New Orleans Cooking
Mar. 21st, 2011 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroOne of the things we did in New Orleans this past weekend was take a culinary tasting tour. I highly recommend this, as it meant we got to see the secret back rooms and working kitchens of some of the country's oldest restaurants; we tried excellent versions of gumbo, pralines, shrimp remoulad, turtle soup, muffalattas, beef brisket and red beans and rice; and we learned a lot about creole and cajun cooking.
They have a base in French cooking, and as such pretty much all dishes start the same way: With a roux. The French usually stop with a light roux and then add the basic veggies: Onions, carrots and celery. But carrots don't grow in a swamp, so in New Orleans they use bell peppers instead. The guide constantly referred to onions, bell peppers and celery as the "holy trinity" which go into everything, along with the Pope, garlic. After that, it's pretty much a matter of how dark you make the roux and what you add to it, but this same base makes jambalaya (which is basically just a regional paella), gumbo, etouffe, bisque and a half a dozen other dishes.
Creole food is "city food", it's the civilized version of these dishes. Cajun food is what they ate out in the backwoods: Often including 'gator, 'possum and squirrel. Cajun dishes use a very dark roux, often to cover the gaminess of the meat.
As different cultures arrived, they brought additions to the cuisine. Okra was brought from Africa by the slaves, and the world "gumbo" comes from their name for okra. The "one-pot" stockpot cooking is also their influence. Cajun mustard and the affection for sausage was brought by the Germans. Muffalatas (basically, flatbread cold-cut sandwiches with olive tapenade) were what the Italian dock workers ate.
Note that I haven't mentioned anything about spiciness. Most of the dishes we ate used a lot of bay and black pepper, but relatively little cayenne and they weren't oversalted. Pepper sauce is always on the table and available, but the dishes a served were usually pretty mild. "Cajun" cooking as practiced by school cafeterias everywhere is about as close to the real thing as their "Asian dishes" are.
I'm making jambalya this week, and maybe a nice sherried mock turtle soup next week.
They have a base in French cooking, and as such pretty much all dishes start the same way: With a roux. The French usually stop with a light roux and then add the basic veggies: Onions, carrots and celery. But carrots don't grow in a swamp, so in New Orleans they use bell peppers instead. The guide constantly referred to onions, bell peppers and celery as the "holy trinity" which go into everything, along with the Pope, garlic. After that, it's pretty much a matter of how dark you make the roux and what you add to it, but this same base makes jambalaya (which is basically just a regional paella), gumbo, etouffe, bisque and a half a dozen other dishes.
Creole food is "city food", it's the civilized version of these dishes. Cajun food is what they ate out in the backwoods: Often including 'gator, 'possum and squirrel. Cajun dishes use a very dark roux, often to cover the gaminess of the meat.
As different cultures arrived, they brought additions to the cuisine. Okra was brought from Africa by the slaves, and the world "gumbo" comes from their name for okra. The "one-pot" stockpot cooking is also their influence. Cajun mustard and the affection for sausage was brought by the Germans. Muffalatas (basically, flatbread cold-cut sandwiches with olive tapenade) were what the Italian dock workers ate.
Note that I haven't mentioned anything about spiciness. Most of the dishes we ate used a lot of bay and black pepper, but relatively little cayenne and they weren't oversalted. Pepper sauce is always on the table and available, but the dishes a served were usually pretty mild. "Cajun" cooking as practiced by school cafeterias everywhere is about as close to the real thing as their "Asian dishes" are.
I'm making jambalya this week, and maybe a nice sherried mock turtle soup next week.
