Cajun Food Where You Find It
Cajun French: la crabe (la krab) – crab
Des Allemandes Outlaw Katfish Kompany sells stuffed crabs, along with live crabs, soft shell crabs, and catfish, at the Red Stick Farmers Market. We enjoy making crab cakes yet when the Outlaw Katfish Kompany’s stuffed crabs are available we opt for them. Each stuffed crab is loaded with crab, seasoning and just the right amount of bread. We headed home with our usual four stuffed crabs and decided to jazz them up.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: la cibleme (la see-blem) – patty pan squash
A 2# white patty pan squash, from Robinson Organic Farm, reached out to us at the Red Stick Farmers Market this week. It was a beauty and a hallowed out bowl was calling. Laurie’s thoughts went to an etoufee stuffing while John’s thoughts went to a more summertime dish – a salad in the hallowed out squash. John won. Below is the dish’s progression as we built the salad and presentation.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
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!!
Cajun French: l’écrevisse (l’ā-krū-vees) – crawfish
An etouffee is a spicy Cajun stew made from a roux and is soooo good!
The word Etouffee comes from the French word etouffer which means to smother.
Having a pound of Louisiana crawfish and not having made etouffee in a while, we decided to make a homemade roux and etouffee. An etouffee is served over rice and we use a Cajun jasmine rice.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: la crabe (la krab) – crab
Lunch time with simple combinations.
There is nothing better than fresh lump crabmeat and fresh tomatoes. Having both in the refrigerator, we decided on a Remoulade salad for lunch. The salad was refreshing on a hot summer day. All ingredients were chilled, crisp and full of flavor.
The salad became another simple combination.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Continue reading “Simple Combinations – Crabmeat and Tomato Salad”
Cajun French: la breme (la brem) – eggplant
Smothering eggplant with onions and tomatoes is the usual way we prepare eggplant. Today we wanted something different and a sandwich sounded good. Roasting the eggplant gave it crunch, adding capers and pine nuts gave depth.
This sandwich builds and each layer add a depth of flavor.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: la patate douce (la pa-tat doos) – Sweet Potato
Many years ago John‘s grandmother owned a General Store across from the school in Port Allen, LA. This was before school cafeterias and Francis would make hamburgers at lunch for the students. Since most of the students were Cajun Catholics, on Fridays she would make Potato Croquettes using fish flakes. Francis, the below recipe is in your honor, we hope we make you proud. The below recipe has been updated using sweet potatoes and salmon.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: la cocombre (la kō-kom) – Cucumber
Pinch My Salt has a great recipe for a Sweet and Spicy Dill Cucumber Salad. The salad was in a recent tweet and it sounded wonderful especially for the hot weather we have been having in south Louisiana. Like all the recipes we make we always look for a way to make it Cajun. For this one we did two things: we changed Rice Vinegar to Louisiana Cane Vinegar and added fresh Louisiana Gulf boiled shrimp. The salad tasted as good as it looked. We think we will keep a container in the fridge all summer.
Thank you Pinch My Salt for this great recipe.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: la chevrette (la shuv-ret) – shrimp
Brocato’s Eat Dat Restaurant in East New Orleans was one of the food vendors at the Vieux To Do Festival in New Orleans in early June and this recipe was inspired by the wrap from their booth. We ate lots of great food, many of our favorites, yet for us this particular dish was number one this year.
Everyone has their favorite Remoulade and Brocato’s may even make their own, for us our Remoulade of choice is Omi’s from Omi’s Gourmet Foods. We do make our own Remoulade yet sometimes it is easy to use a prepared one if it is good and suits the dish. Since this is a quick meal, we chose to use the prepared Remoulade.
Boiled shrimp was our choice since we had some in the refrigerator. Any type of cooked shrimp (boiled, sautéed, bbq, fried, etc.) will work for this dish. This is a quick and easy lunch!
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cracked wheat is high in fiber and health benefits and great for any diet.
Always being on the lookout for new items or new ways to use various ingredients, cracked wheat came to mind for our bean burgers. Although this is not a new way to use cracked wheat, for us it is new. The cracked wheat gave the burgers a nutty crunchy taste and we liked it. The dish has firmness and weight, definitely is filling.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
