Nothing gets a good time going quite like a good meal.
And for New Iberia resident Gabrielle Heitman, home cooking is how she makes connections with others.
"Food really brings people together, I love hanging out with my family and friends and every time we get together, cooking just really brings us all together so I like to do that for them," says Heitman.
About three years ago, Gabrielle took her love of food to the social media as a way to share her cooking talents.
She created the Facebook Group "Whatcha' Got Cookin', Good Lookin'?!" and began posting photos of her favorite recipes and most recent stove top tackles. The page soon began to grow with a following of dedicated home chefs.
"I like to share pictures of my food so I thought maybe other people would like to do that as well, so I started the group and it really grew over time," she says. "And everyone can share their recipes their pictures of their food and everyone just comes together and we all have a good time in there."
As the matriarch of this almost 20,000 person group, Heitman knows a thing or two about making a delicious meal. So naturally, she whipped us up a fabulous steak with crab sauce and asparagus.
She begins with a room temperature steak seasoned with salt and pepper.
In a super hot pan, the rib eye steak is seared in olive oil for about six minutes on each side.
While searing, butter, rosemary and thyme are added to the pan for added flavor.
Next, she makes a crab sauce. Here is that recipe:
1 pint lump crab meat
2 tbsp butter
¼ c chicken stock
¼ c heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 squeeze of lemon
2 tbsp garlic chopped
Dash of salt and pepper
After you cook your steak add the butter. Then add the garlic and saute. Add chicken stock and seasoning. Add heavy whipping cream and let saute. Add lemon and crab meat. Cook another 5-10 minutes.
Once complete, the steak and sauce are plated over pan seared asparagus.
It's a marvelous dish, and Heitman proves that you don't have to be professionally trained to make something both beautiful and delicious.
All it takes, is a love of food and flavors.
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If you'd like to be featured as one of the "Best at Home Chef's in Acadiana," Abby Breidenbach is excited to hear from you. Send her a message via Facebook or drop her an email to abby.breidenbach@katctv.com.