Gator Bites

Some time ago, my cousin gave me 2 pounds of alligator tail steaks. These were beautiful, thick steaks with a great color. Of course I decided to make 'gator bites out of them! This would be an amazing recipe to have for Mardi Gras, which is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Just to make it clear, these are from real alligators, not some fake fish thing..like most of the 'crab' you see in food now-a-days.

Tasty Tasty

I had never attempted gator bites, never found the meat actually or I would have! We had them quite often at Crawdaddy's down in Cookeville and they are delicious! They do tend to be a bit chewy and I have the fix for that! My next step was to find a recipe that was good enough to match the restaurant ones and also easy to fix. I had to look no further than Paula Deen, one of my favorite cooks. Her recipe is perfection.

This recipe needs to be deep fried to get the perfect taste and texture. You could bake them, but I am not sure how they would turn out..dryer probably and you don't really want that. I again used my awesome little Fry Daddy, which is the best deep fryer I have ever tried. Gets very hot and the food is about half as greasy as with any other I have used. I recommend one if you just need the occasional deep frying.

Don't be intimidated by Mr. Gator, it is not hard to fix at all. I have discovered that you really need to look over the meat and cut out any cartilage or gristly stuff that you find. It is not gross looking but you can feel it is tougher than the meat. That is what I think lends the toughness to the restaurant gator bites. It probably took me 10 minutes total to get all of it out of 2 pounds and it was well worth doing!

Here is the recipe directly from Ms. Deen.

Fried Gator Bites
I found this worked well for the 2 pounds I had.

• 1 pound alligator meat, cut into chunks (can substitute chicken or pork)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Flour, for dredging (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup hot sauce
• 1 bottle store bought ranch dressing, for dipping

Heat a deep-fryer to 350 degrees F. (or use the Fry Daddy and don't worry about temperature)

Lightly season gator meat with salt and pepper prior to dredging them in flour. Combine buttermilk and hot sauce into 1 mixture. Dip the gator meat into the buttermilk and hot sauce mixture and dip, once again, in flour. Then place in deep fryer until golden brown, just a couple minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve with ranch dressing or remoulade.

And....

Here is a fantastic recipe for remoulade:

New Orleans Remoulade

• 1 pint mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons Creole mustard
• 2  tablespoons grated onion
• 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon white wine Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

Combine all ingredients and mix well. It is better chilled for at least a couple of hours, but I can never wait that long to use it! Makes 2 1/4 cups sauce.

Lava Lava Shrimp (Margaritaville)

My favorite thing to get from Margaritaville is their Lava Lava shrimp, which is a copy cat of Bonefish Grill's bang bang shrimp. Today, I am giving you a copy cat of that!
This recipe comes from the master of copy cat recipes, Todd Wilbur. If you want to make dishes from your favorite restaurants and want them to taste exactly the same, but for a fraction of the cost, I recommend you get his books. I have all of them and have never had a dish turn out less than perfect. I first started trying them more than 20 years ago. He is just about my favorite cookbook author. Here is the link to his site, go buy the Top Secret Restaurant Recipes books!  Top Secret Recipes

Yummy!

This tastes just like the dish from both restaurants, but at a fraction of the price. It is unbelievably expensive on the menus. I made enough for 4 people for the price of one appetizer! You must make the sauce to get the full experience. People who don't like mayo will balk, but I have had several who refuse to eat mayo just lap this up. The secret is the chili sauce and you can find this at Walmart or any grocery store in their Asian aisle, the rice vinegar too, tho you can substitute white vinegar if you don't have any.

Ingredients:

Spicy Sauce:
  ½ cup mayonnaise
  4 teaspoons chili garlic sauce (sambal sauce)
  1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  ½ teaspoon rice vinegar

Breading:
  1 egg, beaten
  1 cup milk
  3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
  1 teaspoon salt
  ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  ½ teaspoon rubbed (ground) sage
  ¼ teaspoon onion powder
  ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
  ¼ teaspoon dried basil
  8 to 12 cups vegetable shortening or oil
  16 to 18 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined ( I use a whole bag of small or medium)

Garnish:
  1 handful of mixed greens
  1 green onion, chopped (green part only)

Directions:

- Combine all ingredients for chili sauce in a small bowl. Cover the sauce and set it aside for now.

- Combine the beaten egg with milk in a shallow bowl. Mix flour, panko, salt, black pepper, sage, onion powder, garlic powder, and basil in another shallow bowl.

- Heat shortening or oil to 350 degrees F. Use the amount of oil required by your fryer.

- Bread the shrimp by first coating each with the breading. Dip breaded shrimp into the egg and milk mixture, and then back into the breading. Arrange the coated shrimp on a plate and pop them into the fridge for at least 20 minutes. This step will help the breading to stick on the shrimp when they are frying.

- When your oil is hot, fry the shrimp for 3 to 4 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on a rack or paper towels. When all of the shrimp have been fried, drop the shrimp into a large bowl. Spoon about ¼ cup of the sauce over the shrimp and stir gently to coat. Stack the shrimp on a bed of mixed greens, then sprinkle the stack with chopped green onion.( I place the shrimp on the greens and drizzle some sauce on it, like Margaritaville)

*Serves 2 to 4 as an appetizer.

Now.... Let me make a recommendation on a deep fryer. If you are trying to eat healthier, deep frying is usually out of the question. This dish will not be half as good baked, so I had to find a better fryer. I did some review reading and decided to try the new and improved Fry Daddy. It only uses 4 cups of oil, compared to almost 2 bottles of the other fryers. It is small, self-contained and has a lid for storage when not in use. The best thing about it is that it cooks the food super hot, it has no dials and no way for you to overheat or underheat the oil. By cooking it super hot, the food absorbs less oil and is more crunchy with less grease!  Take a look: Fry Daddy

*Note: I haven't been paid to endorse either Todd Wilbur or Fry Daddy, just passing on my own cooking experiences!