Cajun Cuisine Information
Cajun cuisine (French: Cuisine Acadienne [kɥizin akadjɛn]) is the style of cooking named for the French-speaking Acadian or "Cajun" immigrants deported by the British from Acadia in Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana, USA. It is what could be called a rustic cuisine — locally available ingredients predominate, and preparation is simple. An authentic Cajun meal is usually a three-pot affair, with one pot dedicated to the main dish, one dedicated to steamed rice, special made sausages, or some other seafood dish, and the third containing whatever vegetable is plentiful or available. Ground Cayenne & Fresh Black Pepper are used often.
The aromatic vegetables bell pepper (poivron), onion, and celery are called by some chefs the holy trinity of Creole and Cajun cuisines. Roughly diced and combined in cooking, the method is similar to the use of the mire poix in traditional French cuisine — which blends roughly diced onion, celery, and carrot. Characteristic aromatics for the Cajun version may also include parsley, bay leaf, green onions, and dried cayenne pepper.
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History
Acadian refugees, who largely came from what is now modern-day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia adapted their French rustic cuisine to local ingredients such as rice, crawfish, sugar cane, and sassafrass. Cajun cuisine relies heavily on game meats, frequently smoked, supplemented with rice or corn. French, Native American, Caribbean, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, African, and South Asian Indian culinary influences can be detected in Cajun food.
Cooking methods
- Barbecuing - similar to "slow and low" Southern barbecue traditions, but with Cajun seasoning.
- Baking - direct and indirect dry heat in a furnace or oven, faster than smoking but slower than grilling.
- Grilling - direct heat on a shallow surface, fastest of all variants; sub-variants include:
- Charbroiling - direct dry heat on a solid surface with wide raised ridges.
- Gridironing - direct dry heat on a solid or hollow surface with narrow raised ridges.
- Griddling - direct dry or moist heat along with the use of oils and butter on a flat surface.
- Braising - combining a direct dry heat charbroil-grill or gridiron-grill with a pot filled with broth for direct moist heat, faster than smoking but slower than regular grilling and baking; time starts fast, slows down, then speeds up again to finish.
- Boiling - as in boiling of crabs, crawfish, or shrimp, in seasoned liquid.
- Deep frying
- Étouffée - cooking a vegetable or meat in its own juices, similar to braising or what in New Orleans is called "smothering".
- Pan-Broiling, also known as pan-frying.
- Injecting - using a large syringe-type setup to place seasoning deep inside large cuts of meat. This technique is much newer than the others on this list, but very common in Cajun Country
- Stewing, also known as fricassée.
Deep-frying of turkeys or oven-roasted turduckens entered southern Louisiana cuisine more recently. Also, blackening of fish or chicken and barbecuing of shrimp in the shell are excluded because they were not prepared in traditional Cajun cuisine.
Ingredients
The following is a partial list of ingredients used in Cajun cuisine and some of the staple ingredients of the Acadian food culture.
Grains
1938 Cajun woman using crude mortar and pestle in process of hulling rice. Near Crowley, Louisiana.- Rice proved to be a valuable commodity in early Acadiana. With an abundance of water and a hot, humid climate, rice could be grown practically anywhere in the region, and grew wild in some areas. Rice became the predominant starch in the diet, easy to grow, store, and prepare. The oldest rice mill in operation in the United States, the Conrad Rice Mill, is located in New Iberia.
- Wheat (for baking bread)
Fruits and vegetables
- Bell peppers
- Blackberries
- Cayenne peppers
- Celery
- Collard greens
- Cucumbers
- Figs
- Limes
- Lemons
- Mirlitons (also called chayotes or vegetable pears)
- Muscadines
- Okra
- Onions
- Pecans
- Satsuma Oranges
- Scallions (also known as green onions or onion tops)
- Squash
- Strawberries
- Sweet potatoes
- Tabasco pepper
- Tomatoes
Meat and seafood
Cajun folkways include many ways of preserving meat, some of which are waning due to the availability of refrigeration and mass-produced meat at the grocer. Smoking of meats remains a fairly common practice, but once-common preparations such as turkey or duck confit (preserved in poultry fat, with spices) are now seen even by Acadians as quaint rarities.
Game (and hunting) are still uniformly popular in Acadiana.
The recent increase of catfish farming in the Mississippi Delta has brought about an increase in its usage in Cajun cuisine in the place of the more traditional wild-caught trout (the saltwater species) and redfish.
Seafood
- Freshwater
- Bass (Commonly known as green trout in south Louisiana)
- Catfish
- Sac-au-Lait (white perch or crappie)
- Yellow perch
- Saltwater or brackish water species
- Shellfish
Also included in the seafood mix are some so-called trash fish that would not sell at market because of their high bone to meat ratio or required complicated cooking methods. These were brought home by fishermen to feed the family. Examples are garfish, black drum also called gaspergou or just "goo", croaker, and bream.
Poultry
- Farm Raised
- Game birds
Pork
- Andouille - a spicy dry smoked sausage, characterized by a coarse-ground texture
- Boudin - a fresh sausage made with green onions, pork, and rice. Pig's blood is sometimes added to produce "boudin rouge". Other versions can contain seafood, such as crawfish.
- Chaurice, similar to the Spanish chorizo
- Chaudin - a pig's stomach, stuffed with spiced pork & smoked. Also known as ponce.
- Ham hocks
- Wild Boar or Feral Hog
- Head cheese
- Gratons - hog cracklings or pork rinds; fried, seasoned pork fat & skin, sometimes with small bits of meat attached. Similar to the Spanish chicharrones.
- Pork sausage (fresh) - not smoked or cured, but highly seasoned. Mostly used in gumbos. The sausage itself does not include rice, separating it from boudin.
- Salt Pork
- Tasso - a highly seasoned, smoked pork shoulder
Beef and dairy Though parts of Acadiana are well suited to cattle or dairy farming, beef is not often used in a pre-processed or uniquely Cajun form. It is usually prepared fairly simply as chops, stews, or steaks, taking a cue from Texas to the west. Ground beef is used as is traditional throughout the southern US, although seasoned differently.
Dairy farming is not as prevalent as in the past, but there are still some farms in the business. There are no unique dairy items prepared in Cajun cuisine. Traditional southern US and New Orleans influenced desserts are common.
Other Game Meats
- Alligator
- Alligator gar, or Gator gar
- Frog, usually Bullfrogs (not just the legs, but the entire creature)
- Gros bec commonly called Night heron
- Nutria
- Squirrel
- Rabbit
- Skunk, or mouffette
- Turtle
- Snake
- Virginia Opossum, or sarigue
Seasonings
1938 Cajun woman reaching for strings of garlic suspended from rafters. Near Crowley, Louisiana.Individual
- Bay leaf
- Oregano
- Bell peppers (green or red)
- Black pepper
- Cayenne pepper
- Celery
- Garlic
- Onion (bell pepper, onion, and celery used together are known as the "holy trinity" of Cajun cuisine.)
- Parsley, flat leaf
- Sassafras leaves (dried & ground into the spice known as filé for gumbo)
- Sugarcane, also cane syrup, brown sugar and molasses
- Thyme
Blended
- "Cajun spice" blends such as Tony Chachere's are sometimes used in Acadiana kitchens, but do not suit every cook's style because Cajun-style seasoning is often achieved from scratch, even by taste. Whole peppers are almost never used in authentic Cajun dishes — ground Cayenne, paprika, and pepper sauces predominate.
- Hot sauce
- Seafood boil mix
- Vinegar seasoned with small, pickled, hot green peppers is a common condiment with many Cajun meals.
- Persillade
- Marinades made with olive oil, brown sugar, and citrus juices
- Various barbecue rubs similar to those in other states
Cooking bases
- Dark roux: The Acadians inherited the roux from the French. However, unlike the French, it is made with oil or bacon fat and more lately olive oil, and not butter, and it is used as a thickening agent, especially in gumbo and étouffée. Preparation of a dark roux is probably the most involved or complicated procedure in Cajun cuisine, involving heating fat and flour very carefully, constantly stirring for about 15–45 minutes (depending on the color of the desired product), until the mixture has darkened in color and developed a nutty flavor. A burnt roux renders a dish unpalatable. The scent of a good roux is so strong that even after leaving one's house the smell of roux is still embedded in one's clothes until they are washed. The scent is so strong and recognizable that others are able to tell if one is making a roux, and often infer that one is making a gumbo.
- Light roux: The secret to making a good gumbo is pairing the roux with the protein. A dark roux, with its strong (dense) nutty flavor will completely overpower a simple seafood gumbo, but is the perfect compliment to a gumbo using chicken, sausage, crawfish or alligator. A light roux, on the other hand, is better suited for strictly seafood dishes and unsuitable for meat gumbos for the reason that it does not support the heavier meat flavor as well. Pairing Roux with your protein follows the same orthodox philosophy as pairing your wine with your protein. Dark meat, dark wine, and dark roux. Light meat, light wine, and light roux. All this to create the fullness of flavor.
- Stocks: Acadian stocks are more heavily seasoned than Continental counterparts, and the shellfish stock sometimes made with shrimp and crawfish heads is unique to Cajun cuisine.
- Fish stock and Court-bouillon
- Shellfish stock
- Chicken stock
Cajun dishes
Noted by the popular Hank Williams' Jambalaya song, three of the primary dishes in Acadiana are "Jambalaya and-a crawfish pie and filé gumbo." One variation is that crawfish boils are more popular in the southern regons of Louisiana, while pies are favored further north.
Primary favorites
Boudin that has been smoked. Seafood gumboBoudin
Boudin also spelled "boudain" is a type of sausage made from pork, pork liver, rice, garlic, green onions, and other spices. It is widely available by the link or pound from butcher shops. Boudin is usually made daily as it doesn't keep well for very long, even when frozen. Boudin is typically stuffed in a natural casing and has a softer consistency than other, better-known, sausage varieties. It is usually served with side dishes such as rice dressing, maque choux or bread. Boudin balls are commonly served in southern Louisiana restaurants and are made by taking the boudin out of the case and frying it in spherical form.
Gumbo
High on the list of favorites of Cajun cooking are the soups called gumbos. Contrary to non-Cajun, or Continental, beliefs, gumbo does not mean simply "everything in the pot". Gumbo exemplifies the influence of African and Native American food cultures on Cajun cuisine. The word originally meant okra, which is a word brought to the region from western Africa. Okra, which can be one of the principal ingredient gumbo recipes, is used as a thickening agent and for its distinct vegetable flavor.
A filé gumbo is thickened with sassafras leaves after the stew has finished cooking, a practice borrowed from the Choctaw Indians. The backbone of a gumbo is roux of which there are two variations: acadian, a golden brown roux, and creole, a dark roux, which is made of flour, toasted until well-browned, and fat or oil. The classic gumbo is made with chicken and the Cajun sausage called andouille, pronounced {ann-doo-wee}, but the ingredients vary according to what is available.
Jambalaya
Another classic Cajun dish is jambalaya. The only certain thing that can be said about a jambalaya is that it contains rice, some sort of meat (such as chicken or beef) and/or seafood (such as shrimp or crawfish) and almost anything else. Usually, however, one will find green peppers, onions, celery and hot chili peppers. Anything else is optional.
Food as an event
Crawfish boil
Louisiana-style crawfish boilThe crawfish boil is a celebratory event where Cajuns boil crawfish, potatoes, onions and corn over large propane cookers. Lemons and small muslin bags containing a mixture of bay leaves, mustard seeds, cayenne pepper and other spices, commonly known as "crab boil" or "crawfish boil" are added to the water for seasoning. The results are then dumped onto large, newspaper-draped tables and in some areas covered in spice blends, such as Zatarain's, Louisiana Fish Fry or Tony Chachere's. Also, Cocktail sauce, mayonnaise and hot sauce sometimes used. The seafood is scooped onto large trays or plates and eaten by hand. During times when crawfish are not abundant, shrimp and crabs are prepared and served in the same manner.
Attendees are encouraged to "suck the head" of a crawfish by separating the abdomen of the crustacean and sucking out the abdominal fat/juices.
Often, newcomers to the crawfish boil or those unfamiliar with the traditions are jokingly warned "not to eat the dead ones". This comes from the common belief that when live crawfish are boiled, their tails curl beneath themselves, but when dead crawfish are boiled, their tails are straight and limp. Seafood boils with crabs and shrimp are also popular.
Boucherie The traditional pig-slaughtering party, or Boucherie, where Cajuns gather to socialize, play music, dance, and preserve meat does still occur in some rural communities and individual farms, but the use of every last bit of meat, including organs and variety cuts in sausages such as 'boudin' (never correctly spelled boudain) and the inaccessible bits in the head as head cheese is not still a necessity.
Other dishes and sides
Boudin balls- Potato Salad, generally made with egg, potato, celery, onions, mayonnaise, mustard and sometimes bell pepper
- Gumbo des Herbes ( / ˈ ɡ ʌ m b oʊ ˈ z æ b /
- Couche Couche (Cajun corn mush)
- Boiled Crawfish
- Maque Choux
- Tasso (meat product)
- Catfish (or Redfish) Court-Boullion
- Crawfish Étouffée
- Crawfish Bisque
- Hog's Head Cheese
- Various types of Sauce Piquante (Shrimp, Alligator, Turtle, and so on.)
- Cochon de Lait
- Crawfish Pie
- Andouille sausage
- Dirty rice
- Étouffée
- Rice and Gravy - usually a brown gravy based on pan drippings, which are deglazed and simmered with extra seasonings and served over steamed or boiled rice.
- Fried Frog Legs
- Pecan Pralines
- Tarte à la Bouillie (sweet-dough custard tarts)
- Seafood-stuffed Mirliton
- Brochette
- Crêpe
- Cajun rice
- Boudin balls - Boudin sausage filling that is rolled into a ball, battered and deep fried, instead of being stuffed into pork casings.[1]
- Poutine - A traditional Sunday supper deriving from the French "Beouf Bourgignon" but served with a thick gravy from which it derives its name Poutine, meaning "pudding". Served over white rice, the stewed beef is smothered in gravy.
List of Cajun or Cajun-influenced chefs
See also
- Cuisine of the United States
- Louisiana Creole cuisine
- Cuisine of Quebec
- List of festivals in Louisiana
- List of official symbols of Louisiana
- Cajun cookin in swedish
Notes
- ^ Michael Stern. 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late: And the Very Best Places to Eat Them. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. ISBN 0547059078, 9780547059075. http://books.google.com/books?id=uha0mHZ-N8oC&lpg=PA141&ots=D_tqH6GuQC&dq=%22boudin%20ball%22&pg=PA141#v=onepage&q=%22boudin%20ball%22&f=false. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
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