Cajun Food Where You Find It
Cajun French: la pacane (la pa-kan) – pecan
Leftovers.
What does it mean to you? Some people we know will not touch leftovers; others make extra just to have leftovers. For us, leftovers are the beginning of another meal. Today we had a baked sweet potato, rice, and corn – what to do? There was also fresh shrimp. Creativity started and we ended with stuffed shrimp.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Sweet Potato Stuffed Shrimp with Pecans”
Cajun French: déjeuner (dā-ju-nā) – breakfast
The smell of boiling crawfish permeates the air during Spring in south Louisiana. It is rare that we eat all the crawfish we boil. I think we intentionally boil more than needed so we have leftovers for use later. So it was Friday, we ended up with a few crawfish tails left. The tails along with an ear of corn and three potato halves would make a great omelet filling.
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 prune (la prūn) – plum
Most of our recipes are made from “starch”, but sometimes we have prepared items that must be used. We do not like to throw out anything including prepared foods. In walks Pesto and we must use it somehow, somewhere, in something, etc. The pesto had already been used on pizza, but we still had half a bottle left. Shrimp was on the menu and the pesto became a marinade. The blending of flavors became a simple supper of shrimp with fresh plum and avocado. This is a great summer evening meal!
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Pesto Shrimp”
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: le sel (lu sel) – salt
Brining has become very popular for meats and poultry. Since neither is on our menu, we decided to try brining fish and WOW! This brine is easy, simple and oh so good. We have used it for catfish as well as salmon and smoked the fish with excellent results. When smoking, we used apple wood which added an extra sweetness.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Fish Brining”
Cajun French: le jardinage (lu jar-deen-aj) – vegetables
Pizza has the reputation of high fat, high calorie food. Because of this pizza is something we enjoy yet rarely indulge in. We had a whole wheat pizza crust and were trying to decide what to do with it. Grilling is a favorite way of cooking for us and so Grilled Pizza was on the menu. Not only grill the pizza but also grill the vegetables that would go on the pizza. This process is a labor of love and does take some time, yet the end product is worth every minute of preparation and cooking. We took what would have been high fat and calorie and made it healthy.
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: l’écrevisse bouilli (l’ā-krū-vees boo-ee) – boiled crawfish
Crawfish boils bring family and friends together to enjoy the bounty of south Louisiana. Every Cajun family has their own “special” boiling recipe and most are willing to share to prove it’s the best! Besides the enjoyment of the boil itself, one of the best parts is the left over crawfish. Most families plan their boils so there is crawfish left to incorporate in other dishes. Our Saturday afternoon boil was no different and we had crawfish to make our Crawfish Boil Fritter. This is a sweet savory dish and makes a great start to any meal.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: le cachat (lu ka-sha) – squash
While traveling we see many varieties of fruits and vegetables not available in Louisiana. One such was the Delicata Squash we purchased at the North Platte, NE farmers market. As we normally do with most of our fresh vegetables, the Delicata Squash was grilled using olive oil and salt. We enjoyed it, were glad to have tasted it and added a new vegetable to our food regimen.
What do we see at the Red Stick Farmers Market in Baton Rouge, LA this week but a Delicata Squash – what a surprise. The farmer called it Sweet Potato Squash; no matter the name we had to have it. This time we decided to roast it with fresh sweet red peppers, onions and leeks. We gave the dish a Louisiana spin by using Steen’s Cane Syrup and Creole Mustard.
Interested to know why it was called Sweet Potato Squash, research ensued. We found the name came from the pulp tasting somewhat like a sweet potato. Also the rind is edible which gives another dimension to the squash. While researching we came across an article by “What’s Cooking America”, stating that the Delicata Squash was first introduced in New York City in 1894 and was popular through the 1920’s. Once vegetables began being transported from one area to the other, the Delicata became unavailable due to its thinner more tender skin which was not suited for transportation and storage.
Now with the popularity of farmers markets, vegetables like the Delicata Squash are available and enjoyed once again.
Mais C’est Bon!
