Cajun cuisine

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Po' boy sandwiches are associated with the cuisine of New Orleans.

Cornbread is a staple Cajun starch.

Cajun cuisine (French Cuisine cadienne, [k?izin kad?~n]) is a style of cooking
named for the French-speaking Acadian people deported by the British from Acadia in
Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana. It is what could be called a rustic
cuisine; locally available ingredients predominate and preparation is simple.

An authentic Cajun meal is usually a three-pot affair, with one pot dedicated to
the main dish, one dedicated to steamed rice, special made sausages, or some
seafood dish, and the third containing whatever vegetable is plentiful or
available. Shrimp and pork sausage are staple meats used in a variety of dishes.

The aromatic vegetables green bell pepper (poivron), onion, and celery are called
the holy trinity by Cajun chefs in Cajun and Louisiana Creole cuisines. Roughly
diced and combined in cooking, the method is similar to the use of the mirepoix in
traditional French cuisine which blends roughly diced onion, celery and carrot.
Characteristic aromatics for the Creole version may also include parsley, bay leaf,
green onions, dried cayenne pepper, and dried black pepper.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Cajun cooking methods
3 Ingredients
3.1 Grains
3.2 Fruits and vegetables
3.3 Meat and seafood
4 Cajun Dishes
4.1 Primary Favorites
4.2 Food as an event
4.2.1 Crawfish boil
4.2.2 Family Boucherie
4.2.3 Cochon de Lait
4.2.4 Rural Mardi Gras
4.3 Other dishes and sides
5 List of Cajun-influenced chefs
6 See also
7 References
History[edit]
Around 1755, Acadians were forced out of their settlements by the British, and as a
result, they migrated in 1755 in what was called le Grand Drangement, eventually
settling in Southern Louisiana.[1] 6 Due to the extreme change in climate, Acadians
were unable to cook their original dishes.[2] 20 Soon, their former culinary
traditions were lost, and so, these other meals developed to become what is now
considered classic Cajun cuisine traditions [2] 1920 (not to be confused with the
more modern concept associated with Prudhomme's style).[3] Up through the 20th
century, the meals were not elaborate but instead, rather basic.[2] 23 The public's
false perception of Cajun cuisine was based on Prudhomme's style of Cajun cooking,
which was spicy, flavorful, and not true to the classic form of the cuisine.[3]
Cajun and Creole label have been mistaken to be the same, but the origins of Creole
cooking began in New Orleans, and Cajun cooking came 40 years after the
establishment of New Orleans down south on the bayou.[4] Today, most restaurants
serve dishes that consist of Cajun styles, which Paul Prudhomme dubbed Louisiana
cooking.[5] 16 In home-cooking, these individual styles are still kept separate.[5]
16 However, there are fewer and fewer people cooking the classic Cajun dishes that
would have been eaten by the original settlers.[2] 30

Cajun cooking methods[edit]

Barbecuing - similar to slow and low Southern barbecue traditions, but with Creole
Cajun seasoning.
Baking - direct and indirect dry heat in a furnace or oven, faster than smoking but
slower than grilling.
Grilling - direct heat on a shallow surface, fastest of all variants; sub-variants
include
Charbroiling - direct dry heat on a solid surface with wide raised ridges.
Gridironing - direct dry heat on a solid or hollow surface with narrow raised
ridges.
Griddling - direct dry or moist heat along with the use of oils and butter on a
flat surface.
Braising - combining a direct dry heat charbroil-grill or gridiron-grill with a pot
filled with broth for direct moist heat, faster than smoking but slower than
regular grilling and baking; time starts fast, slows down, then speeds up again to
finish.
Boiling - as in boiling of crabs, crawfish, or shrimp, in seasoned liquid.
Deep frying
Smothering - cooking a vegetable or meat with low heat and small amounts of water
or stock, similar to braising. touffe is a popular variant done with crawfish or
shrimp.
Pan-broiling or pan-frying.
Injecting - using a large syringe-type setup to place seasoning deep inside large
cuts of meat. This technique is much newer than the others on this list, but very
common in Cajun Country
Stewing, also known as fricasse.
Deep-frying of turkeys or oven-roasted turduckens entered southern Louisiana
cuisine more recently. Also, blackening of fish or chicken and barbecuing of shrimp
in the shell are excluded because they were not prepared in traditional Cajun
cuisine. Blackening was actually an invention by chef Paul Prudhomme in the 1970s,
becoming associated with Cajun cooking, and presented as such by him, but is not a
true historical or traditional Cajun cooking process.[6]

Ingredients[edit]
The following is a partial list of ingredients used in Cajun cuisine and some of
the staple ingredients of the Acadian food culture.

Grains[edit]
Corn
Rice long, medium, or short grain white; also popcorn rice
Rice proved to be a valuable commodity in early Cajun Country. With an abundance of
water and a hot, humid climate, rice could be grown practically anywhere in the
region and grew wild in some areas. Rice became the predominant starch in the diet,
easy to grow, store and prepare. The oldest rice mill in operation in the United
States, the Conrad Rice Mill, is located in New Iberia.
Wheat for baking bread
Fruits and vegetables[edit]