Category Archives: Guest Posts

By KRISTI NIX: original source link

Pearland resident Kim Gross enjoyed a childhood rich with the sights, sounds and flavors of New Orleans, a city known for its wonderful food. Much of her time back then was spent in the kitchen watching her father cook Creole seafood. A talented and creative chef, “Big Al” Bach eventually enjoyed a measure of fame for developing the original BBQ shrimp recipe, which made its way into many of the city’s most-renowned restaurants and is now considered a staple in the New Orleans culinary scene.

Over the years, the recipe remained secret and was eventually thought to have been lost when Big Al died several years ago. But, after unexpectedly discovering a hand-written list of ingredients hidden in an old book, Gross was inspired to try and figure out her dad’s recipe on her own.

“I took it home and started playing around with the recipe in my kitchen, trying to re-create the dish just for me,” she said. “I was so familiar with what it was supposed to taste like and what it was supposed to smell like that I was finally able to recreate the recipe perfectly.”

After the recipe became a favorite among her family and friends, Gross went back to the kitchen to try another experiment.

“I started playing with the ingredients to see if I could make the sauce into a concentrate, that way people could fix it any way they want,” she said. “I started putting it in little jars and giving out to my friends, asking them to try it. They all started cooking with it and everyone loved it.”

Gross began to toy with the idea of bringing her passion for New Orleans cooking to the commercial gourmet food market.

“About six months later I got serious about marketing the product. I sent the mixture to Texas A&M and had a food technologist test it to make sure it would be shelf stable,” she said. “I wanted an all-natural product but needed it to be shelf-stable. So, when I got the results I was so pleased when I was told it had enough acidity in it that if we cooked it to a certain temperature and got it into the jar with the lid sealed immediately, it would have a two-year shelf life which is the max you can get on a product.”

As a result, Gross said she was able to create a product that is all-natural. In addition, she made sure the product was gluten free, low sodium and contained no MSG or trans-fat.

“One thing led to another and I started selling the product here and there. A whole foods store in New Orleans picked it up. Then, I worked my way up and found a distributor,” she said. “This past May I was thrilled when we went into H-E-B. It was exciting and very unexpected.”

We asked the homemaker-turned-entrepreneur what makes her product special?

“New Orleans Bar-B-Que shrimp is one of the most popular dishes in the world. The flavors are very unique.” she said. “When people go to New Orleans they seek it out. It is a staple dish there.”

But, since her father’s passing, Gross said the dish has changed as New Orleans chefs have tried to re-create the original recipe.

“Eventually, chefs had to try and duplicate the recipe on their own, not knowing everything that was in it. But, they never could get it exactly right. That’s part of why my dad’s original recipe is special,” she said. “He used the highest quality ingredients and blended together more than 12 seasonings and spices to give the dish a certain flavor that is uniquely New Orleans.”

One of the secrets to re-creating the sauce was focusing on the sauce texture and bringing out authentic Creole flavors, she said.

“The sauce is something that ends up being a thick, rich buttery sauce that you want to dip French bread in. That’s how it got so famous in New Orleans. A lot of people would eat as much bread as they could. That’s the popular part of it,” she said.

Gross and her husband left New Orleans and moved to Pearland when her husband, who works in the oil business, was transferred to Houston several years ago. Since then, she has toyed with the idea of opening a restaurant in Pearland.

But for now, she’s decided to focus on marketing her own gourmet line of products. In fact, she recently branched out and added two additional products: Big Al’s Creole Lemon Cooking Sauce and a Creole Asian Cooking Sauce.

“All three sauces can be used to cook seafood, chicken, beef, pork, pasta, and vegetables,” she said. “Though the original recipe was created for shrimp, the seasoning concentrates can be easily used as a sauce base or rub, seasoning, marinade, dipping sauce, sandwich spread or salad dressing.”

Big Al’s Gourmet Creole Seasoning Concentrates are now available at the Pearland H-E-B location as well as a number of Houston-area H-E-B and Spec’s stores.

For more information and a list of recipe ideas, visit www.bigalsgourmet.com