Mardi Gras connection
Chef Maria Vieages fled New Orleans for Santa Rosa after Katrina, but she brought her accent and Mardi Gras food traditions with her
Maria Vieages is a chef and caterer from New Orleans.
MARK ARONOFF/ PDPublished: Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at 4:02 a.m.
There's a certain kind of widespread optimism in New Orleans that requires massive doses of denial -- plus a splash of rum -- to maintain.
New Orleans native Maria Vieages, a chef and cooking instructor in Wine Country for the past two years, is all too familiar with the psychology.
"I had that mentality for 40 years. . . . when in doubt, throw a party," she said. "It's another planet there, but I didn't know that until I moved."
In New Orleans, it's common to hear people give excuses for overeating ("it's just to tide me over"), drinking on a Tuesday ("we're getting ready for the crawfish festival") and sports teams that never reach the championships.
"The Saints may be 0 and 14, but everyone is saying, 'The Saints are going for the Super Bowl,' " she said. "I just sit there and laugh, and I say, 'Are you getting ready for it?' "
As a native of N'Awlins, Vieages has explored the region's rich food traditions with gusto, from the juicy roast beef po-boys, dressed with so much gravy it drips down your chin, to the beignets, nestled in a cloud of powdered sugar, at Cafe du Monde.
For 10 years, she had her own restaurant and catering company, Maria's Multi-Regional Cuisine, first in a former fish store near Lake Pontchartrain, and later in a historic house on Canal Street.
Then in August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit, and everything changed. It ripped the roof off her home and wiped out her restaurant. The party was over.
"After Katrina, I woke up," Vieages said. "All the negatives of New Orleans surfaced . . . the poverty and the potholes and the educational system."
Vieages fled at the last minute to Dallas, returning briefly to try to rebuild her life in December 2005.
"I lived two months without electricity," she recalled. "I had no clients or staff left."
Fearing for her life and her sanity, she relocated permanently to Wine Country in the fall of 2006, then launched her own catering business here in February 2007.
"It took a disaster for me to find paradise," Vieages said. "People are conscious here, and they are healthy and educated. It's everything that I always looked for."
Out of a kitchen in Railroad Square, Vieages caters for wineries such as Landmark and Buena Vista in the Sonoma Valley. She also hosts a food talk show on KGGV-FM 95.1 in Guerneville, and tapes her own cooking show at the Chauvet Hotel in Glen Ellen.
She gives cooking classes at the Monte Rio Community Center and the Glenelly Inn in Glen Ellen, and teaches on a regular basis at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa.
"I have her teach anything to do with New Orleans, because she brings a lot of authenticity," said Mary Bergin, head instructor at Sur La Table. "The accent alone authenticates the entire class."
Vieages will teach a Sur La Table class this Sunday on traditional Mardi Gras foods like muffalettas and crawfish pies, oyster patties and crab hush puppies.
"These foods are staples at a party," she explained.
Oyster patties are a beloved New Orleans snack made with celery and onions and chopped oysters, thickened with a roux. The mixture is heated and poured into puff pastry shells, then quickly devoured.
Crawfish pie is another tasty treat favored by Mardi Gras mavens. The quiche-like dish can be baked in one large pie shell or in multiple mini-shells.
It's not a party in New Orleans without some kind of fried food -- the smell alone is intoxicating. Vieages favors crab hush puppies, made with cornmeal, crab, celery and onion and a bit of sugar, rolled into a ball and deep fried.
The muffaletta, a sandwich designed for hearty appetites, is one of the most iconic foods of the Big Easy. It is served on big, round, seeded hamburger bun, or a mini-version of the same.
To make a muffaletta, you simply slather the bread with olive oil and the famous Boscoli Italian Olive Salad, which you can order from New Orleans. The salad is a crunchy, vinegary mixture of cauliflower, carrots, celery, chunks of olives, capers and pimentos.
Then you top the sandwich with cured meats, ham, Genoa salami and provolone cheese. You can eat the bulging sandwich hot or cold, but you must use two hands.
"It's a heart attack between two pieces of bread," Vieages said. "Do not have blood work after you eat this food. It's awful for you . . . but it tastes so good."
The party season in New Orleans is a prolonged affair that starts during the winter holidays and continues right through the year. Locals can find any excuse -- there's that denial thing again -- to keep the celebration going.
"They go from Christmas to New Year's and right into Mardi Gras," Vieages said. "Then they will eat seafood on Fridays (during Lent), and it's the crawfish season. Then there's Jazz Fest and the French Quarter Festival and the Gumbo Festival."
Vieages grew up in New Orleans as the only child of a Sicilian mother and a Portuguese father. By age 5, she was helping her mother stuff artichokes and roll bruccilone (veal stuffed with ham, provolone and hard-boiled eggs) for Sunday dinner.
"I didn't grow up Cajun or French, but my mother was very New Orleans," she said. "We're called Yats, because we have a heavy accent. It's a greeting . . . 'Where you at?' "
Food was in her blood, but it took her a while to realize it. While working at a hospital as a radiologist, she started bringing meals to her co-workers.
"Eventually people started giving me money, and I would cater lunch for them the next week," she said.
On her 30th birthday, she decided to change careers and put herself through culinary school. After graduating, she found a tiny space that was a former fish store and opened up her own take-out restaurant.
In 2003, she moved the restaurant to an old house on Canal Street, put in tables that could seat 50, and started doing lunches. She had a catering job for 750 the day Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
Vieages kept the sign from her restaurant -- a hand-printed chalkboard -- with the waterline mark from Hurricane Katrina as a reminder of that nightmare.
"It felt like a war," she said. "There were houses in the middle of the street, stuffed animals up in trees, people and animals dead."
Her memories of the evacuation -- an eight-hour drive to Dallas that took 24 hours -- still weigh heavy on her.
"I evacuated at the last minute," she said. "I kept saying I'm never leaving. I was in denial, deep denial."
On her way out of Louisiana, she passed cars that were overheated and out of gas. Hotels had put up no-vacancy signs and locked their doors.
By the time she crossed over the Texas line, she was so grateful that she started crying. When she reached Dallas, the levees broke.
"I don't know if I would have made it if I had stayed," she said. "I don't think I'd be alive."
For more information on Maria's Multi-Regional Cuisine, go to mariasmrc.com.
The following recipes are from Vieages. "Boscoli Italian Olive Salad can be found in most Safeway stores," she writes. "If you cannot find this brand, buy a good-quality Italian Olive Salad."
New Orleans Muffaletta
Makes 4 servings
1 seeded, round lof Italian bread (6 to 8 inches in diameter)
-- Good quality olive oil, as needed
1 jar Boscoli Italian Olive Salad (enough for a thick layer on the bottom of the bread)
¾ pound Virginia-style ham
¾ pound Genoa salami
6 slices Provolone cheese
Slice bread horizontally and rub inside of bread top with olive oil. Put a thick layer of the olive salad on the bottom of the bread. Assemble the ham, salami and cheese on top.
To heat, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take the top portion of the bread off and bake the rest at 400 degrees until meat is heated through and the cheese is melted. Add the top of the bread toward the end of heating the rest, and heat until bread is crisp.
Cut into halves or quarters and serve.
Hush Puppies
These hush puppies can be served with tartar sauce or remoulade sauce.
Crabmeat Hush Puppies
Makes 4 to 5 servings
1 cup yellow cornmeal
¾ cup self-rising flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon cayenne
½ small, sweet onion, finely chopped
4 green onions, sliced thin
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup buttermild
½ pound Dungess crabmeat
-- Oil for deep frying (peanut, canola, corn or safflower)
Preheat a deep fryer or oil in frying pan to 375 degrees.
Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl to form a thick batter.
Dip 2 tablespoon spoons into water. Using the spoons to form the batter, scoop up some of the batter and drop into the hot oil.
Work in batches, frying each batch for 3 to 4 minutes or until golden brown on all sides. Remove and drain on a paper towel lined sheetpan.
Crawfish Pie
You can find crawfish tails at the Tides Fish Market in Bodega Bay or order it from a New Orleans distributor, such as louisianaseafoodexchange.net. You can also substitute shrimp.
Crawfish Pie
Makes 1 9-inch pie
For roux:
¼ cup butter
¼ cup flour
For filling:
« cup minced onion
½ cup minced bell pepper
¼ minced celery
1 cup heavy cream
¾ cup green onion chopped
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
¼ cup butter
1 pound crawfish tails, taken out of the shells
1½ tablespoons spice Mixture (see recipe below)
1 store-bought, 9-inch pie crust
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Make a brown roux with the butter and flour and mix in the minced vegetables to cool, then add cream to thin.
In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat and add the green onions and garlic. Add crawfish tails and heat well. Sprinkle with 1½ tablespoons of the spice mixture. Add the green onion mixture to the roux/cream mixture, making sure the consistency is not too soupy or too thick.
Pour the hot crawfish mixture into the pie crust and bake at 400 degrees until pie crust is brown, about 45 minutes. Let cool for several minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve hot.
More
Spice Mixture
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon white pepper
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon basil leaves
Mix ingredients in a bowl and store in an air-tight container.
"This is a favorite at New Orleans parties," Vieages said. "They can be served as an hors d'oeuvres if you use small, puff pastry shells." You can find ready-made puff pastry shells in the freezer section of most grocery stores.
Oyster Patties
Makes 1 dozen large or 3 dozen small patties
½ cup butter
1 large onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
¼ cup parsley, chopped
2 pints oysters (reserve liquor), chopped
-- Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
-- Cayenne to taste
For bechamel sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk, hot
-- Salt and pepper to taste
1 dozen large puff pastry shells
In a heavey saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, green onion, garlic and parsley and saute until translucent. Add the oystersa dn cook until they are curled. Add the salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and cayenne.
In another saucepan, make the bechamel sauce by melting the butter over medium-low heat. Add the flour and stir until smooth, then cook over medium heat until mixture turns a light golden color (6 to 7 minutes). Add the hot milk to the mixture and bring to a boil, whisking continuously. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the bechamel to the oyster mixture gradually. Thin the mixture with oyster liquor if necessary. Heat the patty shells at 350 degrees until they are piping hot. Fill the shells with the hot oyster mixture and serve immediately.
You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
Comments are currently unavailable on this article