Cajun Food from A to Z
X- sorry I got nothin.Mould into a ball shape and leave it over night on the kitchen windowsill to dry. By morning it will be hard and ready to leave out on a bird table or lawn for the birds to peck at.Ingredients- There�s an old Cajun saying that says, �With ingredients like these a monkey could cook�. This is perhaps a testament to the use of simple yet delicious ingredients that are commonly found in most Cajun cuisine. (i.e. Holy Trinity)After breakfast, we set of for Jaipur, taking an interesting short-cut to the freeway past grazing camels and wonderful orange-flowered flame trees, through tiny villages, over rough ground without tarmac, better suited to a four-wheel-drive vehicle!Roux- made using either vegetable oil or lard and wheat flour, roux is a very common ingredient in countless Cajun dishes such as gumbo. There are two basic types of roux, light and dark. Light roux, commonly referred to as �blond roux� is primarily used as a thickening agent in many soups and stews. Dark roux which is the further cooked version, which results in the darker color, provides more flavor but less thickening power.King Cake- the French tradition of baking a special cake to honor the three kings, "A King's Cake," began in 1311. Today, King Cakes are enjoyed in Louisiana from the Feast of Epiphany until Mardi Gras day. A plastic or porcelain baby is inserted into the cake to symbolize the Baby Jesus. The cake is covered in sugar, specially colored in purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power - these are also the colors of Mardi Gras.Andouille- Cajun andouille is made of butt or shank meat and fat, and seasoned with salt, cracked black pepper, and garlic, and smoked over pecan wood and sugar cane for up to seven or eight hours.Gumbo- The word gumbo comes from an African word for okra, kigombo, which shows how important an ingredient okra was in early gumbo recipes. Gumbo originated in Southern Louisiana, where okra was easy to grow.Add to a bowl some chopped up bacon rind, leftover chicken bits from Sunday dinner, a few peanuts, a few raisins and frozen peas, some shelled sunflower seeds if you have any, some diced apple and a couple of heaped table spoons of flour and mix well. Add some water and mix to create dough.Next morning, the staff had gone back to sleep, each of three separate waiters asking what we wanted for breakfast and none of them getting it right - oh well, you can't win them all.Most garden bird�s staple diet is usually, fruit and berries, nuts and seeds, insects, worms and grubs, Very tasty.There is a chart on the website, a list of UK winter birds that you may see. Each bird has an illustration to help you to identify which breed it is, and there is some information about each birds preferred habitat. Some birds are residents of the UK, which means they like here all year round, others just visit for the winter.All that sightseeing naturally brought on hunger and thirst, so spring rolls and spicy prawns by the pool were the order of the day but so good and plentiful were they that I could only manage a tarka dal and nan bread for dinner while my husband had the interestingly-named Southern Railway Lamb curry. There was no real clue as to the contents, but we surmised the use of the normal spices and flavourings which resulted in quite a red-coloured and extremely tasty dish.Our next few days will be spent in Ranthambhore National Park, so I hope you'll be with us then to hear our experiences, both culinary and wildlife.Holy Trinity- The holy trinity of cuisine refers specifically to the use originated from the Cajun and Creole cuisines of Louisiana where chopped celery, bell peppers, and onions are the staple base for much of the cooking.Boudin- is a treat found only in Southern Louisiana, traditionally made with pork, rice and various vegetables. However, you won't find one central recipe, because each butcher makes boudin a different way. Everyone has their own family recipe. Some are spicier, and some use different meats and flavorings, but the results are always delicious.The exploits of the Rajputs place in Indian folklore compares with that of the medieval knights of Europe or the Samurai of Japan, to the extent that individual Rajput heroes have the place where they fell in defence of the fort, marked with stones.White Beans- another Cajun favorite. White beans are a common side dish, often slow cooked and including some type of pork, usually tasso.Sauce Picante�- refers to a spicy tomato based sauce commonly used in Cajun/Creole cuisine. Usually combined with seafood or poultry and served over rice.Some birds on the list are endangered, so some of the birds are rarer than others; but you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of them. Maybe you could tempt them into your garden with a bit of tasty bird-cake.Crawfish- While there is no doubt the favorite crawfish recipes among true Cajuns are crawfish boils, crawfish etouffee, crawfish pies and fried crawfish po�boys; the mudbugs can also be seen in seafood gumbos, appetizer selections and even savory deserts, like a crawfish beignet.Next day involved the obligatory visits to the Jantar Mantar observatory, the Chandra Mahal (City Palace) and the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds), an interesting structure, tall and very narrow, ornately carved from pink sandstone and built solely so that the royal ladies could watch the world go by without being seen. The City Palace, too, is well worth a visit, with seven stories and seven courtyards, partly still occupied by the present-day Maharajah. There is a large museum which gives some insight into the past days of the maharajahs, including costumes, weapons, pottery, musical instruments and the two fantastic silver jars used by Nadho Singh II to carry Ganges water for bathing on his visit to England in 1901.You could also make a tasty bird-cake...Lagniappe- derived from American Spanish and passed on to English from Louisiana French, the term lagniappe basically refers to �something extra�. With regard to Cajun cooking, lagniappe could be anything the chef might have lying around that could be added to the dish.Dinner, too, was a surprise, being a very tasty, mainly vegetarian buffet consisting of boiled rice, an aubergine curry, an egg curry, mixed vegetables, dal and a mutton dish, which, although not vegetarians, we didn't try. There was also nan bread on offer, which was very welcome.
You don�t have to be a culinary genius to prepare good Cajun/Creole dishes, but you do need the right ingredients. For those of you interested in crafting some Cajun concoctions of your own, check out Cajun Grocer online. Cajun Grocer offers a huge selection of all things Cajun, and you are sure to find everything you need to prepare the finest Cajun dishes.
Author: Steven Domingue
