Preparing healthy, tasty meals fuels Second Harvest’s mission

(Note: See below for recipes from Executive Chef Matthew Taylor, Second Harvest Food Bank Community Kitchen.)

By Peter Finney
Clarion Herald

On the long, steel table in the production kitchen at Second Harvest Food Bank in Elmwood, more than a dozen volunteers, some from Brother Martin High School, used their newly found knife skills to turn a mountain of fresh okra into, well, several mountains of “bite-sized” fresh okra.

The smaller pieces, placed in a large plastic tub, would be used the next day to create stewed okra with tomatoes and green peppers for distribution to low-income seniors, spread out geographically from Lakeview to Lake Charles, who are in need of a nutritious meal, said Natalie Jayroe, executive director of Second Harvest.

Incredible volunteers
“The volunteers come from all over,” Jayroe said. “Some are students, some are retired professionals. We have one faithful woman who comes every day by taking the public service bus from New Orleans.”

“I actually saw her one day walking up the street to get here,” said executive chef Matthew Taylor. “She’s really committed.”

Jayroe, a military brat, spent some of her childhood in England and loves to cook, but her day job requires her to oversee a military-style operation responsible for pushing out food and prepared meals to needy individuals and families in 23 parishes of southeast Louisiana.

A bland food upbringing
“I went to school in England, and, in those days, you never ate English food – you always bought Chinese or Indian food,” Jayroe said, laughing. “So, I love a variety of things. But, when we had a houseful of people for Mardi Gras, we had to do barbecued shrimp and grillades and grits.”

In matters of taste and seafood during Lent, she mostly defers to Taylor, who spent many years as a chef at a high-end hotel in New Orleans before joining Second Harvest in 2021.

“It’s so rewarding to be here,” Taylor said. “I was in the hotel realm, and there it’s all about dollars. When I got the opportunity to come to Second Harvest and know that I was helping people, it was definitely more fulfilling for my career.”

Taylor says the biggest difference between cooking for a few people and for hundreds is making sure there is “a consistent, good flavor with the whole batch. There’s a difference between trying to get out 600-700 meals versus cooking for only one person.”

Kitchen capacity grows
Jayroe said the newly renovated Second Harvest headquarters and kitchen are designed with the capacity to produce 2 million meals a year (if three shifts are running). Second Harvest cranked out 1 million meals during the pandemic and is now doing about a half-million meals.

“One of the things that’s very important to us is that this food tastes good,” Jayroe said. “It’s going to children and to seniors, so we have to be really careful with both groups about the nutritional value of what’s in the meal. Chef Taylor has done a magnificent job making really good-tasting meals. It’s nutritious, and as you can see with the okra, culturally appropriate. The other thing is this is donated okra, so it might otherwise be going to waste.

“Less than 1% of our agricultural land in Louisiana is used for produce like this. 

Almost all of it is commodity crops because farmers can’t make a living growing this. But we can grow anything in Louisiana, and the farmers that do this are often very small farmers where they’re just holding on because they love the land.”

The win-win solution is that Second Harvest uses some of its funds to buy fresh produce from about two dozen farmers in Opelousas, Houma, St. Landry Parish and the southern coast.

“We’re trying to help them build up their business,” Jayroe said. “Very often they are disadvantaged farmers.”

When school is out, the Second Harvest chefs will get to work at 5:30 a.m. to create breakfast and lunch meals for children in summer camps.

Masterful gumbo
Jayroe vouches for Taylor’s vegetarian gumbo – “it’s the best gumbo in the world.”

“I’m going to let you in on a secret,” Taylor said. “This is in all my cooking: Love. If you put passion and love into what you do, that’s the secret ingredient. It’s just making a nice, rich roux and using fresh ingredients. Coming to a food bank, the expectation is that we use processed food, but we’ve got all fresh ingredients. We cut our okra, our onions and  our tomatoes. There’s a depth of flavor.”

The inspiration for Taylor’s seafood beignets grew naturally out of his New Orleans heritage. The seafood beignets will be a featured appetizer when Second Harvest hosts the Feeding America Annual Conference April 18-20.

“When the conference attendees come to tour here, we’re going to give them some of these seafood beignets because it’s something really quick,” Jayroe said.

“It’s more of a savory dish with a nice, white remoulade dipping sauce,” Taylor said.

Creole Redfish Courtbouillon is one of Taylor’s signature recipes.

“I’m able to develop depth of flavor without having to cook it for a long time,” the chef said.

A helping hand
Taylor loves to reflect on the importance of the people he is now cooking for.

“Me, growing up in a single-parent home, there were so many times we needed help from a personal standpoint,” Taylor said. “I learned to cook at an early age so my mother could be at work. Our mission here is to be able to help those parents and take some of the pressure off the family.”

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Creole Redfish Courtbouillon

Ingredients
4 cups fish stock
1½ cups onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 green and red bell peppers, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (16-ounce can) tomato sauce
2 cups diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
¼ teaspoon Creole/Cajun seasoning
½ teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
3 pounds redfish, red snapper cleaned
Add salt and pepper, to taste
Green onion, to garnish
Hot, steamed rice

Directions
Warm the fish stock and set aside. In a large pot, add the onion, celery and bell pepper and cook for about 3-4 minutes or until the vegetables have softened. Add the garlic and cook another minute.

Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes to the veggies. stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes. Stir in the warmed fish stock, add the salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about one hour, or until nicely reduced and thickened. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Add the fish (and other seafood if using) to the top of the sauce, sprinkle in additional salt and pepper to taste, cover and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until fish is poached and cooked through. Don’t stir!

Once the fish is poached, carefully ladle the courtbouillon into a deep soup bowl, over steaming rice.

Vegetarian Gumbo

Ingredients
For the Roux:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup vegetable oil

For the Gumbo:

1 bunch diced celery
1 diced green bell pepper
1 medium diced tomato
1 diced large yellow onion
2 cups diced red bell pepper
2-3 cloves garlic
8 cremini mushrooms quartered
1½ cups diced zucchini (1 medium)
1½ bunch green onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 bunch fresh chopped parsley, finely chopped
1-2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning *
6-8 cups vegetable broth *
 

Directions
Place vegetable oil and flour in a Dutch oven with a heavy bottom. Turn the heat on medium and whisk continuously until the mixture becomes fragrant. This should take about 5 minutes.

Turn the heat to low or medium-low depending on the size and heat your burner gives off. Continue to whisk continuously (it’s all right to stop for a few seconds here and there, but not for any length of time) until the roux becomes a dark caramel color. This could take 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove the Dutch oven from the heat. Sauté all the vegetables until soft, and set aside.

Place Dutch oven with roux over medium-high heat and add vegetables  to stock and stir. Bring to a simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serve with rice and green onions.

Gulf Seafood Beignets

Ingredients
6 ounces shrimp (cooked and rough chopped)
6 ounces  crawfish (rough chopped)
6 ounces jumbo lump crab (picked through)
6 eggs
1½ cups milk
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
6 ounces diced green bell pepper
6 ounces diced green onion
4½ cups white flour
3 tablespoons Creole seasoning
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1½ tablespoons cayenne
3 teaspoons garlic powder
3 teaspoons onion powder
6  teaspoons baking powder

Directions
In a large bowl, mix flour, seasonings and baking powder.  In a separate bowl, mix eggs, milk and garlic. Mix together with seafood.Place 4-ounce scoops of the batter (to order)directly into 375-degree fryer. Cook for six minutes. Serve with white remoulade sauce.

Grilled Shrimp Tacos

Ingredients
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined 
8 tortilla (flour variety)  4.5"             
2 cups cabbage, Green Shredded 
1 cup Pico de Gallo                       
6 tbsp cilantro-lime crema                   
3 oz salsa                     
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon chili powder 
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 handful fresh cilantro, for garnish
2 limes, cut into wedges, for serving

Directions
Preheat a grill to medium-high direct heat (375 to 400 degrees).

Peel shrimp (if it’s in the shell). In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with the olive oil, cumin, garlic powder, chili powder and kosher salt. 

Shred the cabbage and sprinkle it with lime juice and a bit of kosher salt. 

Warm tortillas on grill for 10 seconds per side. Then grill the shrimp for 4 minutes per side, until bright pink and cooked through.

To serve, place the coleslaw into a tortilla and top with grilled shrimp and the Pico de Gallo, and top with torn cilantro leaves and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.