Commander's Palace Mother's Day Three-Course Shrimp & Grits Dinner for 2

• Ships frozen with ice packs, may thaw in transit
• Upon arrival remove packaging and place in the fridge or freezer (do not freeze the garlic bread)
• Garlic Bread may be kept refrigerated for up to 2 days – do not freeze
• Turtle Soup may be kept refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 6 months
• Gumbo may be kept refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 6 months
• Shrimp & Grits may be kept refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 3 months
• Strawberry shortcake kit may be kept refrigerated for up to 3 days

Garlic Bread

• Preheat your oven to 400*F and turn on the fan or convection setting if available.
• Simply roll back the tin foil on the garlic bread and ensure that all pieces of bread are crust side down and butter side up.
• Create a little space between each piece so the hot air can circulate and crisp the bread’s crust from every angle.
• If you like your bread extra buttery, feel free to add a small dime-sized piece of unsalted butter to the top of each piece of bread before placing it in the oven.
• When the oven is hot, place the garlic bread and the open foil liner in the oven on a baking sheet on the middle rack
• Toast your bread until the corners and the surface are golden brown and the kitchen is fragrant with brown butter, toasted garlic and melty cheese.
  • As a Chef’s tip, this goes pretty quickly and is done within 3-5 minutes.
  • Do not overcook – it will cause the bread to dry out.
• Remove from the oven and serve at once.
• Try to have everyone at the table at the beginning of the meal before the garlic bread goes in the oven. When it’s fresh out of the oven, it’s spectacular, but as it cools it gets hard and not quite as good.
• You can also toast the pieces of bread in smaller batches to ensure that every bite is perfect throughout your special meal (this is what Aunt Dottie likes to do).

Turtle Soup

If Frozen you can leave your turtle soup to defrost in your refrigerator for 2 days and it should be pretty well thawed and ready to reheat by then.

• If it’s still a bit frozen, you have a few options:

Defrost with Cool Tap water and Reheat on Stove

• You can submerge the container in cool tap water and defrost in your sink for a few hours until it’s soft enough to get it out of the container with a spoon and into a small saucepot
• Place the saucepot on the stove over Med-High heat and bring the turtle soup to a rolling boil. Be sure to stir the soup constantly throughout the reheating process so it does not scorch
• Test the temperature of the soup to ensure a temperature of 185*F before consuming
• Pour hot soup into serving dishes, top with a swirl of dry sherry (if you have it) and enjoy!

Defrost and Reheat in a Microwave

• If you’re ready to enjoy it now, simply loosen the lid, but keep it on, and keep the container loosely covered
• Place the soup into the microwave on the defrost setting and follow the instructions on your microwave model for defrosting. *The soup weighs 2 lbs so set your defrost controls accordingly. *During the defrost process, pause the microwave a few times to stir the soup and place back in the microwave to continue defrosting
• Once the soup is defrosted, use a rubber spatula to remove the soup from the container and into a microwave-safe bowl
• Cover the soup with plastic wrap and continue to heat the soup on full power until hot and steaming. About 2-5 minutes depending on your microwave
• Let rest in the microwave for 1 minute to ensure heat is distributed evenly throughout the soup
• Remove from microwave and stir thoroughly
• Test the temperature of the soup to ensure a temperature of 185*F before consuming
• Pour hot soup into serving dishes, top with a swirl of dry sherry (if you have it) and enjoy!

Wild Shrimp & Grits

If you plan on eating within 1-2 days, store shrimp and grits in the refrigerator upon
arrival. This dish is actually quite easy to cook, but you’ll need to make
sure the shrimp and the grits are thawed all the way through first.

Creole Cream Cheese Grits:

• We recommend defrosting in the refrigerator overnight or placing the container under running cool tap water, but if you want to speed up the process, you can defrost in the microwave. The grits weigh about 1lb, so set your microwave defrost controls accordingly. All microwaves are different so watch carefully to not burn the edges and stir often. Whichever method you choose, ensure the grits are fully defrosted before reheating.
• Reheat to an internal temperature of 200*F in the microwave or on the stove in a small saucepan. For the microwave, keep the grits loosely covered with a lid or standard plastic wrap. Reheat on full power in 30 second increments and stir often. If reheating on the stove, place the saucepan over medium heat for about 5 minutes and stir often. Ensure the grits are smooth and creamy all the way through. Whichever reheat method you choose, place the grits back in the microwave to keep them warm while you prepare the shrimp.

Wild Shrimp & Cognac:

• Defrost shrimp fully overnight in the refrigerator or place the container under running cool tap water. Do not defrost in microwave.
• Place a medium, heavy bottom skillet on the stove over Med-High heat for 2 minutes to preheat.
• Remove the pan from the stove away from the heat and add the marinated raw shrimp all at once to avoid flare ups. Return the pan to the stove and sauté the shrimp for 30 seconds on each side or until the shrimp are bright pink in color.
• Optional chef’s tip if you have these ingredients on hand: deglaze the pan at this point with .5oz of Cognac, brandy or whiskey by removing the pan from the burner with the marinated shrimp still inside the pan, add the liquor, toss or stir into the ingredients and return to the burner at Med-High heat. Let the alcohol cook off for about 30 seconds.
• Add the cream sauce all at once to the pan and stir into the shrimp. Swirl the pan over the heat and bring to a simmer. When hot and bubbling in the middle as you swirl, you should be ready to serve.
• When the shrimp are ready, reheat the grits for a final 30 seconds and stir well. This ensures that both the grits and the shrimp are as hot and delicious as possible right before serving.

To Serve:

• Spoon grits into the middle of two warm plates or bowls. Using a large soup spoon, place 5 shrimp on top of each serving of grits followed by the vegetables from the sauce. Lastly, spoon the remaining sauce around the outside edge of the grits for an attractive presentation and spoon any remaining sauce over the top of the shrimp and vegetables before serving.
• Serve while hot and enjoy!

Ponchatoula Strawberry Shortcake Kit

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Bake biscuits for 20 minutes in the containers provided.
• Allow biscuits to cool for a few minutes in the baking container before removing them.
• With a serrated knife, cut each container of biscuits vertically into 2 equal-sized biscuits to give you 4 equal-sized biscuits. Then, cut each biscuit in half horizontally.
• Place the bottom half of the biscuits on four individual serving plates.
• Spoon strawberries with sauce on each bottom half of the biscuits.
• Spoon Chantilly Cream on top of each heap of strawberries.
• Place top biscuit over the Chantilly cream.
• Serve immediately and enjoy!