Cajun Food Where You Find It
Cajun French: la laitue (la lā-tū) – lettuce
Laurie: “We’re on our way to New Orleans, do you know of a good poboy place in LaPlace?”
Bonnie: “Yea, Stop & Save (without hesitation). It’s just a convenience store but they have great poboys!”
Laurie: “We’re on our way…”
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: le riz (lu ree) – rice
A pirogue is a small flat bottomed boat originally made of Louisiana cypress. The pirogue is designed to move through the very shallow water of the Louisiana marshes. It can also easily be turned over to drain any water that gets in the boat. We have seen pirogues that were carved from a single cypress tree, meaning no seams. Many Cajun cooks have “pirogue paddles” to use when cooking, for stirring the pot. On the tenth day of Christmas we are going to stir up a Shrimp Creole Casserole.
John, like many Cajuns, are known to “stir the pot” having no connection to cooking. It means they like to get things going, pit one against another in fun.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy! Continue reading “Tenth Day of Christmas – 10 pirogue paddles”
Cajun French: bourrer (boor-ā) – to stuff
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me three stuffed shrimp.
Shrimp are a staple in the Cajun diet and we eat them in various ways at least three times a week. Stuffed shrimp is a favorite of ours and our recipe is baked not fried. We do not put any coating on them and use more crab than bread for our stuffing.
Enjoy our Third Day of Christmas recipe.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Third Day of Christmas – 3 Stuffed Shrimp”
Cajun French: la soupe (la soop) – soup
This is a Mexican sopa seca, “dry soup”, which we have made Cajun. The reason it is called “dry soup” is that the pasta cooks in only the amount of liquid it can absorb. The dish lends itself well to being served as a side without seafood or meat. It is a great pot luck dinner dish.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Shrimp and Green Chile Cajun Pasta”
Cajun French: la crabe (la krab) – crab
While reading about Sandy’s RV search in her blog, Food and Fond Memories, she also talked about having a crab, shrimp and avocado stack from Bahama Breeze. Ok, my mouth was watering and I wanted a stack. Fast forward to the Red Stick Farmers Market and my mouth still watering. We chose items to make our stack local: crab, shrimp, persimmons, and greens. Thanks Sandy!
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!! Continue reading “Crab and Shrimp Persimmon Stacker”
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!!
