk and egg mixture, then into a seasoned cracker meal dredge and deep fried to golden brown delicious!

Cracker Meal Deep Fried Shrimp

Growing up, my Mama did not use flour on her fried seafood. She used boxed cracker meal.

If I had to guess, I'd say that once I started cooking for myself, I ventured away from using it because it can be a bit pricey and these days, even hard to find, but flour? Well, I always have that on hand.

I do prefer to use self-rising flour because it contains baking powder, which contains cornstarch, and seems to me to give a more crisp and crunchy texture than plain all-purpose flour does.

I know some folks have disagreed with me, and that's okay, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it y'all!

Fresh Gulf shrimp, marinated in milk, egg and hot sauce, then tossed in a well-seasoned hushpuppy dredge and deep fried to perfection.

Hushpuppy Breaded Fried Shrimp

Some years back, Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen, which by the way makes the most delicious fried chicken evah, introduced seafood to the menu in some areas. Some menu items were offered only on a limited time basis. Hushpuppy Fried Shrimp was one of those.

I was intrigued.

So, for research purposes, I requested that my husband aka here as "The Cajun" swing in and pick up a small order of them on his way home for us to try.

Fresh green beans, slow stewed Southern-style all day, with fatback, salt pork or bacon and potatoes, prepared in the slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Fresh Green Beans

I love green beans!

Well, truth is I love vegetables in general really, but green beans are my number one most prepared side dish, because they're an easy, tasty side dish and thank goodness my veggie adverse husband eats them too.

They are my in a hurry go-to side when I need to add something green to a plate of protein and carbs and they're much quicker than whipping up a garden salad, although in reality, my hubby thinks a plate of torn up iceberg lettuce qualifies as a salad!

Fish fillets, tossed in a mix of yellow and Creole mustard with hot sauce, dredged in a highly seasoned blend of cornmeal and flour, then deep fried.

Mustard Fried Fish

In case you didn't know, we're pretty big on fresh fish here along the Gulf Coast!

Local Gulf favorites include speckled trout (my personal favorite), flounder, snapper, grouper, redfish, drum and lots of others in the deeper waters. Give me any one of them!

The Cajun goes fishing with his brother on occasion and the fish they come home with most often are two very popular fish found in the Mississippi Sound - white trout and ground mullet - also known more officially as southern kingfish.

A casserole of lump crab, a highly seasoned cream sauce and a mix of two shredded cheeses.

Crabmeat au Gratin

Crab au gratin is a delicious, decadent treat for sure, because, unless you are doing your own crabbing, boiling and picking, it can be a pricey dish for sure. If you've ever done any of the above though, you know the work that goes into picking crabs, and the effort required to get those nice, large lump pieces, so it's worth the price.

This dish can be used as an entrée, served with a nice garden salad and some hot French bread, or as an appetizer, served with some nice, sturdy crackers. As an entrée, I prefer to serve it in individual au gratin dishes {affil link}, though it can also be prepared in a casserole dish and spooned out onto plates. It's much more atheistically pleasing in the individual dishes. 

Catfish fillets, dredged in blackening seasonings and cooked in a hot cast iron skillet, served over Cajun Rice Pilaf and finished with an etouffee sauce with crawfish.

Blackened Catfish with Crawfish Etouffee

Southerners have been blackening foods since Paul Prudhomme came up with this method many years ago. Heavy seasonings seared into a piece of protein is heaven on a plate, and most of us in the Deep South have eaten it in some form or another in our lives.

It started with redfish, and seafood is most common here along the Gulf Coast of course, with catfish certainly taking a top spot on the list. These are the gorgeous filets I used this round.

Fresh fish, trout pictured here, seasoned simply with salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning and Old Bay, drizzled with butter and dusted with lemon zest, baked and garnished with sliced green onion and fresh parsley. Works well with many fish. Served here with Southern style green beans and parslied potatoes.

Baked Fish

You'll notice that despite being a Mississippi Gulf Coast gal, you don't see a lot of recipes on here for fish. It's not because we don't eat it - we do! Every chance we get. While Mondays are always red beans and rice here in the Deep South, Fridays mean fish, or at least seafood of some kind, thanks to our heavy Catholic population and abundant access to it.

Heck, I'm not even above cleaning them, and the basic rule is that if you catch them, you clean them, and well... it's not a pretty job, though the end result is, of course, fabulous. If you're too skittish for all that, the local fishmongers will sell them to you already cleaned and filleted.

 

 A quick skillet version of red beans and rice, made with canned kidney beans, the Trinity of vegetables and cooked with instant rice.

Skillet Red Beans and Rice

On Mondays in this part of the Deep South, red beans and rice are a traditional meal, so yes, this is yet another way to consume those favorite Monday red beans!

Now, I'll be the first to say that these are not traditional.

The best red beans and rice are gonna come from a soaked dried bean that is slow stewed for a couple of hours on top of the stove. Hands down, that is my preferred method, even above the shortcut red beans and the slow cooker red beans, both of which are actually delicious too. But, even working from home now, I get stretched for time too.

Crabmeat and Cheese Po'boy and The Old Biloxi Vancleave Special

A Crabmeat and Cheese Po'boy, known locally as a Vancleave Special, is made with seasoned, thin crab patties, served on po'boy bread with mayonnaise, cheese, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes and pickles. Add a cup of gumbo and a cold Barq's root beer in the bottle.

Crabmeat and Cheese Po'boy

It rained long yesterday, ahead of a cold front that will be bringing some welcomed lower humidity and temperatures for a day or three again. I love a good rainy day though, especially now that I work from home and don't have to make that 60-mile, round trip commute on a dangerous interstate highway.

Honestly, with a legal career that was already stressful enough, the stress started well before I got there with that drive most days. It was a fine paying job, and I really enjoyed my work until Hurricane Katrina took it away, but honestly, there are so many things that I really don't miss about it anymore.

A bowl of Deep South goodness, this gumbo is seasoned with small gumbo crabs and then topped off with crabmeat and shrimp.

Crab and Shrimp Gumbo

Like chili, I'm always piddling around with my seafood gumbo recipes, trying to reach that one perfect gumbo my mama used to make.

Piddling around. Yes. That's a legit phrase in the Deep South!

Think of it as such a leisurely, relaxed approach to preparing that next pot of gumbo that you're willing to try something different instead of being a stickler to the same old same old.

For this crab heavy version, I decided to use a little more onion, bump up the okra to a full pound, and not take my roux quite as dark. I thought for a sweet, crab-based gumbo, this more mellow roux would be a bit more fitting, than the richer, dark and more full bodied roux I often use.

Crawfish, simmered in a very simple butter roux, seasoned with a basic trinity, garlic, stock and Cajun seasoning, and finished with a little fresh parsley and green onion. Serve over hot rice with fresh French bread for dipping.

Crawfish Etouffée

There are so many schools of thought on how to prepare a proper crawfish etouffée. Some say with a roux, others think not. Some add tomatoes, others say there is no place for tomatoes in it. Some use the Trinity, others only part of it. One thing I think that we all can agree on is that it should be uncomplicated.

For a seafood etouffée, crawfish is traditional, although shrimp or crab can be substituted. It is a totally different taste experience from the crawfish, however, since the fat from the crawfish do contribute both a distinct flavor and a bit of color. I would suggest giving it a taste and maybe bump up the seasonings a bit. Maybe even add a dab of tomato paste also.

Simplicity is what makes up a Cajun Shrimp Stew - a simple light roux, onion, sweet bell pepper and a few seasonings is all there is to it!

Cajun Shrimp Stew

Cajun food kinda reminds me sometimes of Mexican food. No, I haven't lost my mind. What I mean is a reference to how the same basic ingredients are often used and simply the application or process within the recipe and presentation differ. To me Shrimp Stew is like that.

A versatile stuffing mix made with toasted bread, sauteed onion and sweet bell pepper, tossed with crab and shrimp, and versatile enough for use in many different recipes.

Seafood Stuffing Mix

I have this basic seafood stuffing mix that I use for many different dishes, so this weekend when I was making Stuffed Flounder, I figured it was about time to get the stuffing recipe up all on its own.

It's a very versatile mix that can be used to stuff large butterflied shrimp, to make patties for Vancleave (crabmeat and cheese) po'boys, to stuff large mushroom caps, hollowed out eggplant and squash of all types, and other vegetables, fill crab shells, or to make pan-fried crab cakes, to name just a few.

Shrimp and Sausage cooked in a spicy tomato, roux and trinity enhanced sauce, and served on a bed of Garlic Cheese Grits.

Gulf Coast Shrimp and Grits

Grits are a southern dish for sure, and though classic Shrimp and Grits is more of a Lowcountry Southern dish, than it is a Deep South Coastal dish - don't y'all know we sure took it up down here too!

Grits are a perfect southern side dish with eggs for breakfast no doubt, but we certainly bring them out of pantry for other meals down here too. Eggs in Purgatory makes a perfectly good dish for brunch or even for supper, as does Grits and Grillades and here, Shrimp and Grits.

A cold dip made with a seasoned cream cheese and sour cream base, with picante sauce and boiled shrimp. Mix everything together, or prepare the base and top with the shrimp and sauce.

Picante Shrimp Dip

This Picante Shrimp Dip recipe was born out of leftovers from that New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp I posted yesterday.  Besides being a lover of all things dip related, I especially love cooking once and getting multiple meals out of something.

New Orleans Style Barbecue Shrimp

New Orleans style barbecue shrimp, made with large shrimp, Creole seasoning, beer, hot sauce, olive oil, lots of Worcestershire sauce and pepper, and a sinful amount of butter.

New Orleans Style Barbeque Shrimp

 It is said that the recipe for New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp was born many, many years ago at Pascal's Manale Restaurant - a nearly 100-year-old eatery located on Napoleon Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 How the name came to be though, well, nobody really seems to know, because New Orleans Style BBQ shrimp are not smoked, or cooked on a grill, and there is never anything remotely resembling a barbecue sauce that ever touches them.

A nicely seasoned chicken stock based chowder made with a small roux, auteed veggies, potatoes, corn, half and half and sweet blue crab.

Corn and Crab Chowder

We've had a quick shot of wintry weather in The Deep South, for at least a few days anyway, and a good chowder made with corn, crab and a little cream, really hits the spot when that cold weather blows in. It's been such a hot fall that as much as I love them this time of year, thinking about soups, stews and chowders has been hard to do frankly. Leave it to The South to go from beach weather to frost in about 8 hours! Apparently we decided to just pass by fall altogether - gotta love The South! Course, we'll be back to beach weather in no time, which explains why my garden looks like a laundry right now, with sheets and blankets strewn across many of my plants.

Remoulade Sauce

A spicy olive oil and mayonnaise based southern condiment that's as good on fried seafood as it is as a salad dressing.

Rémoulade sauce was an invention of France, but down here, it's all about New Orleans style remoulade sauce. A favorite southern condiment, the Creole version of remoulade is made a variety of ways, many oil and vinegar based, with plenty of paprika and ketchup, green onion, and often the inclusion of celery. It is a very tangy and pucker-worthy sauce.

Fresh shrimp dipped in a batter, then in a seasoned flour, and fried to a golden, crispy crunch.

Batter Fried Shrimp

Fried shrimp is a Deep South favorite, no real surprises there. Batter fried shrimp is just another delicious alternative from classic southern fried shrimp that we enjoy in this area.

Eggs are dropped into a bed of fiery tomato sauce, made from fresh tomatoes paired with chunky Rotel and enhanced with bacon, onion and sweet bell peppers, and then passed in the oven to set, topped with cheese and served over cheese grits.

Eggs in Purgatory

Eggs in Purgatory is one of those recipes that I consider to be a lost classic. You don't hear about it much anymore, though thanks to us bloggers, it seems to be making a resurgence in the past couple of years.

I see folks doing it all the time, but I have never been one to put ketchup on eggs, though I do love them with salsa, especially in a breakfast wrap. I absolutely adore these Eggs in Purgatory though, done up in a bed of thick and spicy creole tomato sauce. They are just delicious!