Laissez les bon temps rouler! Welcome to the Pelican State, otherwise known as Louisiana!
I spent almost four of my very formative years there, from the summer before seventh grade to the summer following my freshman year of high school. It was a night and day experience for me coming from the colder, northern, mostly homogeneous land of Maine. Louisiana was hot. Louisiana was SOUTHERN. Louisiana was a mix of every culture you could think of. It was as if the Mississippi River picked up things along it's travels, dumped them into the swamps and deltas of Louisiana, churned them all together and created something new and something totally unique.
It was a hell of a place to grow up.
I have kept in touch with friends from my time there (my family and I lived in Metairie, just a short drive into downtown New Orleans), and Elizabeth has joined me on several trips down there. The last, and most memorable, was a Mardi Gras adventure while she was pregnant with Elliot. While she couldn't enjoy all that Bourbon Street had to offer, I still think she had a kickass time...
My mom was in town for Mardi Gras last month, so I thought it was fitting that we celebrated a Cajun-inspired meal for the 10th stop on this culinary journey. The biggest problem with this particular state was what to pick to cook because there are so many options! Should I go with a po'boy? Or a crawfish boil? Or red beans and rice? Or jambalaya? The list goes on and on. Ultimately, I decided on dishes that I loved the most from my time down there (as well as one that I had picked up during that Mardi Gras trip with Elizabeth).
Muffuletta Garbage Bread
1 cup manzilla olives, drained
1 cup giardiniera, drained
1 tablespoon capers
1 cup pickled onionis
1 cup kalamata olives, drained
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons parsley
1 package fresh pizza dough
Flour for dusting
Sliced provolone
Sliced salami
Sliced pepperoni
Sliced ham
Sliced turkey
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
The muffuletta is an incredible sandwich that, in my opinion, stands heads and shoulders above the other famous NOLA sammie, the po'boy. What makes or breaks it for me is the olive spread, and the first time I had it I was hooked. They sell it at COSTCO and it's passable, but after making my own I won't be buying that again. Homemade is the way to go (and super easy!)
First, I mixed the top 7 ingredients from the list above in my food processor. I let everything sit in the fridge overnight. (Tip: I listed the precise measurements from the recipe I used, but really, it was a lot of eyeballing when it came to amounts. This is a perfect way to use those half-empty jars of olives and capers and other things that you might pick up for one recipe and never use again!)
Next, I rolled out the pizza dough on a well-floured board. I went with this in lieu of trying to attempt a muffuletta bread substitute. It's like a ciabatta...sort of...but I knew that nothing would be quite like the real thing. Instead, this option got the spirit of what I was going for without having to fly to NOLA to get the real thing.
Next, I layered the cheese and meats on the dough...
...then I spread the olive mix over everything.
I rolled it all up, and put it seam side on a baking tray.
I brushed it with an egg wash, and sprinkled it with the sesame seeds. I put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.
I had an audience throughout this whole process...
Sausage Gumbo
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons butter
1 large smoked sausage link (cut into 1/2 inch slices)
1 bag cut frozen okra
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
Cajun seasoning to taste
First off, and I know that this is sacrilege, but I made my gumbo in a crock pot and that's all there is to it.
With that said, I did try to do the rest of the process as authentically as possible. And that meant making a roux using my roux spoon that my buddy Ashton picked up for me the last time I was in New Orleans.
First, I combined the butter and flour in a pan on medium heat.
While it cooked, I added the pepper, onion, celery, and okra...
...and the sausage...
...to my crockpot and turned it on low. I added the diced tomatoes on top of all of that, and then poured my roux over that. I poured the stock in along the sides, and finally added the all important seasoning...
I let it simmer all day, and wow did it make my house smell fantastic.
Crawfish Boil Fritatta
1 large red potato, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons butter, divided
2 cans sweet corn kernels
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 pound crawfish tail meat
2 tablespoons Creole seasoning, divided
10 large eggs
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
1 tablespoon parsley
Green onion, sliced, for garnish
Elizabeth and I stayed at the Dauphine Orleans Hotel with a group of my friends for the Mardi Gras trip I've previously mentioned. While we were there, I found a Louisana cooking magazine in one of the rooms. It's one of the things you find at any hotel, meant to show off the local culture while you hang out in your room before it's time to hit the town. The magazine came home with me, mostly because I'm a cooking nerd now and I wanted to try all of the recipes that I found in it. This was one of them.
First, I boiled the potato chunks for about 10 minutes. I then preheated my oven to 375.
In a large skillet, I melted two of the tablespoons of butter and mixed in the corn and onion. I cooked this until the onion was translucent, about 5 minutes or so. I cooked the potatoes in some creole seasoning while I did this.
Now, at this point, I was supposed to add the uncooked crawfish...but I skipped a step here and I'd like to discuss. It's kinda hard to get good crawfish in North Carolina, so I had to make do with what I could find. And that meant this:
It says it's a "Party in a Bag" and that it's microwaveable...which was something I just couldn't bring myself to do. Instead, I thawed out the precooked crawfish and removed the tail meat once that was done. It was in no way authentic, but, like I said, I had to work with what I had. So instead of over cooking them with the corn and onion, and I added them to the bottom of my pie dish.
In a large bowl, I whisked together the eggs, cream, and Creole seasoning...
I added the potatoes, onions, corn, parsley, and goat cheese to my pie dish...
I then poured the egg mix over everything and baked it all for 30 minutes.
King Cake (Shortcut)
1 container Pillsbury Cinnamon Roll
2 tablespoons purple sugar
2 tablespoons gold sugar
2 tablespoons green sugar
I'll order the real thing next year (or maybe I'll take the whole fam down for one in person). As a shortcut this year, I arranged the cinnamon roll slices in a circle and baked them according to the container.
Once they were baked, I spread the frosting over them and sprinkled the colored sugar on top.
The result of everything...
...was a feast worthy of Fat Tuesday. It helped that I used a liberal amount of this stuff, which has a permanent place in our house...
And I had my share of these...
The gumbo was awesome and spicy (but not overly so). The fritatta tasted like a crawfish boil and quiche combined (so...delicious). And the King Cake rounded everything else out nicely. However, the star, at least for me, was the Muffuletta. It was super easy to make, really tasty, and a spin on a sandwich that I loved when I was in New Orleans and haven't been able to recreate since. This was a great alternative to it, and it's one that I'll be making again very soon.
Louisiana was one of the states I was most looking forward to when I thought about this year long project. I hope that I did it justice, and I hope to get back there again soon to try the real thing.
