Tag: louisiana

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Pop Up Shrimp

Cajun French:  bourrer (boor-ā) – stuff

 

“Have you tried pop up shrimp?”  We were asked this question and had no idea what Letti was talking about.  What she meant was dried shrimp and no we had never used them.  We were familiar with the shrimp and knew many Cajuns used them in gumbos; yet we had not tried them.  Never ones to let something go; we purchased a package of dried Louisiana shrimp and put it in the pantry.  Last night that bag of shrimp was staring at us and so it was time to give them a try.  They are different and not like any shrimp we have used before.  In researching we found the dried shrimp are used in oriental cooking especially in soups and stews.  We decided to go Italian with them and stuff pasta shells.  The taste is definitely different and we will probably give them another try in some other cuisine.  The saga continues….

Mais C’est Bon!

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Cajun Caviar

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”

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Sweet and Savory Brussels Sprouts

Cajun French: la confiture aux figues (la kon-fee-tūr ō feeg) – fig preserve

 

Brussels Sprouts are one of those love/hate vegetables. We are on the love side and enjoy them from steamed to cooked in a sauce and everything in between. It is Spring time and in south Louisiana that means strawberries and they were abundant at the Red Stick Farmers Market. Besides fresh strawberries, Spring also means Abita Strawberry Beer, one of their seasonal beers. Home from the market we had Brussels Sprouts and fresh strawberries and in the frig we had Abita Strawberry Beer and fig preserves. Below is the dish that evolved from those ingredients. It is sweet with a hint of savory from Camp Dog Cajun Seasoning.

Mais C’est Bon!

Enjoy!! Continue reading “Sweet and Savory Brussels Sprouts”

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Camp Dog’s in the House

Cajun French: le chien (lu shee-ain) – dog

 

There is a new dog in the house or at least on the pantry shelf – Camp Dog Cajun Seasoning.  Our pantry has a shelf of nothing except Cajun and Creole Seasonings and we use all of them.  Of course, we have our favorites yet are always interested in new versions.  Enter Camp Dog and he hopped right up on the shelf.  We received a can of Camp Dog Cajun Seasoning in the mail and have been trying it on everything from eggs to Brussels Sprouts.

Mais C’est Bon!

Enjoy!!

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Shrimp and Tamale Casserole

Cajun French: la casserole (la kas-rol) – casserole

 

Farmers markets not only offer fresh local items, they also offer local homemade items. Finding fresh homemade vegetarian tamales at the Red Stick Farmers Market made our mouth’s water. We purchased six warm tamales and knew lunch was ready. Very few times we can remember being disappointed with a farmers market purchase, yet the tamales are now on that list. The vegetables tasted like a bag of frozen mixed vegetables that was defrosted and added to the tamales – no taste except the mesa. What to do with the tamales? We are victims of the “starving children in China” generation – eat all your food. Deciding the tamales needed sauce and seasoning, a casserole was in the works blending Cajun with Mexican.

Mais C’est Bon!

Enjoy! Continue reading “Shrimp and Tamale Casserole”

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Simple Combinations – Sweet Potatoes & Zapp’s Potato Chips

Cajun French: la patate douce (la pa-tat doos) – sweet potato

 

Sweet, brings a smile, and then the pepper pops, a larger smile and finally ends with a salty kiss.

Sweet and savory gives all sorts of flavors to your mouth. This recipe does just that. Wanting to use Zapp’s Potato Chips as a topping, just did not know on what. Deciding to bake sweet potatoes we realized Zapp’s would be great with the sweetness of the potatoes. There are so many flavors of Zapp’s that it could be hard to decide which to use. Our decision was easy since we had Cajun Crawtators in the pantry. With Zapp’s the option are limitless, kick imagination in and enjoy!

Mais C’est Bon!

Enjoy!! Continue reading “Simple Combinations – Sweet Potatoes & Zapp’s Potato Chips”

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Stuffed Trumpets

Cajun French: trompette – trumpet

 

What would “swamp pop” music be without trumpets? The horns add a quality that make “swamp pop” a distinctive music. On Saturday night in south Louisiana “swamp pop” music can be found in dance halls and juke joints in most cities and towns.

The oyster mushrooms we purchased at the Red Stick Farmers Market reminded us of trumpets and “swamp pop” music. Wanting to make the mushrooms as distinctive as “swamp pop” we decided to stuff the trumpets. They were served with grilled salmon and grilled asparagus. John said the salmon and asparagus were the accompaniment that the main player was the mushrooms.

Mais C’est Bon!

Enjoy!! Continue reading “Stuffed Trumpets”

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Twisted Shrimp

Cajun French:  l’artichaut (l’ar-tee-shō) – artichoke (globe)

 

Rotini with shrimp = twisted shrimp.

Rotini is pasta we generally use for salads.  In preparing dinner we were looking for penne and pulled out rotini instead.  What the heck, we used rotini and liked the results.  It is always fun to try different pasta shapes especially when the pasta is used in a different way or for a different recipe.  This is not a heavy sauce so the rotini worked great allowing the sauce to flow between the spirals of the pasta.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Shrimp and Beet Greens Wraps

Cajun French: la bétrave (la bāt-rav) – beet

 

The beet greens from the Red Stick Farmers Market were beautiful, almost too pretty to cook. Not a chance. This is one of our dishes that evolved and then un-evolved. It was breakfast time and we were cooking eggs, beet greens and shrimp wraps – sounds good and it was. Only problem, we forgot the eggs. Hunger pains took over with the shrimp mixture smelling so good, we totally forgot we were planning to add scrambled eggs. No problem, the wrap was fantastic without eggs. This is a great any meal dish and quite easy.

Mais C’est Bon!

Enjoy!! Continue reading “Shrimp and Beet Greens Wraps”

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