EMERIL LAGASSE RECIPES

At the 2010 South Beach Wine and Food Festival, finding celebrity chefs who actually cooked wasn't a simple order.  Many of them focused on chatting with the audience and left the cooking to their underlings; a few didn't cook anything at all.  Paula Deen showed up for her Sunday demonstration 20 minutes late, having been held up at her previous appearance, and she spent her remaining stage time talking about sex.  Sandra Lee did show up on time, but with her clothes and hair looking rather disheveled; either she just had sex, or she was perhaps still drunk from the night before.  Whatever the case, Lee just hung out with the audience while her sister took over cooking duties.  These were two of the most popular events, of course; as Emeril Lagasse once quipped, SBWFF "is like Spring Break for chefs," and the Food Network fans are there to party with their culinary heroes, not to watch them cook.

Speaking of The King of "Bam!"—he did show up for his demonstration on time, although visibly bedraggled as he was unmercilessly assigned to the earliest time slot of the day.  But Lagasse is a soldier and he pulled himself together, and prepared a delicious-looking (and smelling!) dinner of Oven Roasted Red Snapper with Orzo, washed down with fresh Rosé Sangria.  

Here are his recipes, with a few artistic adjustments created when he didn't specify exactly what he was measuring:

For the Sangria:
1 bottle Rosé wine
Sliced fruit:
  1 orange
  1/2 lemon
  handful of strawberries
  a plum or two
A splash of your favorite cognac or brandy
A big splash of Gran Marnier
A splash of club soda (said Lagasse: "I don't like my shit diluted!")

Mix all ingredients in a pitcher, then pour into glass with ice. Drink vigorously.

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For the Orzo:
2 cups orzo pasta, dry
1 red onion, diced
salt & pepper
Olive oil
Warm beef or chicken stock
1 tomato, chopped
As much garlic as you can handle
A few leaves of fresh basil, or a big pinch of dried basil if you must
Mozarella cheese, the real Buffalo kind

Sweat the onion in 2 or 3 tbsp olive oil, seasoned with salt & pepper.  Then add the orzo and sauté for a few minutes to pick up the flavor. 
Add about 2 or 3 cups of the stock (use enough for the orzo to be covered, it will absorb the stock and you won't drain). Boil 18 minutes.  Lagasse made a point of specifying the stock should already be warmed when adding it to the other ingredients.
While it's boiling, move on to the fish, see below.
Then add the tomato, garlic, basil, and cheese; stir into a delicious cheesy mix.

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For the Snapper:
1 whole Red Snapper (any whitefish will do—make sure it's really fresh!)
1 oranges, sliced into coins; first carve off some of the skin for orange zest
Fresh rosemary stems
Good salt (like sea salt or Kosher salt) and pepper
Minced garlic, a lot of course
Aluminum foil slightly longer than the length of a baking sheet

Place the foil on a baking sheet, top with a little olive oil, and rest the fish on top.
Cut 3 or 4 slits on one side of the fish.
Take a baking sheet, line the bottom with aluminum foil coated with olive oil, and place a bed of orange slices topped with a few stems of rosemary.
Fill the slits of the fish with a mix of garlic, orange zest, and rosemary; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Wrap up aluminum foil around the snapper, leaving space above the fish so the foil doesn't touch and air can move around; close the foil.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for approximately 15 minutes—until the orzo finished boiling.

To serve:

Plate the orzo on the bottom of a wide soup bowl or plate.
Scoop off a generous serving of the fish meat using two spoons, keeping the stuffing intact, and place atop the orzo.
Pour yourself more sangria because you probably drank your first glass while you were cooking, and eat!

Comments

[rusty]

I wish Emeril would stand up straight. His posture bugs me to high heaven.

[Mike B.]

Doesn't everyone kind of hunch over the stove? Emeril is my least favorite anyway. The Wall Street Journal did a story a while back about the celebrity chef personal apperance tours. Big Bucks baby, more than their cooking shows pay. Paula is of the opinon you can always see me cook on TV, this is something else.