Shrimp and Tasso Corndogs

Shrimp and Tasso Corndogs

Stolen with permission from Chris Lusk, Executive Chef, Café Adelaide & the Swizzle Stick Bar this fun and delicious recipe includes ‘Tasso’ which is an intensely flavored, smoked pork used in Cajun cooking.
Adelaide Brennan (aka: Queenie or Auntie Mame) is the inspiration for the New Orleans restaurant. Part of the large, hard-working Irish clan of restaurateurs, her nieces recall that she worked hard (late at night – she didn’t do mornings) and was a dazzling woman who managed to squeeze as much living out of life as she possibly could. And there were legendary stories of Adelaide’s late-night shenanigans playing the fun-loving hostess to the likes of Danny Kaye, Rock Hudson, Jane Russell and Bob Hope... to name just a few!
Chef Lusk, has made some subtle changes to the menu since he took the helm, taking it into more eclectic realms by adding some Asian undertones. For example, he tweaked that Southern classic, shrimp and grits, adding texture by coating the shrimp in crunchy Japanese panko breadcrumbs, and bringing in tanginess and color with a piquant golden tomato sauce.

About the chef: although Chris Lusk is the grandson of Texas farmers, his career has been eclectic, ranging from an externship in an Irish hotel, a stint doing Asian fare in Florida, Tex-Mex at Dallas’s Star Canyon to creating Italian cuisine under Mario Batali in New York City’s Otto Enoteca. Yet he’s also earned his Louisiana cooking props working with the Brennan family at Foodies Kitchen in Metairie and Commander’s Palace in New Orleans.
“I went to cooking school,” says the Johnson & Wales grad, “but Commander’s Palace was my culinary education.”
His family heritage has given him a deep appreciation for locally grown produce and the work of farmers. “It’s great to be in a place where you can use local ingredients and meet the farmers you get them from,” Lusk says.
He also learned to appreciate handmade food early on. “My grandfather was a cook in a hospital back in the days when people made everything from scratch,” he says.
Oddly enough, Lusk didn’t set out to cook professionally. He holds a B.S. in psychology from Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas. 
After a high-school job in a local restaurant, he recalls, “I came home and told my mother, ‘I’m never going to chop an onion again.’”
But the career called him, he says. “Once I graduated from college, I decided to go to culinary school.” 
A follower of food-science author Harold McGee, Lusk brings a keen inquisitiveness to his kitchen, studying how cooking works and using that knowledge to make improvements. Cafe Adelaide managing partner Ti Adelaide Martin calls him “a heck of a smart guy with some serious taste buds.”

Café Adelaide & the Swizzle Stick Bar
(Located in the Loews New Orleans Hotel)
300 Poydras Street
New Orleans
LA 70130
504 595 3305

Shrimp and Tasso Corndogs is served as an appetizer at Café Adelaide & the Swizzle Stick Bar for $9.
This recipe makes 50 hors d’oeuvres or 25 appetizers.

Shrimp and Tasso Corndogs Ingredients:
6 cups cornmeal
3 cups flour
3 cups corn flour
2.5 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp salt
.5 cup sugar
5 cups buttermilk
2.5 cups of Abita beer
5 eggs
1 cup pureed Tasso
1 tsp of baking powder
50 ea 10/15 shrimp peeled with tail in tact
50 bamboo skewers 6-inch

Hot sauce Buerre Blanc Ingredients:
1 quart heavy whipping cream 
2 quarts reduced crystal hot sauce
1 lb. unsalted butter

Steal This Recipe® Step by Step Instructions for the Pepper Jelly Ingredients:
6 cups corn syrup
1.5 cups distilled white vinegar 
1 med. green bell pepper (brunoise) 
1 med. yellow bell pepper (brunoise) 
1 med. red bell pepper (brunoise)
2 Tbls. crushed pepper flakes
1 Tbls. fresh ground black pepper corns

Steal This Recipe® Step by Step Instructions for the Shrimp and Tasso Corndogs:
In a bowl whisk eggs, add buttermilk and beer. 
Mix all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. 
Slowly mix dry ingredients to wet.
Season shrimp with salt and pepper and skewer shrimp through tail end. 
Dip in corn dog batter and deep fry until golden brown.

Steal This Recipe® Step by Step Instructions for the Hot Sauce Buerre Blanc:
In separate pots reduce cream and hot sauce by half. 
Add together and continue reducing by half. 
Whisk in room temperature butter and keep hot.

Steal This Recipe® Step by Step Instructions for the Pepper Jelly:
In a pot reduce corn syrup and vinegar by half. 
To order add brunoise bell peppers, pepper flakes, and black pepper.

Steal This Recipe® Step by Step Instructions To Plate: 
Spread pepper jelly on bottom of plate. 
Dip fried corndogs in the hot sauce buerre blanc, place on top of pepper jelly. 
Garnish with frisee.