Cajun Food Where You Find It
Cajun French: la patate (la pa-tat) – potato
Potato Salad – picnics, family dinners, comfort food. That’s Potato Salad.
How about potato salad with a twist? Instead of using just white potatoes, include equal amounts of sweet potatoes for a flavor twist. This is a very fresh tasting salad that pops in your mouth.
We had boiled shrimp that we added to the plate and wow what a meal!
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: l’orange (l’ō-ronj) – orange
A small bottle of Sweet Roasted Garlic Balsamic Dressing was hanging out in our pantry. We weren’t sure how we would use the dressing. Flash forward, on the table in our fruit bowl was oranges and avocados while in the fridge we had cooked shrimp, roasted corn and roasted garlic. It was coming together. We decided to build a citrus salad with shrimp.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: la salade (la sal-ad) – salad
Growing up among fields of sugar cane in south Louisiana we are always interested in local products made with sugar cane. Steens, famous for their pure cane syrup, makes cane vinegar from their cane syrup. The vinegar has a light sweet aftertaste and adds a unique flavor to this dressing. This dressing is great with tomato and red onion salad, potato and dill salad, and just about any other salad you prepare.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: la bétrave (la bāt-rav) – beet
The taste of Spring.
There is nothing like the taste of fresh Spring vegetables and Red Stick Farmers Market offers a variety to choose from. We have purchased several beet varieties as well as celery root. The past few weeks we have used the beets and celery root separately so this week we decided to make a salad combining both root vegetables. We wanted the vegetables crunchy but not hard so we parboiled them in seasoned water. Cucumber, though not a root vegetable, was added for a crisp taste. The salad brings Spring to the table.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Root Salad”
Cajun French: l’huile d’olive (l’ū-eel d’ō-leev) – olive oil
Pasta? Yes, please.
Pasta is very versatile and can be a main dish, side dish or snack. This salad fits all three descriptions. The salad is a great lunch during the heat of the summer or an afternoon snack while enjoying the spring breezes. It is also one of the best potluck dishes for a crowd. Anytime, anywhere this is a great dish!
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: la feve (la fev) – pea
Cajun Caviar, Texas Caviar, Poor Man’s Caviar as many names as there are recipes. Ours was born out of necessity – friends called and invited us to dinner that night. We never go anywhere without bringing a dish, what to bring? After searching the pantry we decided on black eye peas with shrimp, then we saw the avocado on the counter and that sounded refreshing. So our version of Cajun Caviar was born.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Cajun Caviar”
Cajun French: la pince (la pains) – claw
Fresh claw crabmeat was one of our purchases at the Red Stick Farmers Market this week. Once home, we knew we had to use some of the crabmeat immediately. The crabmeat is from the Outlaw Katfish Kompany and just like their catfish; the crabmeat is sweet and melts in your mouth. With John’s creativity on overload, a crab dressing was in order. This dressing would be excellent not only on a salad, yet on fish or steak.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Crab Dressing”
Cajun French: le limon (lu lee-mon) – lemon
Remember our beautiful bouquet of carrot tops? We finally finished them off and it has been a great gastronomic adventure. The final dish is a bulgur salad using carrot tops. Most bulgur salads like Tabbouleh use parsley; carrot tops give a completely different flavor. The carrot tops need more liquid compared to using parsley. We have used this salad as a base for stuffed tomatoes, an addition to other salads, in an omelet, or as a side vegetable with meals.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Bulgur Salad”
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!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “First Day of Christmas – A Crawfish in a Fig Tree”
Cajun French: le maïs (lu ma-ee) – corn
There is nothing like a cool salad on a hot summer day on the bayou.
This dish uses some great Cajun flavors to make this unique salad. Just imagine yourself sitting on a dock with feet dangling in the water eating this salad and sipping a glass of crisp white wine.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Continue reading “Bayou Side Shrimp Salad with Cajunville Vinaigrette”
