Third Coast Cuisine

The Third Coast is a hot spot for food and drink festivals of all incarnations.  It is my plan to chronicle some of the great festivals to be found in the region.  This time around I visited the 2nd Annual Dauphin Island Gumbo Cook-off on Dauphin Island, AL.

A year ago when the town of Dauphin Island held their first ever gumbo cook-off they had no idea what the future held in store.  As home of the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo and the only beaches in Alabama's second most populous county, they were just gearing up for the busy tourist and sport fishing season.  A month later there was an explosion on the BP owned and operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig.  As a result eleven men died and an entire season was lost.

Blame for the mishap can be equally dispersed among three groups.  First, BP for not employing the highest measure of safety possible.  Second the Obama Administration who not only signed off on the safety of the rig just weeks before the accident but also for conducting the single worst recovery effort in US history.  Lastly, the highest level of blame belongs to the environmentalist groups who've conspired to move offshore drilling into deeper water strictly in the hopes that just such an accident would happen.  They think it proves they were right but the only thing it proves is that the worst enemy of our environment are environmentalists.

So the Gulf States cannot count on BP to help, it's okay because AB will.  Food Network star Alton Brown was the guest of honor at the Cook-off which helped insure a turnout three times the size of last year's event.  Brown had a few choice words for BP and about Asian farm raised seafood which is far more toxic than Gulf seafood would be if it were drenched in crude oil.  Enough of my gabbing.  See for yourself:

We've explored a few recipes for rémoulade so far this week and all have something in common, the addition of mustard. Though most classical recipes contain mustard, not all rémoulades do. I once had a sweet plum rémoulade at an Irish pub in Tennessee that was amazing with their fish cakes. Sadly, the eatery is gone. Too bad, because I'd kill a drifter for that recipe.

Port City Rémoulade
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons horseradish
Tabasco sauce to taste
Cajun seasoning to taste

Mix, chill and serve. My mother would make big bowls of this stuff any time we fried or boiled shrimp. It is very similar to the sauces that the chain restaurants serve with their colossal fried onion thingies. I have made my own adjustments to the original family recipe.

Dauphin Island Sauce
1 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup ketchup
1/2 cup salad cubes (a large diced pickle relish) with liquid
2 large boiled eggs, chopped
2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
Dash Worcestershire Sauce (optional)

Mix, chill and serve. If you think this recipe looks a lot like Thousand Island Dressing you are right. It is my spin on the old standard with bigger flavors and a lot chunkier. It is equally at home on a burger, a salad or as a dipping sauce for seafood. In fact, I use it as an alternative to the common shrimp cocktail by serving in a martini glass and calling it a Shrimptini.

Oh, and if you happened to have worked at the Seanachie in Nashville circa 1998 and know the recipe for that plum rémoulade, hit me up.