Cajun Food Where You Find It
Cajun French: la chaudière (la shō-dee-air) – cooking pot
Saturday weather was not getting any better as we headed north to Elton, LA. It was still cold, windy, and dreary – not the type of day to head out to a festival, but we were on our way. Continue reading “Coushatta Farmers Market, Elton, LA”
Cajun French: la patate (la pa-tat) – potato
Ms. Francis’ store was across the street from the local school. Since this was before the time of school lunches, she would sell hamburgers to the school children for lunch. On Friday’s, since this was a predominantly Cajun Catholic community, she would make potato patties instead of meat patties. Both of her burgers are still talked about and remembered by people today. Francis was John’s grandmother and while this is not her exact recipe, we wanted to honor her memory and the memories she left with us. Frances would use fish flakes and boiled potatoes to make her patties. We stepped it up a notch and used salmon and potato flakes.
Frances has been the inspiration for many of our dishes. In fact, we posted a potato croquette recipe a couple of years ago based on her recipe. At that time we used sweet potatoes. This one is closer to her original recipe.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: le “truck” (lu “truck”) – truck
Saturdays usually mean shopping at a farmers market and breakfast out. This has become a tradition of ours no matter where we may be located. This Saturday we were in Breaux Bridge, LA and knew the Lafayette markets well, having shopped them many times. There are three farmers markets in Lafayette which is interesting for a city of its size and the markets are close together. Continue reading “Day of Surprises – Truck Stop Eating”
Cajun French: le goût (lu goo) – taste
Joie de Vivre – the joy of living or in this case the joy of coffee.
We have been to Joie de Vivre many times over the last few years. The enjoyment of coffee and pastries to dancing on a Thursday night have made many memorable occasions. Continue reading “Joie de Vivre Coffee and Culture Café – Breaux Bridge, LA”
Cajun French: le récoltier (lu rā-kōl-tee-ā) – farmer
We’ll admit it – we are addicted. Everyone is addicted to something and we are no different. Every Saturday morning, our adrenaline starts pumping and we begin planning for our adventure. The excitement is even more if we are in a new location. Off we go headed to the local farmers market and our fix for the week. Continue reading “A New Pavilion, A Great Market”
Cajun French: le pain d’maïs (lu pain d’ma-ee) – cornbread
Black-eyed peas are a must in our home on New Year’s Day. It is one of those traditions and it must be carried on. We have been known to bring dishes with us as we travel and heat them in a hotel room – just so we carry on tradition.
This year, 2015, we decided to break from tradition. No, we still cooked black-eyed peas; we just did it a little differently. We cooked our black-eyed peas and cornbread together as a layered bake.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Black-eyed Peas and Cornbread Bake”
Cajun French: la patate douce (la pa-tat doos) – sweet potato
Google had assured us that we could find fresh local bread at Southern Sweet Potato Pie Company. We were not sure we really believed Google but the name was inviting and we were interested. The non-descript building set back off Lapalco Boulevard was nothing special yet walking in all our senses were on alert, the cases were full of sweet pies, cakes and cookies of all shapes, sizes and colors. But no bread could be found. Continue reading “Southern Sweet Potato Pie Company – Marrero, LA”
Cajun French: le matin (lu ma-tain) – morning
Start with melt in your mouth French bread from Champagne’s Bakery in the heart of Acadiana (Breaux Bridge). Next add a link of crawfish boudin from Poche’s Meat Market in Breaux Bridge, LA, with one crawfish tail in the entire length (we were trying to rescue the boudin). Next we added eggs (after all it was morning) and boiled shrimp and breakfast was served.
Mais C’est Bon!
With an early morning marathon of four farmers markets, our new personal best, we turned to our immediate food need – breakfast. We were famished! After asking a few locals we decided on Dwyers’s Café in downtown Lafayette, LA. Continue reading “Dwyer’s Cafe – Lafayette, LA”
Cajun French: l’ail (l’a-ee) – garlic
Fresh poboy bread, pork boudin, and red beans; all leftovers – what to do with them? The boudin needed some help since it was not well seasoned and the red beans were very well seasoned. The bread from Champagne Bakery in Breaux Bridge, LA was begging to be eaten and so the Cajun Creole Poboy was built. Add Cajun seasoning and garlic and dinner is served…
Mais C’est Bon!
