The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of The Killing Kind by Jane Casey, Served with Mushroom Spinach Pizza & a Recipe for Garlic Cream Sauce

Happy Aloha Friday! It's officially Fall and this season is always a good time for a twisty psychological thriller, so I am happy to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for The Killing Kind by Jane Casey. Accompanying my review is a tasty Mushroom Garlic Pizza and a recipe for a Garlic Cream Sauce to use on pizza or pasta.

Publisher's Blurb:

He tells you you’re special…
As a barrister, Ingrid Lewis is used to dealing with tricky clients, but no one has ever come close to John Webster. After Ingrid defended Webster against a stalking charge, he then turned on her – following her, ruining her relationship, even destroying her home.

He tells you he wants to protect you…
Now, Ingrid believes she has finally escaped his clutches. But when one of her colleagues is run down on a busy London road, Ingrid is sure she was the intended victim. And then Webster shows up at her door…

But can you believe him?
Webster claims Ingrid is in danger – and that only he can protect her. Stalker or saviour? Murderer or protector? The clock is ticking for Ingrid to decide. Because the killer is ready to strike again.

Publisher: Harper Collins (September 21, 2021)

Hardcover: 480 pages

My Review:

As mentioned above, I love a good dark thriller with plenty of twists and The Killing Kind is definitely that. It follows Ingrid, a 30-something barrister in London, who has seemingly good reason to believe that the death of a colleague crossing a busy street may actually not have been an accident and that she might have been the intended victim. That this happens after a former client, John Webster, who stalked her, burnt down her flat and ruined her relationship with her fiance (and is generally a charismatic sociopath) is released from prison certainly gives her reason to fear for her life. I don't want to go into a lot of the details of the plot (because of potential spoilers) but soon Webster is back in her life and claiming that she needs him to help her figure out who is really behind the threat.

So many twists and turns and side characters and plots--a bit chaotic but it kept me going for the almost 500 pages and made them fly by. At time things got a little fantastical, and I had to yell at Ingrid a lot in my head--for a seemingly smart person most of the time, she made some very questionable choices in terms of who she listened to and to whom she granted trust. There is a lot of British law jargon--I am more familiar with British police procedurals but not as much with the court system. (I found it interesting though.) John Webster was a fascinating character, one of those psychos who you just can't wait to see what they do next. I did guess the major twist in the book, but there were enough surprises left to make it intriguing and keep my interest.This is my first book from this author but after reading it, I am now inclined to give her two series (Maeve Kerrigan and Jess Tennant) a try. If you like dark and a little crazy, you will likely enjoy it too.

 

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One quote that I really liked from John Webster about how predictable people (especially  Ingrid) are in the choices and decisions we make:

"You think you're making free choices but really the decisions you make are about what you know, and what you find comforting."

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Author Notes: JANE CASEY is the author of the Maeve Kerrigan novels (Let the Dead Speak, After the Fire) and the Jess Tennant Mysteries (Hide and Seek, Bet Your Life). A graduate of Oxford she also has received a M. Phil from Trinity College, Dublin. Born and raised in Dublin, she lives in London where she works as an editor.

Find out more about Jane on her Twitter and Facebook.

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Food Inspiration:

There was food to be found in The Killing Kind. Sadly, much of it was tied to people's murders, but there was food. ;-) Mentions included a bowl of cereal, brunch with bottomless mimosas, buying "something strange and exotic to cook for dinner," herbs, "sickly sweet cocktails," lamb ragu with pappardelle, tinned chopped tomatoes, brittle pizza loaded with mozzarella, wine, vegetarian food. steak, rainbow-tinted macarons, almond croissant, kebabs, Diet Coke, goat's cheese and cranberry roulade, scallops, beans on toast, tea and a "vast oozing cream bun", a massive burger, ice cream, snacks and vegetable stir-fry.

For my bookish dish, I was thinking about making a vegetarian ragu with pappardelle or beans on toast but as per usual lately, work and weeknights have me heading home in a tired daze. I was craving pizza and a local neighborhood cafe does pizza from 3:00 PM to Close and I have been wanting to try it out so I ordered one to go. In the book it was "brittle pizza loaded with mozzarella" and I took that to be a thin crust margherita-style pizza which was on the menu however, it was the SMG that I wanted with "Roasted Garlic Cream, Button and Oyster Mushrooms, Spinach, Shredded Mozzarella and Parmesan." 

The crust is on the thinner side but soft and chewy rather than "brittle" and it was delcious as was the garlic cream sauce and mushrooms. This pizza made me happy for a week night dinner and the second half will be dinner tonight!

Since I usually post a recipe, I thought I would give you one for a Garlic Cream Sauce, similar to the one on my cafe pizza. Truth be told, I prefer a white sauce or pesto to tomato sauce on pizza. This sauce is similar to an Alfredo and works equally well on pasta.

 

Garlic Cream Sauce for Pizza or Pasta

By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen 

(Makes about 1 1/4 cups)

2 Tbsp olive oil
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp dried thyme

freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cream or half-and-half (or coconut cream)

 

In a large skillet or pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes until fragrant and slightly softened. (Make sure not to burn it.) Add the flour and oregano, basil and thyme and whisk well, cooking a minute or two until flour starts to turn color. Stir in the cream, whisking constantly. Cook, about 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly until sauce is thick and bubbling.   Let cool slightly and spread on pizza before adding your toppings and baking, or thin it with a little more cream or pasta cooking water and use with your favorite sturdy pasta.

Notes/Results: Sure tomato sauce is healthier and less calories but when you want to indulge, a creamy, garlicky white pizza sauce is the way to go. This one is easy to make and tastes great. As for the pizza, I will definitely be ordering it again--yum!

I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event  being hosted by Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. Here's a link to this week's post. 

Note: A review copy of The Killing Kind was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.    

You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here. 

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "Mrs. Rochester's Ghost" by Lindsay Marcott, Served with a Shrimp Cobb Salad & a Blue Cheese Dressing Recipe

It's almost Friday! I am excited about that and the fact that I am today's TLC Book Tour stop for Mrs. Rochester's Ghost by Lindsay Marcott, a modern retelling of Jane Eyre.  Accompanying my review is a Shrimp Cobb Salad from a nearby restaurant and a recipe for one of my favorite Blue Cheese Salad Dressings.  

Publisher's Blurb:

In a modern and twisty retelling of Jane Eyre, a young woman must question everything she thinks she knows about love, loyalty, and murder.

Jane has lost everything: job, mother, relationship, even her home. A friend calls to offer an unusual deal, a cottage above the crashing surf of Big Sur on the estate of his employer, Evan Rochester. In return, Jane will tutor his teenage daughter. She accepts.

But nothing is quite as it seems at the Rochester estate. Though he’s been accused of murdering his glamorous and troubled wife, Evan Rochester insists she drowned herself. Jane is skeptical, but she still finds herself falling for the brilliant and secretive entrepreneur and growing close to his daughter.

And yet her deepening feelings for Evan can’t disguise dark suspicions aroused when a ghostly presence repeatedly appears in the night’s mist and fog. Jane embarks on an intense search for answers and uncovers evidence that soon puts Evan’s innocence into question. She’s determined to discover what really happened that fateful night, but what will the truth cost her?

Hardcover: 398 Pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (August 1, 2021)

My Review: 

Although Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte does not garner the same level of love and devotion from me as Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Jane Austen do, I have always enjoyed it and have read it four or five times throughout my life. This made me more than happy to jump on the tour for Mrs. Rochester's Wife, the modernization of the classic novel. I love a good retelling--preferably where the author doesn't just pick up the novel and put it in a different time or setting, but rather one that reaches out and gives me another angle to explore. 

Mrs. Rochester's Wife manages to keep the dark gothic vibe of the original, even as it moves the story to the dramatic and rugged coastline of Big Sur. Jane is now the unemployed writer of a gothic television series that was recently canceled--making it impossible to afford her rent. She is also recently an orphan, having lost her mother to cancer, and she also lost her boyfriend and best friend who together, betrayed her when her mother was sick. An old friend calls and talks her into leaving New York for California to take a summer job tutoring a notorious tech mogul's teenage daughter and living in a cottage on a massive coastal estate, she is unsure but low on options. Evan Rochester is darkly handsome, and is thought to have killed his mentally unstable wife Beatrice--although no one has been able to prove it. Jane begins to look for answers and finds herself falling for her employer at the same time.

The story is told both by Jane and in flashbacks of Beatrice Rochester which adds an interesting element, as she is quite mad and these bits are very dark and twisty. I liked how the Thorn Bluffs estate setting was brought to creepy and gothic life and how some of the supporting characters in Bronte's work were reimagined here. I did get annoyed a time or two by Jane and some of her actions, and at how quickly she fell for Evan, despiser her misgivings, his secrets and lies, and some pretty good evidence that at the very least, he may have driven his wife to drown herself. But, I get a bit annoyed at the original Jane Eyre too--so it wasn't a new feeling. For me, overall it worked and I had a hard time putting the last third of the book down. I think someone with an appreciation for the original novel (but who is also open to interpretations of it) will enjoy it and someone less familiar or completely new to the story will appreciate it as a slightly soapy and gothic mystery/thriller. 

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Author Notes: Lindsay Marcott is the author of The Producer’s Daughter and six previous novels written as Lindsay Maracotta. Her books have been translated into eleven languages and adapted for cable. She also wrote for the Emmy-nominated HBO series The Hitchhiker and coproduced a number of films, including Hallmark’s The Hollywood Moms Mystery and the feature Breaking at the Edge. She lives on the coast of California.

You can connect with Lindsay on her website, Twitter or Instagram

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Food Inspiration:

Jane's friend and Rochester's cousin is the chef on the estate and so there was plenty of food and drink to be found in Mrs. Rochester's Ghost. Mentions included, a menu of pear and allium to start, black cod with caviar beurre blanc, chocolate ganache, and cocktails made of lavender and lemonade, caraway cookies, a bottle of Sancerre, tapas, peanuts, cabernet, Frappuccinos, a turkey wrap, margarita, coffee, orange juice, homemade cranberry muffins, honey, gelato, a $27 Cobb salad at a sidewalk cafe, a Manhattan, copping (chunky with fresh seafood and fragrant with anise and oregano), a mascarpone fig tart, Cristal, baby back ribs, cheese, soba noodles, garlic, cherries, mojitos, a turkey and Swiss clubs, tubs of assorted salads, apples, peaches, Argentinian Malbec, liqueur, kirsch, chicken tikka masala, mezcal, venison chili, clove tea and lacy rose water cookies, Dr. Browns Black Cherry Soda, cokes, Wavy Lays, burgers, wilted kale and a pear, kugel and potato knishes, matzo ball soup, egg creams with extra Hershey's, Le gloop (penne pasta glooped together with a bunch of random ingredients from the fridge like leftover steak, sour cream, Greek olives), a tale of eating fried rattlesnake, cantaloupes, pizza, popcorn shrimp, Mac and cheese, candy-colored tropical fruit drinks, breadsticks shrimp in cocktail sauce, crab salad lemonade, Perrier, salmon, chocolate-hazelnut biscotti, an açaí bowl, soft-shell crabs, eggs, Fat Tire beer, sushi, bison burger, sweet potato fries, zinfandel, Vanilla Spice Energy tea, fried food, Grape Nuts with blueberries on top, a salad of arugula, radicchio, and fennel with white sardines and toasted slices of sourdough, pistachios, croissants, strawberry-and-kiwi tonics, champagne, martinis, vegetable curry, carrot cake, ice-cold Stoli, Sweet Chili Doritos, steak, and cranberry-bread toast and vanilla yogurt. 

Set in Big Sur, California, salads seemed to feature heavily-- a crab salad for Beatrice, a Cobb salad Jane purchases on a first day there and various salads that Otis made. I decided on a Cobb salad--mainly because it sounded good for a hot and humid night. It has been a long and busy week, and even though a Cobb Salad is not at all difficult to make, I wanted someone to make it for me so I ordered one from a local restaurant/brewery by my house and ran in and grabbed it. I subbed in shrimp for the chicken and although I asked them to hold the bacon, it came with it. 

But, because you probably come here for a recipe, I am including one of my favorite easy blue cheese dressing recipes, perfect for a Cobb salad. It comes from Ina Garten and I first tried it on her Crunchy Iceberg Salad with Creamy Blue Cheese, here. 

Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing
Slightly Adapted from Ina Garten via BarefootContessa.com
(Serves 4)

For the Dressing:
4 oz Roquefort blue cheese, crumbled
2/3 cup good mayonnaise
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp sherry vinegar

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 

For the dressing, place 4 ounces of blue cheese in a small bowl and microwave for 15 seconds, until it begins to melt. Place the mayonnaise, yogurt, warm blue cheese, sherry vinegar, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until smooth. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use.

Notes/Results: Never underestimate the power of a good Cobb Salad. This totally hit the spot and I didn't complain that they left the bacon on. ;-) I will order it again. 

 

Ina's dressing recipe above is pretty perfect too--just blue cheesy enough without being too overpowering and thick and creamy enough to be a dip or spread. If you love blue cheese, give it a try.

I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event  being hosted by Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. Here's a link to this week's post. 

And of course a delicious salad and dressing has to get linked up here at Kahakai Kitchen for this week's Souper Sundays post, my weekly feature where anyone can share their soup, salad or sandwich recipes. Here's the link to this weeks post. 

Note: A review copy of Mrs. Rochester's Ghost was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.   

 
You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here. 

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "Denied" by Mary Keliikoa, Served with a Recipe for Peanut-Sesame Noodles

Happy Aloha Friday! I love a good mystery and so I am excited to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for Denied: A Kelly Pruett Mystery by Mary Keliikoa. It's the second in a new-ish series so I'll be talking about both books. Accompanying my review is a recipe for Penut-Sesame Noodles, inspired by my reading.

Publisher's Blurb:

A high-risk pregnancy. A dangerous secret. When her case turns deadly, can this investigator avoid racking up a fatal debt?

PI Kelly Pruett’s search to locate a former classmate’s missing father ends in what appears to be a tragic accident. But putting the pieces together that led to that fateful night will require Kelly to play a high risk game of chance with a killer willing to gamble everything to win.

Publisher: Camel Press (May 11, 2021)

Paperback: 226 pages

My Review: I always love a good mystery series and there is a lot to love about this one. As the book tour is for the second book in the series and I *can't* happily read series books out of order, I requested an arc of the first book, Derailed. I like that the books are set in my old stomping ground of Portland, Oregon, in fact Derailed had a Portland spin on a murder when a young woman was killed by a Max Light Rail Train. It sets up Kelly's situation, she is a Private Investigator who took over her father's business when he suffered a stroke and died. She has an 8-year-old daughter. Mitz, who is deaf and a basset hound named Floyd. She also has an ex-husband who cheated on her with her (former) best friend and an ex-mother-in-law who helps with Mitz and gets in Kelly's business a lot. There is a bit of a cozy mystery vibe here in that Kelly's father kept her on the light side of the business--process serving, skip tracing, stakeouts for photos of cheating spouses, and not on any of the grittier cases so she is often out of her element and takes some not-so-wise chances in both books. 

In Denied, an old school friend has been estranged from her father and asks Kelly to find him as she is pregnant and high risk. Kelly thinks he may have gotten involved over his head with a gambling racket and when it turns out he had an unfortunate car "accident," she is convinced there's more to the case. The books are quick reads, tension builds nicely, and there were some twists--some I saw coming, others were more of a surprise. I did have to yell at Kelly a few times in my head for her life choices and decisions, but overall, she is a character that I enjoyed. There's a new love interest for her plus some complications from her ex-husband to explore too. If you like mystery and PI series, a strong female main character, and Portland/Oregon settings, you should enjoy the Kelly Pruett Mysteries. I know I am looking forward to the next book. 

Book 1

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Author Notes: Mary Keliikoa is the author of the Lefty and Agatha award nominated PI Kelly Pruett mystery series and the upcoming Misty Pines mystery series featuring Sheriff Jax Turner slated for release in September 2022. Her short stories have appeared in Woman’s World and in the anthology Peace, Love and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Music of the ‘60s. A Pacific NW native, she spent a part of her life working around lawyers. Combining her love of legal and books, she creates a twisting mystery where justice prevails. When not in Washington, you can find Mary on the beach in Hawaii where she and her husband recharge. But even under the palm trees and blazing sun, she’s plotting her next murder—novel that is.

Find out more about Mary on her website, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

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Food Inspiration:

Other than peanut butter, which is mentioned often, there is not a lot of food in Denied, but there were ribs and salad from the deli, black coffee, toast, cookies, wine, potato chips on a peanut butter sandwich, and spaghetti.

In both books, Kelly is constantly turning to peanut butter--often by the spoonful from the jar--as her comfort food and hunger satisfier. So for my bookish dish, I thought that with just a few more minutes, she could be enjoying her peanut butter with noodles for a more satisfying meal. 

I used Nigella's Sesame Peanut Noodle Sauce recipe for these. Adaptable and nothing fancy--add veggies if you like, but I thought Kelly would be mostly into a big bowl of noodles.

Sesame Peanut Noodle Sauce

Slightly Adapted from Nigella Lawson via FoodNetwork.com

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp garlic infused oil

1 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp sweet chili sauce

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter 

2 Tbsp lime juice

9 oz cooked noodles of choice (I used local fresh ramen)

cilantro, green onion or chives and sesame seeds to garnish

Whisk together all ingredients until smooth. Place cooked noodles in a large bowl and toss with dressing until completely covered. Let chill if desired and enjoy!

Notes/Results: Rich and almost creamy/buttery, when I make peanut butter noodles, I always wonder why I don't make them more often?! They are so easy and so good--especially with the fresh ramen noodles. I kept my noodles very basic but you can easily pump these up with all manner of veggies and add protein too. I just figure Kelly will do the least amount possible to get the peanut butter into her mouth. ;-) You can also up the spice level, although I like the balance of the milder heat in the sweet chili sauce. I will happily make these again. 

I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event  being hosted by Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. Here's a link to last week's post. 

Linking up this Nigella Recipe Adaptation to I Heart Cooking Clubs where the theme is Dress You Up!--sauces and dressings to jazz up your dishes. 

Note: A review copy of Denied was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.   
 
You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here. 

 

The Book Tour Stops Here: A Review of "The North Face of the Heart" by Dolores Redondo, Served with a Deconstructed Shrimp Po' Boy with Remoulade Dressing

Friday's are great days to talk about books and so I am very happy to be today's stop on the TLC Book Tour for The North Face of the Heart by Dolores Redondo. Accompanying my book review is a recipe for a Deconstructed Shrimp Po' Boy with Remoulade Dressing, inspired by the book's New Orleans setting. 

Publisher's Blurb:

Amaia Salazar, a young detective from the north of Spain, has joined a group of trainees at the FBI Academy in Virginia. Haunted by her past and having already tracked down a predator on her own, Amaia is no typical rookie. And this is no ordinary student lecture at Quantico. FBI agent Aloisius Dupree is already well acquainted with Amaia’s skills, her intuition, and her ability to understand evil. He now needs her help in hunting an elusive serial killer dubbed “the Composer,” and in solving another case that’s been following him his whole life.

From New Jersey to Oklahoma to Texas, the Composer’s victims are entire families annihilated in the chaos of natural disasters, their bodies posed with chilling purpose amid the ruins. Dupree and Amaia follow his trail to New Orleans. The clock is ticking. It’s the eve of the worst hurricane in the city’s history. But a troubling call from Amaia’s aunt back home awakens in Amaia the ghosts from her childhood and sends her down a path as dark as that of the coming storm.

Hardcover: 496 Pages

Publisher: Amazon Crossing (June 1, 2021)

My Review:

True crime and thrillers and crime fiction are among my favorite genres. I love a good dark thriller and when you add a serial killer and FBI profilers, it hits all my sweet spots. Still, I was worried when The North Face of the Heart arrived because of the size of the book--at almost 500 pages is a big commitment for me with an insane work schedule and many other books for review, book clubs and buddy reads competing for my attention. Also translated books (this one from Spanish) can sometimes get bogged down in the translation. But this one got under my skin pretty quickly, and I found myself compelled to read it and find out what was going to happen next. 

Amaia Salazar is twenty-five and already an Assistant Inspector in Paloma, Spain who has gained some notoriety for solving a cold case when she is sent to the Quantico with a group of European police officers for training. Her profiling abilities and confidence get her noticed by the senior agent working on a case where a serial killer is targeting and murdering families during storms and natural disasters and has been getting away with it for almost two decades. Soon she is placed on the profiling team and headed for New Orleans and one of the biggest disasters in U.S. history, Hurricane Katrina. The book alternates between 2005 and flashbacks to Amaia's childhood where she suffered some serious trauma that still impacts her as an adult. Although primarily told through Amaia's eyes, we get the POV of other characters, past and present. The pacing was good--you could feel the tension build along with the gale-force winds of Katrina and that made it hard to put the book down. Amaia is a great character and the most fully flushed out in the book--it was easy to root for her. This book is apparently a prequel of sorts to the author's bestselling Spanish Baztán trilogy. (I was happy to find that Netflix made this into a trio of films that I am going to start streaming this weekend). I liked the darkness of the story, the crushing and horrific reality of the people who suffered through Hurricane Katrina (difficult to read but so compelling) and the bits of Spanish and Creole folklore that is woven into it all. It's not a perfect book, the dialogue gets a bit clunky, possibly due to the translation, and some of the characters seem to fall into crime fiction tropes, but overall, I really enjoyed it, it was well-worth my time, and I plan to seek out the author's other books.  

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Author Notes: Dolores Redondo studied law and the culinary arts before writing The Baztán Trilogy, a successful crime series set in the Basque Pyrenees that has sold over 1.5 million copies in Spanish, has been translated into more than thirty-five languages, and was adapted into a popular film series. Twice nominated for the CWA International Dagger Award and a finalist for the Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle, Redondo was the recipient of the 2016 Premio Planeta—one of Spain’s most distinguished literary awards—for her stand-alone thriller All This I Will Give to You, which has also been optioned for feature film and television development and will be translated into eighteen languages.

Connect with Delores on her website, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

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Food Inspiration:

Serial killers and hurricanes don't leave a lot of time for eating but there was food to be found in The north Face of the Heart. Mentions included: chocolate bars and bottled water, oysters Bienville and crawfish, beer, outstanding fig ice cream from a cafe, scrambled eggs and coffee,toast, sandwiches (lots of sandwiches), candy and granola bars, ham and shrimp, jambalaya, cookies and crackers.

I was going to go with a shrimp po' boy-style sandwich for my bookish dish for the sandwiches the characters ate as fuel while working the case and as a nod to New Orleans. Then I decided I was more in the mood for a salad--given the humid weather this week. So, I. decided to take some of the elements of a shrimp po' boy--the spicy shrimp, iceberg lettuce, tomato, and a homemade remoulade and deconstruct them into a salad. Then some leftover red beans and rice found their way into the bowl and a leftover roll got halved and dipped into the shrimps spices and toasted. It's pretty freeform and open to putting in more veggies and what you like and have on hand so I am just giving you the remoulade recipe and how I prepped the shrimp and bread and assembled the salad below. 

Deconstructed Shrimp Po' Boy with Remoulade Dressing

By Deb, Kahakain Kitchen

(Makes 2 Large Salad Bowls)

 

Remoulade Dressing

By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen

(Makes about 1 1/2 Cups)

 

3/4 cup mayonnaise of choice

3/4 cup sour cream

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp mustard (Creole mustard if possible or grainy mustard)

2 Tbsp capers + about 1 tsp juice

2 Tbsp green onions, finely chopped

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1/2 Tbsp dried tarragon

1 tsp Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning or Cajun/Creole seasoning mix of choice

1 Tbsp lemon juice, or more to thin out as needed

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

 

Place all ingredients into a pint jar and place lid on tightly. Shake jar until dressing is well-blended. And additional liquid as needed for thinning (lemon juice, water or milk) to desired consistency. I like it thick and creamy but still pour-able. Place jar in fridge for 1 to 2 hours before using.

 

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Spicy Creole Shrimp:

1lb (16-20 count) shrimp, peeled and deveined

3 Tbsp butter, melted 

2 Tbsp Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning or Cajun/Creole seasoning mix of choice

Melt butter and pour into a large Ziploc bag. Add seasoning mix and shrimp, seal bag securely and shake/move shrimp around until completely coated with spices.

In a large skillet, pour in the shrimp and cook over medium heat for a few minutes on both sides until pink and cooked through. Gently lift out shrimp and set aside, keeping warm until ready to add to salad. If making bread/toast, don't clean the pan and see recipe below.

 

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To Make Creole Toast

Take bread or (split) roll of choice and place slices face-down in the pan, moving them around to ensure they are coated with the butter/spice mixture. If desired, flip bread over and continue moving slices to coat the other side.

Toast bread in pan over medium heat until crispy and golden brown. Flip and repeat on other side if desired. Set aside to serve with salad bowl.

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To Assemble Deconstructed Shrimp Po' Boy:

 

 I used:

 

1 small head iceberg lettuce, coarsely shredded

1  pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1/3 cup chopped green onions

leftover Cajun red beans and rice if desired

Spicy Creole Shrimp

Remoulade Dressing 

Creole Toast to serve

 

Divide ingredients between two large plates or bowls. (Note: I like two add a layer of the dressing on top of my lettuce, then drizzle more on top after I have placed the shrimp.) Enjoy!

Notes/Results:  This salad made me happy--so much good flavor and wonderful textures from the crisp iceberg lettuce to the sweet juicy shrimp and tomatoes and creamy dressing. I'd be happy to eat the remoulade off of a stick--the capers and tarragon, along with the cajun/creole spices make it zippy and devious. I will happily make it again. 

I'm sharing this post with the Weekend Cooking event  being hosted by Marg at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader. It's a weekly event that is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share. Here's a link to this week's post. 

And of course a delicious salad based on a sandwich has to get linked up here at Kahakai Kitchen for this week's Souper Sundays post, my weekly feature where anyone can share their soup, salad or sandwich recipes. Here's the link to this weeks post. 

Note: A review copy of The North Face of the Heart was provided to me by the author and the publisher via TLC Book Tours. I was not compensated for this review and as always, my thoughts and opinions are my own.   
 
You can see the stops for the rest of this TLC Book Tour and what other reviewers thought about the book here.