"This country was founded by farmers, we want to show our thanks to farmers and pay homage to what they do.
We want food straight from the farm. We want food that was raised the way it was meant to be, NATURAL! " — Chef Todd Hudson, Executive Chef
Below, Chef Todd will teach us how to create the famous rub and tomato sauce for his Creole Style Blackened Carina Redfish
Chef Toff serves this magical fish with jalepeno and fresh sweet corn polenta, heirloom zuchini, topped with creole tomato sauce and a parmagiano crisp
Recipe for the Cajun Rub
½ cup each:
smoked sweet Spanish paprika
chili powder
granulated onion
granulated garlic
dried oregano
1/3 cup of Kosher salt
¼ cup each:
mustard powder
white pepper
ground celery seed
allspice
Its simple, but it works well. Just mix all the ingredients with your hand, and taste for
heat. It wont be too spicy just yet. We rub this on both sides of the skinned fish, and sear
it in a medium hot cast iron skillet. It will blacken and form a nice crust, but doesn’t taste
burnt when done right. Remove the fish from the pan, and rub your favorite hot sauce
on it for a bit of heat. We brighten the fish with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch fresh
parsley.
Recipe for Creole Tomato Sauce
I start this sauce with a bacon grease based brown roux, for a silky smokey sauce with
lots of depth. As Justin Wilson recommended, “git yo big ‘ol good wooden roux spoon
out.” You’ll need it. I make huge batches of this sauce, and turn it into gumbo the next
day with some rice and okra, and probably a bit of fresh crab meat and “Laughing Bird”
Shrimp.
Heat about a 1/3 cup of bacon grease in a big pot on medium high heat. Add 1 cup each
diced bell peppers and sweet onion, with about a ¼ cup of fresh chopped garlic. Give the
veggies some color, and let them soften a bit, but don’t kill them. Cut the heat to medium
low, and gradually add 1/3 cup all purpose flour, one tablespoon at a time. Keep stirring
the veggies as you add the flour. Add just enough flour to make a sauce that bubbles,
and starts to brown. Too much flour, and the whole pot will turn into a big gummy mess.
This is where the sauce will burn if you don’t pay attention, or if you add too much flour.
Grab 8 fresh baseball-sized tomatoes from your garden, core them, and peel the skins.
(If you don’t mind little rolls of tomato skin in the sauce, you don’t have to peel them.)
Make sure you have your apron on, grab a tomato, reach it inside the pot and crush the
tomato right into the vegetable roux. Do this with all the tomatoes, and then mash them
with your spoon.
Cook this for about 5 minutes; slowly add some white wine until
the sauce drinks the wine up. Keep adding the wine until the sauce gets to the desired
consistency. I finish the sauce with a ¼ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup Worcestershire, a dusting
of fresh chopped mint and a bit of fresh oregano. Let it cook on the lowest setting you
can, to let the flavors blend.
Spoon this onto the fish or anything really….it's tasty.
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Treat yourself to Chef Todd's temptations:
Map Restaurant
Located in Downtown Mason, The Wildflower Cafe & Coffee House is small, family owned restaurant. The Wildflower is a 103 year old house that has been recently renovated into a quaint little Cafe. As soon as you walk inside, you'll be treated like part of this family. Todd Hudson is the owner as well as the chef, his wife serves the food and wine, and his close friends do a little bit of everything else.
In the dining room, a large chalk board displays a regularly changing menu. Chef Todd is passionate about not only serving the freshest food, but the most sustainable. If it was pre-sliced & chlorinated, pre-cooked, pre-washed, pre-prepared, ethylne gased, injected with antibiotics and sterioids, frozen 3 times, made of artificial ingredients, genetically modified, or sprayed with leftover chemicals from World War 2, he wants nothing to do with it!
In addition to working with a number of farmers around Cincinnati/Dayton, Chef Todd works with CleanFish to ensure his fish is of the highest quality and planet-friendly. Essentially, the food at Wildflower is raised the way it's suppossed to be — the way it was done when our grandparents were young.
Here's what Chef Todd has to say about his featured Cajun Creation:
I grew up watching Justin Wilson on TV, and fell in love with his style and the food he made. He seemed to be a real Cajun, and cared about where and when to get the best product. I feel that those same freshness & quality guidelines are the foundations of a professional kitchen. It’s easier to make a great dish when you start with a great product, as opposed to trying to make a bad product into a good dish.
This is one our best selling items that we feature, all of our regulars will order this if they hear the words whispered. I included some recipes (at left) so feel free to pick and choose which you prefer. I think the spice rub and the sauce are the stars.
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