Good idea to make a shrimp stock to braise the eggplant in before adding it to the trinity for shrimp and eggplant casserole. Maybe cut the stock off a little earlier and use yellow onions instead of red as the color got a bit dark and brought the color of the finished dish down a bit. Tasted good. Didn’t look as good as it could have though. Eggplant is just as much a flavor sponge as yellow squash and zucchini. Maybe think about trying to do a hamburger or ground pork dish with eggplant. Maybe use eggplant instead of pasta for a lasagna-like casserole?
The whole beef tenderloin came out perfectly for me using the blast at 500 degrees and let finish in the oven for an hour method. I think next time I might go five minutes a pound at 500 instead of three to make it more attractive to family. Left alone I might have just sliced it up for beef sashimi, but everyone else likes it at least red in the middle. You can tell them to throw it in a skillet or fire up the grill as much as you want, but that doesn’t sway anyone. I did tell them to stew the leftovers in a brown gravy for badass roast beef poboys later. Luckily, I saved some for myself at the house to snack on and make killer sandwiches. Bread, mustard, sliced tenderloin. Yes.
The piece de resistance though was the homemade garlic bread. Great idea. Fired up the bread maker and got a perfect loaf of white bread from it the day before. Sliced it wide while it was still hot and painted it with garlic butter. Used one stick of Kelly’s Irish and some squeeze garlic and added some of the meat seasoning mix. One part each garlic salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Had that on hand because I really wanted to do the whole tenderloin the right way, with olive oil, L&P, the mix, and a final dusting of Zatarain’s and black pepper. Wrapped the bread in foil and just left it on the counter overnight, then when I got to the camp I brought it up in the oven (still foil wrapped) at four hundred for ten minutes. Could have unwrapped it to crisp it, and would have worked fine tossed on the grill in the foil as well. Something to keep in mind for next time. Or any time really. But it was really hard not to eat half a loaf then and there.
All in all a great xmas spread. Little brother got busy with jambalaya and crab stuffed corn muffins and nailed momma’s buttermilk pound cake. He also baked chocolate chip cookies. Never go wrong with those. I think next year though, given the time and money, I will keep a better eye on the weather and crawfish availability. Had I paid better attention to both this year, I would have boiled a sack and left it at that.
