More Alligator Recipes

Well, I just finished putting together a recipe sheet to hand out to our customers. In addition to the grilled alligator recipe from last week, here are a few more.

Fried Alligator Strips

1 lb. alligator meat cut in strips, 1 cup flour, ½ cup milk, 2 eggs, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp red pepper

Mix eggs and milk in small bowl and set aside. Add garlic powder, onion powder and red pepper to flour in a large bowl. Dredge alligator strips through the milk and egg mixture, and then lightly pad each side of the alligator strip min the flour mixture. Pan fry in your choice of oil or grease until golden brown on both sides. Salt and pepper to taste.

Beer Batter Alligator Strips

Same process as above, but substitute the following for the egg, milk, and flour method.

Mix together one 12 oz. can of beer with ½ cup flour. Salt and pepper to taste. Let stand for 2 hours before dredging fillets through beer batter.

Baked Alligator

Alligator Fillets, garlic powder, chopped parsley, lemon juice, butter, salt and pepper, lemon slices

Arrange alligator fillets in an ovenware dish large enough to place in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic. Squeeze lemon juice over the fillets. Cut a generous amount of butter into squares and place all over the fillets. Arrange lemon slices over the fillets and sprinkle generously with parsley. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven until fillets are cooked through. Serve with French bread.

A little Gator info from Wikipedia.

Alligator farming is a big and growing industry in Florida, Texas and Louisiana. These states produce a combined annual total of some 45,000 alligator hides. Alligator hides bring good prices and hides in the 6-7 foot (1.8-2 m) range have sold for $300 each, though the price can fluctuate considerably from year to year. The market for alligator meat is growing and approximately 300,000 pounds (140 000 kg) of meat is produced annually. According to the Florida Department of Agriculture, raw alligator meat contains roughly 200 calories per 3oz (85 g) serving size, of which 27 calories come from fat.

It's Monday! Fun Food Facts

I will try to get some content out this week, but will resort to fun food facts as I have become accustomed to doing on Mondays.

Imperia, Italy is the home of the Agnesi Historical Museum of Spaghetti. I was hoping to find a link to post for your viewing pleasure, but can not find one. I do however find many mentions of it out there.

Forks weren't widely used in the United States until the 1800s. It is true. Click here for the wiki.

Italians in Italy consume a million and a half tons of spaghetti every year. Well I see that as of 2007 there are 58 million people in Italy. That works out to about 52 pounds per person per year averaging one pound per week. Seems like a good number.

The national dish of Scotland, haggis, is made of the heart, liver, lungs and small intestines of a calf. It's then boiled in the stomach of the animal, and seasoned with salt, pepper and onions. Oh, and don't forget to add the suet and oatmeal. I'll pass on this dish.

The brewing of beer is recorded as far back as 6,000 years ago. Until the 12th century (when skilled experts took over), women performed the task of making beer as part of their household chores.

The above all comes from mindlesscrap.com a good trivia site. Red are my comments.