Cajun Food Where You Find It
Cajun French: le piment doux (lu pee-mon doo) – Sweet Pepper
T
his morning was one of those mornings where the time got away from us and still no breakfast – so began “Simple Combinations”. We will take 2 or 3 ingredients and make a quick, healthy, pleasing meal. Meals are meant to be enjoyed with family and friends even with our hectic schedules. So this morning we grabbed eggs and a variety of peppers from the refrigerator and began.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: le pain (lu pain) – bread
Breakfast seems to be the meal that can be the most rushed. Simple, easy to prepare dishes are preferred and often contain leftovers. Last night we made “Grandma’s Potato Croquettes” (see prior post) updating the recipe using Salmon and Sweet Potatoes — based on one from John’s grandmother where she used white potatoes and fish flakes. The recipe makes about 12 patties so we had plenty left over.
This morning we decided to build a breakfast tower using the croquettes along with all fresh items from the Redstick Farmers Market (except the grapes and bananas) and it was great! Not only is it easy to prepare and assemble, it makes an elegant presentation. Grandma would be proud.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: la patate douce (la pa-tat doos) – Sweet Potato
Many years ago John‘s grandmother owned a General Store across from the school in Port Allen, LA. This was before school cafeterias and Francis would make hamburgers at lunch for the students. Since most of the students were Cajun Catholics, on Fridays she would make Potato Croquettes using fish flakes. Francis, the below recipe is in your honor, we hope we make you proud. The below recipe has been updated using sweet potatoes and salmon.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: la tomate (la tō-mat) — Tomato
HOT!
It’s summer, it’s New Orleans, it’s HOT!
Hot describes the last few weeks in south Louisiana. Okay so it is nothing out of the ordinary, it is still HOT! Some people may believe Southerns stay in the air conditioning and sip mint juleps – not so. We go out in the heat, dance, eat and enjoy festivals. The weekend of June 11th was the Vieux To Do Festival in New Orleans. Vieux To Do is three festivals in one – Cajun/Zydeco Music, Creole Tomato, and Seafood.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: l’olive (l’ō-leev) – Olive
As the Fourth of July Weekend approaches our thoughts turn to outdoor festivities – eating outside, jumping in a cool pool, watching fireworks.
Most often there is grilling and homemade ice cream but that leaves appetizers that fit the outdoors. We tried multi grain scoops with hummus and a black olive and wow what
an appetizer! It’s quick, easy and travels well.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: le fruit (lu frū-ee) – Fruit
Fr
uit is always among our weekly Farmers Market purchases. Toward the end of the week, we had peaches, plums, and blueberries left and decided to make a dessert tart. Ok, how do we put a Cajun twist on a dessert tart? We decided on Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup as a sweetener along with a sprinkle of raw brown sugar on top. If Meyers Lemons are available substitute 3 thin slices for the lemon juice. Place the lemon slices on top of the fruit.
This tart is an easy quick dessert.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: le récoltier (lu rā-kōl-tee-ā) – Farmer
Having to go to Zachary, LA on Saturday, the first thing we did was look for a Farmers Market in the area. Sure enough, Zachary has a Farmers Market downtown from 8-Noon on Saturdays. The market is two years old and recently moved downtown near City Hall.
Cajun French: l’oeuf (l’uf) – egg
We love kitchen gadgets and have had more than we can count or remember. Since embarking on our RV Lifestyle, our gadget collection has shrunk to the bare essentials. One essential, for us, is an egg ring which we use not only for eggs, but for pancakes and grits cakes. We have been using metal ones and they work well except the metal scratches, not real happy about that. We were in a kitchen store recently looking for a mandoline, another essential for us, and we noticed silicone egg rings. They were a little more expensive than the metal but we decided to give them a try. We use silicone spatulas and would not be without them. We have seen bakeware yet were never really interested in trying it out. That said it seems silicone items would be great for an RV Kitchen, easily stored and can take the bouncing around (for a later post).
Cajun French: la cocombre (la kō-kom) – Cucumber
Pinch My Salt has a great recipe for a Sweet and Spicy Dill Cucumber Salad. The salad was in a recent tweet and it sounded wonderful especially for the hot weather we have been having in south Louisiana. Like all the recipes we make we always look for a way to make it Cajun. For this one we did two things: we changed Rice Vinegar to Louisiana Cane Vinegar and added fresh Louisiana Gulf boiled shrimp. The salad tasted as good as it looked. We think we will keep a container in the fridge all summer.
Thank you Pinch My Salt for this great recipe.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: la chevrette (la shuv-ret) – shrimp
Brocato’s Eat Dat Restaurant in East New Orleans was one of the food vendors at the Vieux To Do Festival in New Orleans in early June and this recipe was inspired by the wrap from their booth. We ate lots of great food, many of our favorites, yet for us this particular dish was number one this year.
Everyone has their favorite Remoulade and Brocato’s may even make their own, for us our Remoulade of choice is Omi’s from Omi’s Gourmet Foods. We do make our own Remoulade yet sometimes it is easy to use a prepared one if it is good and suits the dish. Since this is a quick meal, we chose to use the prepared Remoulade.
Boiled shrimp was our choice since we had some in the refrigerator. Any type of cooked shrimp (boiled, sautéed, bbq, fried, etc.) will work for this dish. This is a quick and easy lunch!
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
