Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2013 i Louisiana Cookin'

Living on a parade route in New Orleans makes it easy to hunker down and enjoy Mardi Gras revelry from the comfort of my own home. Young children watch floats while perched on decorated ladders as the parades’ horseback lieutenants trot past, tossing doubloons to the waiting masses. It’s tempting to stay in my relatively quiet neighborhood. It’s easy to keep things close to home, but I would be missing out. Between masked balls, small neighborhood parades, and Mardi Gras Indians, there are dozens of ways to celebrate. And that’s just in the Crescent City. In the heart of Cajun Country, travel writer Janis Turk shows us how Acadians celebrate carnival. She captures the spirit of the Courir de Mardi Gras (page 39) and shows us that while it is…

For more than eight decades, the wooden steamboat Delta Queen glided through America’s inland waters, giving passengers a chance to see some of our country’s greatest sights. While she was celebrated for her tour on the Mississippi River, the Delta Queen began her service on California’s Sacramento River in 1925; she steamed east to the Old Muddy aft er World War II. When approached by the Newcomb College Culinary History Writers Group about writing a book on the ship, Cynthia LeJeune Nobles imagined The Delta Queen Cookbook would consist mainly of recipes. Aft er delving into its past and interviewing crew members and passengers, she decided that its rich history should be given more space. This beautiful book contains more than 125 recipes from the ship’s menus, as well as…

You’ve heard of singing for your supper? Well, in communities throughout southern Louisiana, folks sing for their gumbo on Mardi Gras morning. They also dance for it. And chase chickens. And sometimes they even get whipped—all in the name of good fun and great gumbo. It’s all part of what’s called the Courir de Mardi Gras, or Mardi Gras Run—a sort of running of the bulls meets trick-ortreating but with a colorful Cajun carnival bent. In rural areas throughout souThLouisiana, costumed characters, many wearing capuchons (cone-shaped hats), dance, cavort, and sing a song asking local farmers for something special. According to author, professor, and Cajun folklorist Dr. Barry Jean Ancelet, shortly aft er dawn on Fat Tuesday morning, masked revelers gather on foot and on horseback at the outskirts of…

Everything’s Coming Up Roses MAKES 1 SERVING Courtesy of Kirk Estopinal Bellocq at The Hotel Modern New Orleans, Louisiana 1 sugar cube 6 drops Campari 12 drops rose water Champagne, chilled Garnish: twisted orange peel or edible rose petals 1. To a small bowl, add the sugar cube. Place Campari and rose water on the sugar cube. Fill a Champagne flute or coupe glass with Champagne. Drop the sugar cube in the glass. Garnish with a twisted orange peel or rose petals lightly misted with rose water.…

I was one of the participants in the 2012 Sweet Rewards Recipe Contest, and I want to thank you for that opportunity. Even though I didn’t win, it was great fun. I am 73, grew up on a hardscrabble farm, and have been a sweet potato aficionado ever since. In the country school where I served time, it was not at all embarrassing to open your #5 brown paper bag and pull out a sweet potato for lunch. I loved them. About one-third of the recipes I submitted came from my grandmother. Another third comprised sweet potato recipes I’d found and tinkered with over the years, and the rest were invented just for the contest. Count me in for next year. Now that I know what you’re looking for, I…

When I was a youngster growing up in St. Martinville, I skipped along, eating everything from pain perdu (French toast), to les orielles de cochon (fried dough pastries resembling pigs’ ears), and croquignoles (something like New Orleans beignets), but it wasn’t until I was in my 20s and living in the French Quarter in New Orleans did I have my first king cake. I was intrigued with the local tradition of hosting king cake parties during carnival season, and purchased one at McKenzie’s, a bakery chain that was in just about every neighborhood of the city. Their cake was made with buttery, rich brioche dough and decorated with the ubiquitous green, gold, and purple sugar. A tiny plastic baby was hidden in the cake, and the person who received the…

Butter Bean Cassoulet with Andouille MAKES 6 SERVINGS Courtesy Anna C. Scott, Atlanta, Georgia 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 medium yellow onion, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 7 ounces andouille sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced ½ inch thick 2 cloves garlic, sliced 3 plum tomatoes, diced 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme ½ teaspoon kosher salt ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper 1 (15.5-ounce) can butter beans, drained and rinsed ½ cup reduced-sodium chicken stock 2 dashes hot sauce 1 dried bay leaf 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal, divided 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided 2 tablespoons butter, diced, divided 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly spray the bottom and sides of 6 (7-ounce) ramekins with nonstick cooking spray, and place on a baking sheet. 2. In a 4-quart Dutch oven, heat olive…

Every year I look forward to hitting the ground blinds of souThLouisiana, where I’m guaranteed to fill the sky with steel spheres explosively evacuating their encasing shells. Duck season brings me to Jennings, Louisiana, between Lafayette and Lake Charles. During my time at Louisiana State University, I managed to make several great friends in the area. On the banks of rice and crawfish ponds scattered all over that part of the state, many ground blinds await early-morning hunters. I find my spot, a bit southwest of Jennings, with Brent Broussard, his father, Billy, and my buddy, Brandon. Snow geese, grey geese, wood ducks, mallards, and teal honk and quack before the sun rises over the bayou. We sit patiently, looking up into the sky. Mr. Billy plays some tunes on…

Filling the house with the aroma of baking bread is one of my favorite things about winter. When company is coming, I especially love to bake big, high-rising rounds of Sally Lunn, an old English favorite brought to this country by colonists and long one of the most popular breads among Southern cooks. Virtually every book on bread includes at least one recipe for Sally Lunn, said to be named for a French Huguenot woman who arrived in the resort city of Bath, England, around 1680. According to legend, she went to work in a bakery and soon began making rich, buttery, briochelike buns from her homeland and selling them on the streets of Bath. The Sally Lunn House, a bakery and restaurant in Bath, splits their large buns horizontally…

o visit to New Orleans is complete with out a visit to Café du Monde. Sip their chicory-laced café au lait, and you will understand why the venerable French Quarter establishment has served the milky concoction since 1862. But Café du Monde is just a part of New Orleans’s coffee history, the origins of which can be traced back to the very founding of the city. Coffee found its way to the Big Easy in the holds of trading ships and bellies of wagons. Originating in Ethiopia, coffee has been boThvilified and lionized, but always consumed with gusto. In New Orleans, coffee was first served from the carts of slaves such as Rose Nicaud, whose namesake coffee shop sits on Frenchmen Street, and in orders of the flaming Café Brulot,…