What are some Cajun foods and styles of cooking and/or seasoning? (salt, clove)

[Musikälskaren]

Originally Posted by CheyDee

You never had green (bell) peppers?

I make shrimp Creole fairly often. I posted my recipe here.

I just now saw that you posted a link to your thread with your recipe, which was very nice of you! Thank you very much for sharing your recipe with me! I can't wait to try it!

[Sally_Sparrow]

When I heard the word Cajun, I do think of food, but I also think of language/accents and music (Zydeco, for example). Maybe because I spent a few years near Houston growing up and I was exposed to a lot of people from Louisiana and my mother loved the music and played it all the time. I am not a crawfish fan (or crawdads as they were called when I was a kid) but maybe that's because I used to catch them and bring them to my mom when I was a kid, and she would cook them, and it grossed me out. I have similar issues with shrimp, from when my mother would have parties and I'd help her prep by de-veining shrimp with her. Yuck. There's plenty of Cajun and Creole dishes though that allow me to skip the crawdads and shrimp, thankfully!

I've visited New Orleans a few times and found the food to actually be LESS spicy than what I'd had at places like Popeye's, or pre-packaged stuff from the grocery store (like Zatarain's, etc. ). It was spicy but not overwhelmingly so. My other half, who is decidedly wussy with anything spicy, was able to eat well in New Orleans despite that fact.

[pgm123]

Originally Posted by jim9251

Crawfish boil! Sadly no one here does this, and when I mention it, everyone says EW. I make the best Jambalaya this side of the Continental Divide too, that and some hot water cornbread. Good eats!

I've had that a few times in Miami. I'm not sure if they were New Orleans transplants. One restaurant was owned by a New Orleans transplant. (Actually, a Vietnamese guy who lived in New Orleans). The restaurant offered hot pots and crawfish (and some other things, but why would you order them?).

[debzkidz]

I immediately think of red beans and rice and crawfish boils, oh and kings cakes, even though they are just a Mardi Gras thing. . We lived in Houston for several years where there are a lot of Louisiana transplants, and I fell in love with cajun food and the people. They know how to eat really well and have a great time.

[jasper12]

Fresh vegetables...lots of fat, spices. Paul Prudhomme is Cajun, and one of my favorite chefs. He lost a significant amount of weight, and has adapted many Cajun recipes to be sugar, fat, and salt free.

[CheyDee]

Emeril Lagasse makes a lot of Cajun and Creole dishes, too.

[CheyDee]

Originally Posted by Musikälskaren

I just now saw that you posted a link to your thread with your recipe, which was very nice of you! Thank you very much for sharing your recipe with me! I can't wait to try it!

You're very welcome. Enjoy!

[rural chick]

I love Gumbo and Jambalaya. I always thinks of andouille sausage when I think of Cajan cooking but in the northern part of the country you can't find it.

I make what we think is a really good Gumbo but I use smoked sausage. It took me a long time to come up with this recipe....but it's one we like. Being from the north it's hard to find oysters here except for the holidays (unless you want to pay about $40 for a small container) so I use boiled canned oysters in my gumbo. Here's my recipe in case anyone is interested. It starts with a roux.

Rural Chick's Cajan Gumbo

1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped green onion
3 garlic cloves...minced
1/4 teaspoon celery seeds

3 cans low sodium chicken broth
1 pound small or medium shrimp (can use cooked and frozen)
I can undrained crab or can use the fake sticks if you want (when I use imitation sticks, I use about 1/2 pound and chop then in small pieces)
1 can boiled oysters with juice (or about 8 to 10 oz fresh oysters, juice and all)
8 - 12 oz chopped smoked sausage
2 tablespoon bottled chili sauce
one squirt of sriracha sauce (can be omitted if you desire)
1/2 tsp file powder (can be omitted if you desire)

1 1/2 cups cooked white rice

Mix olive oil and flour and stir over medium heat until the roux is copper colored or at least caramel colored. It will take close to 25- 30 minutes to get it right. After it is darkened, add the next ten ingredients (veggies and spices). Cook for about 5 minutes or until the veggies are beginning to be cooked. Add chicken broth, and cook about 10 minutes, then add the oysters, crab, shrimp and smoked sausage and simmer for about 15 minutes and then add the rice. I let it sit for about 10 minutes to let it blend the flavors and then heat it for about 5 minutes. Add the file right before serving and mix in. If you want more seafood, just add it....sometimes I use two cans of oysters and more shrimp. I have used fish stock for part of the liquid.


Enjoy!!!

[jasper12]

Cajun Corn Maque Choux Recipe | MyRecipes.com

I make this vegetarian...Yum.

[jlawrence01]

If you want to get a good feel for Cajun cooking, watch some Justin Wilson videos on YouTube. His enthusiasm alone make the tapes very entertaining.
justin wilson - Yahoo! Video Search

Another really interesting History Channel show is the Swampsgiving video:
Swamp People — Swampsgiving — History.com Videos

One of my favorite Cajun and Southern Cooking website in the website of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization that is trying to document and preserve the culinary traditions of the southern states. They have a great number of recorded interviews from small boudin makers, restaurant owners and the like. Look under the Tourism tab for many of the oral histories.
SFA | Tourism | What is Culinary Tourism

I hope that helps.