Cajun Food Where You Find It
Cajun French: le jardinage (lu jar-deen-aj) – vegetables
Having grilled shrimp and sweet potato fingerlings left over, our creativity kicked in for breakfast. Individual grilled shrimp omelets adding mushrooms, peppers, garlic, and onions sounded good. Out came the Griddler and we started chopping.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: le vinaigre (lu veen-eg) – vinegar
This is a simple and quick grilling recipe that is full of flavor. The balsamic vinegar adds sweetness to the shrimp and complements the sweet potatoes. We eat plenty shrimp and are always looking for new ways to cook shrimp. Although grilling is not new, the addition of balsamic vinegar is a new twist in preparation.
The sweet potato fingerlings were a find at the Junction City, KS Farmers Market. We have used potato fingerlings yet had never seen sweet potato fingerlingers. The fingerlingers were great for grilling, were sweet and complemented the shrimp perfectly.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Grilled Shrimp and Sweet Potato Fingerlings”
Cajun French: la laitue (lā la-tū) – lettuce
Tonight was the first night in almost two weeks that we were able to sit outside and enjoy the evening. The heat has been unrelenting and energy draining. To celebrate the somewhat cooler weather, we decided to have shrimp remoulades as an appetizer. We had boiled shrimp earlier in the week and had some left so our appetizers were ready quickly. We watched the sunset as we enjoyed our shrimp remoulades served in martini glasses.
Enjoy!
Mais C’est Bon!!
Cajun French: la cibleme (la see-blem) – patty pan squash
A 2# white patty pan squash, from Robinson Organic Farm, reached out to us at the Red Stick Farmers Market this week. It was a beauty and a hallowed out bowl was calling. Laurie’s thoughts went to an etoufee stuffing while John’s thoughts went to a more summertime dish – a salad in the hallowed out squash. John won. Below is the dish’s progression as we built the salad and presentation.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: le vent (lu von) – wind
We saw a recipe where the shrimp were peeled and deveined with the head and tail remaining. Sounded interesting so we decided to give it a try. Laurie is the shrimp peeler so she began. It is not difficult just time consuming, thankfully we only had a dozen to “peel”. There are two advantages to shrimp peeled in this manner; plates beautifully and eats easily.
This dish reminds us of lazy days enjoying meals on the dock with gentle cooling breezes.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Cajun French: le maïs (lu ma-ee) – corn
There is nothing like a cool salad on a hot summer day on the bayou.
This dish uses some great Cajun flavors to make this unique salad. Just imagine yourself sitting on a dock with feet dangling in the water eating this salad and sipping a glass of crisp white wine.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Continue reading “Bayou Side Shrimp Salad with Cajunville Vinaigrette”
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: 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!!
“Vieux To Do” is this weekend in the French Quarter in New Orleans, LA. This festival is three in one: Creole Tomato, Cajun Zydeco Music, and Seafood Festivals. To get ourselves ready to eat, drink, dance and thoroughly enjoy the heat we are preparing a shrimp dish along with a creole tomato salad. We have Zydeco music on, opened a favorite bottle of wine and we are ready to cook. Join us as we enjoy the bounty South Louisiana offers…
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Continue reading “In Honor of Vieux To Do: Shrimp, Creole Tomato, & Zydeco”
