Tag: cajun

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Eggplant and Grilled Onions

Cajun French:  la breme (la brem) – eggplant

écraser (ā-kra-zā) – mash

The eggplant sitting on the counter was begging to be used.  Not wanting to prepare in the usual way of smothering we put our creative caps on and went to work.  Knowing we were going to serve the eggplant with salmon, we decided on a mash.  Salmon has a very mild flavor so we did not want the eggplant to overpower the salmon.  By using garlic and mint with grilled onions the eggplant was not heavily herbed.  The eggplant taste was predominant and blended well with the rosemary salmon.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Potato Crawfish Galette

Cajun French:  la chadiere en fonte (la shō-dee-air en font) – cast iron pot

 

Crawfish boils are a staple of south Louisiana.  Any given weekend during the Spring and into the Summer, pots are boiling and “mudbugs” are crawling.  Once boiled and eaten, generally there are crawfish remaining.  For us that is part of the boil, leftover boiled crawfish for future dishes.  This past weekend was no different, we had a boil and had boiled crawfish leftover.  In fact we had enough crawfish left to prepare three dishes; one of which was a potato crawfish Galette.  Unfortunately, we did not have potatoes left over so we used new potatoes purchased from the Acadiana Farmers Market in Lafayette (another blog post).  This is an easy dish to prepare, slicing the potatoes is the most time consuming part.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Vegetable Bread Pudding

Cajun French:  le pain (lu pain) – bread

 

 

Flounder Stuffing

Stale bread is bread pudding in waiting.  When bread pudding is mentioned, we think dessert.  Recently our stale bread consisted of wheat, French, lemon rosemary, and olive.  Thinking of the bread combination dessert was not in the vision.  Besides the stale bread, we also had vegetables that were in need of cooking.  What evolved was a vegetable bread pudding that became a side dish, part of a stuffing for flounder and used in an omelet.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Root Salad

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!

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Stuffed Squash Blossoms and Catfish

Cajun French:  le cachat (lu ka-sha) – squash

 

Spring time means squash blossoms!

We get excited when squash blossoms are available at the farmers market.  They are fragile flowers yet so much fun to cook with.  The first ones of the season are always for stuffing.  Unlike most recipes, we do not batter and deep fry; we stuff and pan fry.  Pan frying allows the flavor of the squash and its flower to blossom to its fullest flavor.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Shrimp Pasta 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!

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Crab Caps

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

 

Fresh lump crabmeat is an advantage of living in south Louisiana and we enjoy it whenever we are able.  We purchased a pound of lump crabmeat this past Saturday from the Outlaw Katfish Company at the Red Stick Farmers Market.  Not wanting to freeze the crab we have been enjoying it in various ways.  Also having fresh mushrooms we decided to stuff the mushroom caps and serve them with pasta.  The Zapp’s Potato Chips adds a crunch and kick to the caps.

Mais C’est Bon!

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Veggie Rice

Cajun French:  le riz (lu ree) – rice

 

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.  What to do with that little bit of leftovers; combine them and make a great side dish.  Rice is a staple in Cajun kitchens and at Cajun meals yet sometimes there is just a little rice left, not enough for one serving much less for a family.  When that happens we just see what other vegetables we have and start combining and soon we have Veggie Rice.  This is a quick, easy, and time saving dish.

Mais C’est Bon!

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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!

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