Creole and Cajun

Recently, I had the opportunity to work in a professional kitchen at Creola Bistro, which focuses mostly on Creole and Cajun food.  Inspired by all the good eats there, I decided to take a stab at making the New Orleans fare at home.  The following books were my primary sources:

• Emeril Lagasse (EL), Emeril's A new New Orleans cooking", 1993
• Williams-Sonoma (WS), "New Orleans: Authentic recipes celebrating the foods of the world", 2005
• Paul Prudhomme (PP), "Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen", 1984
• Rima and Richard Collin (RRC), "The New Orleans Cookbook", 1975
• John Folse (JF), "The Evolution of Cajun and Creole Cuisine", 1989

All recipes for the dishes below are available in this online album.  Favorites are marked with a (*).

Dish List

• Beans, beans, beans...
• Tuesday's Red Bean Soup (EL)
• * White Beans, Rice and Smoked Sausage (RRC)
• Black-Eyed Peas with Meat and Rice (RRC; EL)
• Breads and baked goods
• * Iron Skillet Cornbread (WS)
• Buttermilk Biscuits (EL)
• * Jalapeno Corn Muffins (EL)
• Hush Puppies (JF)
• Pumpkin Soufflé (RRC)
• One pot dishes (quintessential Creole/Cajun)
• Seafood Filé Gumbo (PP)
• Gumbo Z'Herbes (WS)
• * Chicken Creole Style (JF)
• * Shrimp Etouffee (RRC)
• * Pork Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya (JF; RRC) 
• Soups and sides
• Corn Maque Choux (WS)
• * Pumpkin Soup (EL)
• Stocks
• Basic Chicken Stock (EL; JF)
• Fish Stock (EL; JF)

Preparation notes

•  Tuesday's Red Bean Soup (EL)
• I pulled the skin off of the smoked ham hawks before using them; I later asked chef Caba about this and he said it was unnecessary to do so
• the beans actually took about 80 minutes to cook through
• the Andouille sausage tasted dried out in the final product.  Creola restaurant  adds their sausage at the end of the cooking process to avoid this
• I didn't use any bacon, but instead doubled the amount of ham hock (which provided a nice amount of meat as well)
• White Beans, Rice and Smoked Sausage (RRC)
• this was a hearty and comforting dish with mild smokiness and full-bodied flavor
• The chunks of meat are strewn throughout but "light"
• I scaled the recipe down by 50% and a 3 quart pot worked well
• Instead of using a "seasoning ham" and "hambone", I used to ham hock stock and meat scraps from one half of a ham hock
• Sausage-wise, I used one andouille link
• Used Safeway-brand great northern beans.  I like to disparage Safeway's quality, but it seemed to turn out okay.
• Black-Eyed Peas with Meat and Rice (RRC; EL)
• Iron Skillet Cornbread (WS)
• scale proportions by 2/3 and worked well in my 8 inch cast-iron skillet
• Seemed slightly under salted; try 1 teaspoon next time for the 2/3 scaling
• Since no sugar is added, honey or similar is needed as a garnish
• Buttermilk Biscuits (EL)
• review: decently flaky texture; housemate Mike not a fan of the slightly sour taste
• Instead of miniature biscuits, made 3 standard size biscuits (1/2" thick before cooking) with scraps left over
• Jalapeno Corn Muffins (EL)
• review: housemate Mike and I agree it was "excellent"; sweet, despite no added sugar; nice texture with contrasting chunks of corn and  K. key/crumbly cornmeal
• The Chile Pepper lost most of its kick after cooking
• Hush Puppies (JF)
• review: decent, but a little dry inside and under salted; definitely requires butter, ketchup, etc. as garnish
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt added was insufficient despite the called-for "pinch"; try 3/4 teaspoon next time
• I yielded 12 small-medium balls from a 50% scaling of the proportions
• Some fresh jalapeno or ground chili powder would be nice
• if the batter is too liquidy, it is very hard to form and maintain the ball shapes
• Pumpkin Soufflé (RRC)
• I omitted the Cointreau out of necessity; the resulting flavor was overly mild
• scaled the recipe by 50% and it fit nicely into a single ramkin and 1.5 cup gratin dish
• because of the smaller portions, I checked the ramkin for deafness after 12 minutes (very unfair-done) and begin at 25 minutes (borderline under-done still)
• The soufflés rose from about 1 inch to 2 inches before falling back to 1 1/3" couple of minutes after coming out of oven; they achieved a medium-brown color on top
• Seafood Filé Gumbo (PP)
• I scaled down the oil to 1/3 the recipe amount for "nutrition" reasons
• omitted the Tabasco sauce because it was very piquant without
• the stock:  simmered (pre-cooked) crab carcasses, 15 shrimp shells and homemade fish stock for 45 minutes; fantastic rich taste!
• the broth of the Gumbo turned out "particulate"; was this the file powder clumping together?
• Gumbo Z'Herbes (WS)
• for the greens, used kale, chard and some arugula
• salt level: close to 1 teaspoon / Qt
• Chicken Creole Style (JF)
• due to lack thereof, omitted the mushrooms, jalapeno, margarine, basil, and Louisiana Gold (used red pepper flakes instead)
• piquant level: mild, present but not distracting
• removed excess fat from dark meat beforehand, and removed about 50% of the skin; still, the final product was slightly oily
• simmered the boneless chicken breasts for 15-20 minutes and the dark meat for about one hour; perfectly cooked
• Shrimp Etouffee (RRC)
• scaled the amounts by 33% and the shrimp by 50%; yielded approximately 1.5 servings
• I used a homemade fish-shrimp stock instead of plain water
• reduced the cooking time for the shrimp from the suggested amount
• used the lower bound on the requested liquid quantity; final product still fairly runny
  
• Pork Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya (JF; RRC)
• see separate blog post
  
• Corn Maque Choux (WS)
• scaled down to 1/3; 2 servings
• Pumpkin Soup (EL)
• pre-roasted the pumpkin for one hour at 350°; then, sliced perpendicular to fibers and measured out 2.5 cups
• reduced cream to 1/2 cup
• reduced nut butter to 1/4 cup and used almond instead of peanut; diluted with liquid before adding to main pot
• added a dash of cayenne
• superb!
  
• Basic Chicken Stock (EL; JF)
• Fish Stock (EL; JF)
• my version took the common ingredients from these 2 recipes.  I used:
• 2-3 pounds of fish heads and carcasses
• 2 onions
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 carrots
• one lemon, halved
• 4 bay leaves
• 6 sprigs of parsley
• 10 peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon of thyyme
• 3-4 quarts of water
• procedure:  Blanch fish and rinse (only necessary if "off" smells present?); combine all ingredients in stockpot and bring to a boil; simmer for about 45 minutes; reduce for up to 2 hours; strain