Category: Entree

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Sixth Day of Christmas – 6 Cypress Knees

Cajun French: le cypre (lu seep) – cypress

 

The Bald Cypress Tree is the official tree of Louisiana. This majestic tree grows in the swamps and wetlands of Louisiana and loses its needles in the fall, giving the tree a “bald” appearance. The tree will grow in any wet area, yet the cypress in the swamps will form knees that grow up from the roots. The knees are thought to help the tree with long term survival – giving stability and aiding in oxygen.

In the Cypress Tree swamps, fishing is great and is a favorite pastime of many Cajuns. To honor this area on the sixth day of Christmas, we grilled catfish.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Fifth Day of Christmas – 5 poule d’eau

Cajun French: la poule d’eau (la pool doo) – water hen (a coot)

 

A poule d’eau is a wild game bird or small duck, a hen of the water. The bird is also known as the American Coot. These small birds are excellent for use in gumbo. No longer eating animal meat, we consider the poule d’eau in that category; we are giving you a recipe from Bayou Blue, LA. Bayou Blue is located in coastal Louisiana known for great hunting, fishing and cooking.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Third Day of Christmas – 3 Stuffed Shrimp

Cajun French: bourrer (boor-ā) – to stuff

 

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me three stuffed shrimp.

Shrimp are a staple in the Cajun diet and we eat them in various ways at least three times a week. Stuffed shrimp is a favorite of ours and our recipe is baked not fried. We do not put any coating on them and use more crab than bread for our stuffing.

Enjoy our Third Day of Christmas recipe.

Mais C’est Bon!

Enjoy!! Continue reading “Third Day of Christmas – 3 Stuffed Shrimp”

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First Day of Christmas – A Crawfish in a Fig Tree

Cajun French: l’arbre (l’arb) – tree

 

 

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me – a crawfish in a fig tree.

In reality we had a crawfish casserole with a fig salad. Figs are a popular fruit in south Louisiana except they are not available fresh at Christmas time. So we used dried figs and reconstituted them. The crawfish were frozen tails we had stored in the freezer. We always try to have frozen crawfish tails available for use and always Louisiana Crawfish Tails.

This is also a great recipe for using those Christmas leftovers. Almost any vegetable could be used as well as leftover rice.

Our gift to you for the First Day of Christmas.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Flounder Cakes with Citrus Sauce

Cajun French: le limon (lu lee-mon) – lemon

 

What to do with leftover baked flounder? Since it was in pieces and not one attractive piece, we decided to make flounder cakes. Two things we did different, we used no egg or bread instead we used rice, mayonnaise and almond butter. The mayonnaise and almond butter gave the cakes a richness. We had citrus sauce leftover from our catfish, so we top the cakes with the sauce and served the cakes on a bed of mixed wilted greens.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Catfish Des Allemands

Cajun French:  le goujon jaune (lu goo-jon jon) – catfish (yellow)

 

Sweet and tender catfish come from the Outlaw Katfish Kompany, Des Allemands, Louisiana and we wanted to keep that flavor.  We decided to bake the catfish and serve it on a Cajun Grain Jasmine Rice dish with a citrus topping made with Plaquemines Parish L’Hoste Navel Oranges and Bocage Honey.  These items were purchased from the Red Stick Farmers Market in Baton Rouge, La.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Green Wraps

Cajun French: le chou (lu shoo) – cabbage

 

This week at the Red Stick Farmers Market, we purchased a bunch of Chinese Cabbage leaves. The leaves were to be used as wraps; we just were not sure for what. Waiting for inspiration we placed the leaves a glass of water adding beauty and freshness to our counter. While preparing Sunday breakfast, the leaves were calling and wraps were beginning. Just wilting the leaves adds a nutty flavor to the wraps.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Mujadarrah

Cajun French: le riz (lu ree) – rice

 

Rice is a staple in Cajun diets. There are many Cajuns who think rice should be served at every meal in some form, mainly rice and gravy. Rice is also important in many other cultures and Mujadarrah, lentils and rice, is one example. There are numerous recipes for this dish and for ours we added cayenne pepper and garlic, the Cajun influence.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Shrimp and Green Chile Cajun Pasta

Cajun French: la soupe (la soop) – soup

 

This is a Mexican sopa seca, “dry soup”, which we have made Cajun. The reason it is called “dry soup” is that the pasta cooks in only the amount of liquid it can absorb. The dish lends itself well to being served as a side without seafood or meat. It is a great pot luck dinner dish.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Thanksgiving Stuffed Flounder

Cajun French: le plie (lu plee) – flounder

 

Thanksgiving will be our first holiday since we became pescatarians. Not having turkey does not bother us, yet we were trying to decide what to prepare that would make a great presentation. We purchased a 2# flounder from the Anna Marie at the Red Stick Farmers Market and it was a beautiful fish. Stuffing the flounder was fun since as usual it was a building process. Once stuffed, we realized this was the perfect Thanksgiving dish. Now we are hoping that Melissa from the Anna Marie will have another beautiful founder for us to stuff for Thanksgiving.

Mais C’est Bon!

Enjoy!! Continue reading “Thanksgiving Stuffed Flounder”

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