I needed a dish for a potluck last night and decide to go with something different so I used the recipe on page 24 for Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo. My clever husband even managed to find me okra which you don't see very often up here in the North so I threw that in too.
I've had some pretty good Cajun food in my time. We lived in St. Louis for many years and that's right on the Mississippi River but I'm sure it can't compare to what you would get in New Orleans. Oh how I want to go there someday and just EAT! I want to suck the heads of juicy crawfish and sop up the gravy from a jambalaya with corn bread. I want oysters and beignets and Po'boys and pralines, well you get the idea, I want to EAT!
We actually do have a couple of "cajun" restaurants here in town but I'm very sure they have never even heard of file (Fee-lay) powder. One place just adds spicy heat to their dishes until it's painful to eat. I like spicy but I want to taste what I'm eating. We've given them all a try but it's just too sad. My buddy Wendy and I did get together a while back and cooked a complete cajun meal with blackened fish, dirty rice and everything. Next time we'll do it at her house, the smoke was terrible or maybe we'll do it outside when things warm up.
Wendy HAS been to New Orleans and she brought me back the real deal file and even a box of beignet mix, yum. Before she left on her trip I tried to save her from some embarrassment. I told her, "when you order a piece of pecan pie down there and I know you will, it's pecan (peh-cahn), not PEE CAN". Of course she didn't listen and the waitress looked at her in disgust and said loud enough for everyone to hear, "PEE CAN, that's what grandma keeps under her bed!" I did warn her.
I'll get to New Orleans someday but in the mean time this turned out pretty good and everyone tried a sample. I know my roux probably should have been darker but I chickened out before it reached the dark red-brown color they suggest. So the cookbook for today is #31 Chef Paul Prudhomme's Pure Magic.
It's delicious! And the photo from yesterday's potluck is well done.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to drink my protein fruit breakfast while I was reading this. I won't make that mistake again. Sucking the fish heads?? That's just disgusting!
ReplyDeleteThey're more like shrimp than fish. I wouldn't suck a fish head unless everyone else was.
ReplyDeleteFYI
The head of the crawfish contains an organ called the "hepatapancreas" which contains fat and is very rich in flavor. Many people call this the "fat" of the crawfish. However, crawfish actually contain very little fat. Cajuns suck the head to get this "fat," but you could just dig it out with your finger. No matter how you get it, do not miss out on this part of the crawfish.
See, that sounds great doesn't it? PS,I'm sorry about your breakfast.