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THE CASSEROLE SIDEKICK AWARD STARCHES COMMON INGREDIENTS: RICE, BEANS, PASTA OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES “As with any dish, start with the freshest, best seafood you can. It always counts. Get the fresh shrimp just out of the water and the just-picked crabmeat, and your casserole will beat every other one at the Thanks- giving table. Conversely, if you use cheap, imported, low-quality seafood, your casserole will taste like it. Don’t do this to your family.” (Words of wisdom from Chef Ryan.) Everyone loves to take sidekicks for granted. From action movies to classic cartoons, it’s easy to simply assume a fearless hero’s sidekick is going to be there to serve as a second-in-command and, ultimately, help save the day. The same goes for casseroles, where side- kick ingredients — the pasta, rice and beans — do the heroic labor of quietly fleshing out the dish, all while ensuring that their superstar meat-and-veggie coun- terparts are heaped with praise. So, yeah, no one really wants to be the unfortunate soul whose slice of casserole is starchy sidekicks only, just like no one wants to watch an episode of Sein- feld strictly about George Costanza. But, ultimately, the sidekicks add a level of roundedness and support that ensures a casserole is a holistic meal-in-a-dish. They are, undoubtedly, the starchy workhorses of the casserole. I’m even a notorious fan of tuna casserole — which, I know, is deeply polarizing — and have been known to serve it as a dinner party entrée to, uh, mixed reactions from guests. “A casserole is a baked dish that is meant to meld differ- ent ingredients, so that when they come together, the whole is more rich and robust than the ingredients. I think of seafood casserole in a similar way to gumbo, where the seafood is cooked into the base, contribut- ing to the whole dish in a different way than a quick grilled shrimp or sautéed piece of fish would,” says Chef Ryan Prewitt of Pêche in New Orleans. And, as with most dishes, the fresh-is-best motto rings true. (Sorry, my beloved canned tuna.)

photo by ROMNEY CARUSO

Ah, the casserole superstars. These are the ingredients that lend the casserole its name — shrimp and mirliton casserole! chicken and rice casserole! — and make us want to whip it up in the first place.They’re the components of the dish that you’re fishing for when a scoop lands on your plate, hoping that the ratio of meat-and-veggie-to-other-stuff has skewed in your favor. And across the Gulf South, there’s a genre of casserole that’s long been a part of family repertoire but, for some reason, continues to baffle cooks in the rest of the country: the seafood casserole. Like etiquette “rules” about not wear- ing white after Labor Day and always passing the salt and pepper as a pair, there’s the long-held culinary adage that fish and dairy just don’t belong together — ever. Fortunately, we’ve ignored that to our delicious advantage. With seafood as the foundational ingredient — whether shrimp, crawfish, crab or whatever is freshest out of the water — casseroles can embrace a decidedly local flair, all while retaining a more delicate, lithe texture and flavor profile than a helping of casserole in which ground beef is the hulking, macho star. THE CASSEROLE SUPERSTAR AWARD MEATS AND VEGETABLES COMMON INGREDIENTS: BEEF, CHICKEN, GREENS OF ALL KINDS, SEAFOOD

25 everyday NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

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