Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

What are your family’s top 3 favorite meals?

The title of this essay is a take on the age old joke, “A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar…” But, these three cuisines really define three meals my family loves time and time again.

I grew up in southeast Louisiana, on a skinny peninsula of land sandwiched between the Mississippi River and the bayous leading to the Gulf of Mexico, a land of seafood, citrus fruits, and Cajun food. Everyone in my family can make a good gumbo. My husband and I recently traveled to Kentucky to attend my nephew’s wedding. The night before the wedding, my baby brother (father of the groom) made a pot of gumbo that would make you cry. I smelled the roux the minute we walked in. Sitting with my brothers, my nephews, and my sister-in-law eating my brother’s gumbo was simply wonderful.

In my immediate family, we can’t wait until the day AFTER Thanksgiving to make turkey and sausage gumbo. After carving off all of the white meat and taking off the wings, legs, and thighs, I roast the turkey carcass in the oven for a few hours at low heat. I take off all of the dark meat and set it aside. The carcass, the wings, legs, and thighs then go into my biggest stock pot along with carrots, onions, and celery, to make the stock for the gumbo. In my big red pot (a 9 quart Le Creuset that was a going away gift when we left Belgium in 2004), I make a roux of equal parts vegetable oil and flour, and this takes a while, whisking and stirring until it reaches the color of peanut butter. Some people take the roux further, to a darker color, but while you get color and flavor that way, you lose some of the thickening capacity. Throw in the holy trinity (the Louisiana base seasonings of green bell pepper, celery, and onion similar to the French mirepoix or the Italian soffrito), sauté until softened. Slowly add your turkey stock, a few dashes of Lea & Perrin, a splash of Kitchen Bouquet, a few bay leaves, a pound of thinly sliced smoked sausage and the reserved meat, bring to a boil, and voila, your turkey and sausage gumbo is on its way. Simmer covered for several hours, season with salt, pepper, Tabasco, gumbo file, and serve over white rice with a side of potato salad!

I married into an Italian American family and all of their cooking was done at the family restaurant. Pans of lasagna were made in the restaurant for family get togethers, along with a huge pot of tomato sauce and trays of meatballs and Italian sausage. My husband’s favorite of all of that yummy food was the meatballs, eaten dry – sauce on spaghetti and meatballs on the side, preferably stuffed into a soft French bread roll. It took me a while to perfect the meatballs as he remembers them, but they are still something he absolutely loves. I use meatloaf mix of ground meats, a few eggs, some Italian bread crumbs, and basic seasonings like garlic powder, salt, and pepper. I bake mine instead of frying them and then he gobbles them up stuffed into my homemade white bread dinner rolls.

For two years, my family lived in Belgium. Before we left, though, we had discovered a Belgian restaurant near our house. I always ordered the mussels and thinly sliced crispy French fries (moules et frites), but my husband always ordered the Belgian beef stew (carbonade flamande). Once we settled in our home in Waterloo, my husband sampled the Belgian beef stew at all of the area restaurants. I bought a Belgian cookbook and found the recipe quite simple but somewhat time consuming. Our whole family loves it.

Basically, you season and dust with flour chunks of beef and brown them slowly in small batches of melted butter. When all the meat has been browned and set aside, you caramelize thinly sliced onions in the same pot with more melted butter. You really have to do this low and slow to get the onions as brown as the meat. Then you add back the meat, season with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme, add two bottles of Belgian beer (preferably a Chimay or other dark beer), and simmer for several hours in a covered Dutch oven (my big red pot, once again). Just before serving, stir in two spoons of red wine vinegar and two spoons of brown sugar. Serve with frites, Dijon mustard, and good bread. (This is also quite good served on mashed potatoes, polenta, or grits.)

So, no one favorite in our family, since we are a family influenced by three very different cuisines! Happy eating, everyone!