Cajun Food Where You Find It
Cajun French: la céleri (la sel-ree) – celery
Calorie overload during Mardi Gras – yes that was us. So, we were ready for some down home cooking. What better than Shrimp Etouffee – simple, easy, good Cajun cooking. We even made it easier by using dry roux. That is not always our method, but Mardi Gras wore us out; we needed easy.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: le piment fort (lu pee-mon for) – pepper (hot)
What do you do with left over beans and rice? Bean Patties.
What do you do with left over bean patties? Eggs Beanedict.
If you are like us, there always seems to be beans and rice left even after eating leftovers. Trying to come up with a way to use the beans and rice in a creative manner, we decided on bean patties. They had a great flavor and we served them with grilled salmon. Ok, now we had two bean patties leftover. Thinking breakfast we decided to top them with fried eggs and one thing led to another. Eggs Beanedict was born and enjoyed.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: la chevrette (la shuv-ret) – shrimp
Pasta is a staple in our pantry and we are always looking for ways to make a pasta dish interesting. What was to be just another tomato sauce and pasta evolved into a dish with depth of flavor. There was fresh corn in the refrigerator so that went in. Laurie had Kipper Snacks for lunch and one was left, so it was mashed and into the sauce it went along with red wine. The sauce is full of flavor with a depth of richness.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Shrimp Pasta”
Cajun French: le riz (lu ree) – rice
Leftover beans and rice – what to do? We were looking for something other than just beans and rice. Think Mujadarrah with a Cajun twist. Instead of lentils, we have Colorado River Beans and rice cooked with arugula.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: le grue (lu grū) – grits
Warm sweet potato right from the oven – what could be more Southern than that? Add grits and shrimp and your taste buds will be doing the Cajun Two Step.
Shrimp was on the menu for dinner and sweet potatoes were coming out of the oven; the fragrant aroma triggered the flow of creative juices. So began the journey that would be sweet potato grits with shrimp. Wanting to make it Cajun not just Southern, we added Tasso to the grits which gave it a pronounced smoky flavor.
We hope you have as much fun with this dish as we did…..
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: la chadiere en fonte (la shō-dee-air en font) – cast iron pot
Crawfish boils are a staple of south Louisiana. Any given weekend during the Spring and into the Summer, pots are boiling and “mudbugs” are crawling. Once boiled and eaten, generally there are crawfish remaining. For us that is part of the boil, leftover boiled crawfish for future dishes. This past weekend was no different, we had a boil and had boiled crawfish leftover. In fact we had enough crawfish left to prepare three dishes; one of which was a potato crawfish Galette. Unfortunately, we did not have potatoes left over so we used new potatoes purchased from the Acadiana Farmers Market in Lafayette (another blog post). This is an easy dish to prepare, slicing the potatoes is the most time consuming part.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: l’artichaut (l’ar-tee-shō) – artichoke (globe)
Rotini with shrimp = twisted shrimp.
Rotini is pasta we generally use for salads. In preparing dinner we were looking for penne and pulled out rotini instead. What the heck, we used rotini and liked the results. It is always fun to try different pasta shapes especially when the pasta is used in a different way or for a different recipe. This is not a heavy sauce so the rotini worked great allowing the sauce to flow between the spirals of the pasta.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: la bétrave (la bāt-rav) – beet
The beet greens from the Red Stick Farmers Market were beautiful, almost too pretty to cook. Not a chance. This is one of our dishes that evolved and then un-evolved. It was breakfast time and we were cooking eggs, beet greens and shrimp wraps – sounds good and it was. Only problem, we forgot the eggs. Hunger pains took over with the shrimp mixture smelling so good, we totally forgot we were planning to add scrambled eggs. No problem, the wrap was fantastic without eggs. This is a great any meal dish and quite easy.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: l’omlette d’oeuf (l’om-let d’uf) – egg omelet
There is nothing like fresh crabmeat from a farmers market. We are lucky to have a weekly vendor, Outlaw Katfish Kompany, selling fresh crabs, crabmeat, and wild caught catfish. The taste is beyond description except to say all of these products melt in your mouth and have a sweetness to the taste. This past Saturday we purchase a pound of fresh claw crabmeat. Not wanting to freeze it, we have been using the crab in various ways. This morning was crab and eggs and this simple dish was breakfast stepped up a notch.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Crab Omelet”
Cajun French: Louisiane (Loo-ee-zee-on) – Louisiana
Valentine’s Day Dinner
Romantically speaking, oysters say it all. Combine fresh Louisiana oysters with fresh Louisiana shrimp and crab and romance is in the air. We paired this trio with a stuffed portabella mushroom that will leave your taste buds sizzling. Light candles, chill your favorite wine, grab your honey and you will have a night in paradise.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Louisiana Seafood Crowning Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms”
