Sautéed Shishito Peppers with Shrimp and Ground Cherries

Cajun French: la merise (la m’reez) – cherry

 

Rice Shrimp Peppers CherriesShopping at farmers markets while we travel brings new and different products to our table. One such find was shishito peppers. The pepper is an East Asian variety and makes great finger food. We decided to add them to our Shrimp and ground cherries to give a sweet/hot taste. There were a few leftover so we cut off the stems, chopped them and added to eggs for an excellent scramble.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Eggplant Seafood Casserole

Cajun French:  la breme (la brem) – eggplant

 

PlatedEggplant is a vegetable we enjoy using in various ways.  Not sure how we wanted to use the one we purchased at the farmers market, so we started brainstorming.  What else had we purchased or had on hand that we could incorporate?  After some discussion, we decided on a casserole using seafood – shrimp and crab.  The fresh peppers were abundant this week and we had a variety so in they went.  The mayonnaise was used not only as a binding but also for flavor enhancement.  Although the recipe is easy, the results are a casserole with a richness to be enjoyed.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Rice with Broccoli Flowers

Cajun French:  la fleur (la flur) – flower

 

FlowersSaturday morning was stormy which meant the Red Stick Farmers Market would be held in the Galvez Parking Garage.  It also meant there would be fewer farmers at the market due to the weather.  Upon arriving, as we thought there were fewer farmers yet the farmers that were there had an abundance of Spring vegetables.  There was an array of color – yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes and much more including broccoli flowers.  We enjoy cooking with flowers and had never used broccoli flowers so of course they had to go in our market basket.  We took half the flowers and decided to cook them with rice.  The flowers are delicate and add sweetness to the rice.  We served the rice with our Mustard Tarragon rubbed Catfish.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Veggie Rice

Cajun French:  le riz (lu ree) – rice

 

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.  What to do with that little bit of leftovers; combine them and make a great side dish.  Rice is a staple in Cajun kitchens and at Cajun meals yet sometimes there is just a little rice left, not enough for one serving much less for a family.  When that happens we just see what other vegetables we have and start combining and soon we have Veggie Rice.  This is a quick, easy, and time saving dish.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Tenth Day of Christmas – 10 pirogue paddles

Cajun French: le riz (lu ree) – rice

 

A pirogue is a small flat bottomed boat originally made of Louisiana cypress. The pirogue is designed to move through the very shallow water of the Louisiana marshes. It can also easily be turned over to drain any water that gets in the boat. We have seen pirogues that were carved from a single cypress tree, meaning no seams. Many Cajun cooks have “pirogue paddles” to use when cooking, for stirring the pot. On the tenth day of Christmas we are going to stir up a Shrimp Creole Casserole.

John, like many Cajuns, are known to “stir the pot” having no connection to cooking. It means they like to get things going, pit one against another in fun.

Mais C’est Bon!

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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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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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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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Bay Breeze Shrimp

Cajun French:  le vent (lu von) – wind

 

We saw a recipe where the shrimp were peeled and deveined with the head and tail remaining.  Sounded interesting so we decided to give it a try.  Laurie is the shrimp peeler so she began.  It is not difficult just time consuming, thankfully we only had a dozen to “peel”.  There are two advantages to shrimp peeled in this manner; plates beautifully and eats easily.

This dish reminds us of lazy days enjoying meals on the dock with gentle cooling breezes.

Mais C’est Bon!

Enjoy!!

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