The Blonde Diaries

It is time to vote for your favorite recipe!

Not too long ago I blogged about the contest that was going to take place in New Orleans to crown this year’s best chef and their best seafood recipe in the Great American Seafood Cook-off Contest. Well the cooking has taken place and the judges have the recipes and chefs narrowed down to a top 5 and have crowned their own winner. Now they are asking us to pick our own winner out of the top 5 recipes and chefs in the finals. Just looking at the recipes submitted in the cook off just makes my mouth water and I wonder how the judges even narrowed down to a top five. They all look fantastic.

My favorite in the finals has to be the Shrimp and Andouille Cassoulet by Chef Brian Landry of Louisiana. It combines two of my favorite food items: shrimp and sausage! The other ingredients look good as well - garlic, celery, onions, beans, tomatoes, and Abita beer to name a few of the ones that caught my eye. Right now the recipe is designed for 8-10 people and since it is just Mike and I, I’ll probably cut the ingredients in half when I try to make it so that it is serving 4-5 and we just have one set of left overs. The key though I think to making this recipe taste perfect is finding some Texas Shrimp since we are right on the Gulf Coast. I have tried a few recipes with both fresh and frozen (non local) seafood and you can totally taste a difference between the fresh and the frozen. I try my hardest now to avoid the frozen seafood because you don’t know where it is coming from nor how long it has been frozen. I highly recommend that if you are going to make a seafood dish to find fresh seafood because it really makes your dish.

If you want to read more about this recipe or any of the others head over to the Great American Seafood Cook-off Contest site and click on the red box that says vote and enter to win. If you vote you are entered into a contest a trip for 2 to New Orleans. It is really quick and easy to enter - just read the final 5 recipes and pick one!