Cajun Food Where You Find It
Cajun French: la céleri (la sel-ree) – celery
Calorie overload during Mardi Gras – yes that was us. So, we were ready for some down home cooking. What better than Shrimp Etouffee – simple, easy, good Cajun cooking. We even made it easier by using dry roux. That is not always our method, but Mardi Gras wore us out; we needed easy.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: le grue (lu grū) – grits
What started out as left over crawfish and carrot tops over girts for breakfast turned into Shrimp Grillades and Grits. Traditionally grillades are slow cooked meat in rich gravy. We enjoy grillades and since we no longer eat meat wanted to try shrimp grillades. Today was the day and what a dish! Another difference to the traditional grillades is the shrimp do not cook in the gravy. The shrimp are pan fried and plated in the gravy just before serving. As usual we used shrimp from the Anna Marie. Even though this dish is very rich, it is not high fat. The richness comes from using red wine in the gravy. We plated the dish on plates with a shrimp design. Wanting to highlight the design as well as the food we plated the dish two ways.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: l’écrevisse (l’ā-krū-vees) – crawfish
An etouffee is a spicy Cajun stew made from a roux and is soooo good!
The word Etouffee comes from the French word etouffer which means to smother.
Having a pound of Louisiana crawfish and not having made etouffee in a while, we decided to make a homemade roux and etouffee. An etouffee is served over rice and we use a Cajun jasmine rice.
Mais C’est Bon!
Cajun French: la farine (la far-een) – flour
This is almost the anthem of Cajun Cooking. This also intimidates many people. A Roux is actually easy to make; it just takes time and attention. A Roux is something you never leave unattended because once it burns, it’s over, you MUST throw it out.
A Roux is used as the thickening for gravies, gumbos, courtbouillon, etouffees, etc.
Let’s get cooking!
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
