Cooking Louisiana  -  Bassman's Oyster Loaf
Oyster Loaf Po Boy

Ingredients:

Two loaves of French bread (slice length-wise and hollow out without tearing the crust. Save the hollowed out bread from one loaf of bread)

One lb. wild rice.
One lb. boiled and peeled small shrimps
One pint of fresh oysters with liquor
One lb. ground chuck
Three cups of chicken broth
Two or three toes of garlic (chop small)
One small yellow onion (chop small)
Slices of provolone cheese
Olive oil, salt, black pepper, Creole seasoning, cayenne, parsley flakes, soy sauce, hot sauce


In a large skillet, begin to brown the chuck in a little olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, parsley flakes, soy sauce, Creole seasoning and cayenne. Add the onion and garlic to sauté'. Stir-in the wild rice. Stir-in the chicken broth and oyster liquor. Add a little more of your seasoning to your taste. Add the shrimps and the bread that you saved from the bread. Fold-in the oysters and simply cook until the rice is done and tender.

When done, cut the heat so the ingredients will cool and settle a bit. In the hollowed-out loaves of bread, place slices of provolone. With a spoon, fill one side of the bread, generously with the stuffing. Dash-on a little Creole seasoning, soy sauce and hot sauce. Close and smash the Po boy (Po Boy eaters know what that means). Wrap tight in foil and bake 300 degrees for about 30 minutes. If you like your poboy a little more crunchy, unwrap the foil to brown the outside.
*You can cook a whole loaf or cut into 6-8 inch servings. I like cooking the whole loaf and when done, cut into about 3 inch servings.

If cooking ahead of time, simply wrap the poboys and save in the ice box. Bake when everybody's hungry.

Just a slight variation... I've made this dish before, by adding roasted diced pecan or slivered almonds while cooking.*

Bassman