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You don't need to travel to Louisiana for great gumbo or dirty rice. You can create great Cajun food in your own kitchen. This page outlines how to make authentic Cajun food that will have your family and friends think they've stumbled in into a New Orleans café.
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Introduction
- Cajun food evolved from ingredients that were native to Louisiana, and easily available, such as seafood, rice and wild game. The French settlers in Louisiana took these ingredients,and combined them with their culinary traditions, to produce Cajun cuisine.
Step 1: Authentic Cajun Ingredients
- Some of the ingredients for Cajun cooking, such as cayenne pepper and Tabasco sauce will be simple to find locally, but unless you live in Louisiana, you'll probably need to order most of the things you need from a specialty Cajun shop such as the Cajun Grocer.
- Crawfish, also known as mudbugs, crawdads, or crayfish
- Andouille.
- Creole hot sausage.
- Tasso
- Cane syrup
- Crab, shrimp and crawfish boil
- Creole mustard.
- Filé powder
Step 2: Authentic Cajun Cooking Techniques
- Cajun cooking using a variety of cooking methods, including barbequing, blackening, boiling, frying, grilling, smoking, and stewing. Many Cajun recipes begin with a "trinity", a slowly sauteéd mixture of minced onions, celery, and bell pepper that is similar to the mirepoix used in traditional in French cuisine. In order to cook authentic Cajun food, however, you need to know how to make a roux, which is the basis for almost all Cajun soups, stews, and sauces.
What You Need to Make A Roux
- 1 1/4 cups of flour
- 1 cup of fat, such as butter or oil
- The exact fat you'll use will depend on the recipe you're preparing.
- Heavy bottomed pan
- Whisk
How to Make a Roux
- Melt the fat in the pan over low heat.
- Whisk in the flour until blended.
- If you're using oil, you can increase the heat to medium-high. A butter based roux needs to cooked at low heat to avoid burning.
- Continue to cook the roux, stirring constantly, until it is the color specified in the recipe. Most Cajun recipes call for a dark brown roux, which may take 20-25 minutes for an oil based roux, longer for a butter based roux.
- Be careful not to burn the roux. If you see black specks in the roux, it's burned, and you'll need to throw it out and start over.
Step 3: Authentic Cajun Menu Planning
- Cajun meals combine a meat, a grain (which is usually rice) and vegetables. These may sometimes be combined in a one-pot meal, such as a gumbo. It's customary to have a bottle of Tabasco sauce on the table, along with salt and pepper.
Step 4: Authentic Cajun Recipes
- Real Cajun Recipes: Gumbo Galore
- The Gumbo Pages: The Muffuletta Sandwich
- Nola Cuisine: Red Beans & Rice Recipe (September 19, 2005)
- Experience New Orleans: Cooking Crawfish
- Real Cajun Recipes: Beignets - A French Doughnut
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