Cajun Comes Back

Many households consisted of up to a dozen people, so rice became the easiest, cheapest and tastiest way to stretch what little meat, game or other protein they had and provided the fuel that early Cajun settlers needed for survival. Foraging Cajuns became known for eating all manner of exotica — a reputation that still lingers. An old joke claims that in a Cajun zoo, cage labels list the animals by popular name, scientific name, habitat and a recipe.

Eventually, “Acadian” was transformed to “Cajun,” and the people settled primarily in south and southwest Louisiana and in Natchitoches in northwest Louisiana.

In 1803, the U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France and large numbers of Anglo-Saxon/Scots-Irish settlers from eastern and southern states made their way to the region. The majority made their home in northern, western and southeastern sections of the state, bringing their southern cuisine, including cornbread, biscuits, chicken and dumplings, greens, blackberries and mayhaws, which taste like sour apples.

Creole or Cajun?

The cultural and linguistic differences between French-speaking south Louisiana and English-speaking Anglo-Saxon north Louisiana — noticeable even today — are reflected in the cooking, both in tastes and methods of preparation.

It’s the Creole and Cajun cooking of the southern section of the state for which Louisiana is so famous. But, what’s the difference? These two very similar cooking styles evolved in New Orleans and south Louisiana, and are a combination of the cooking styles of all the different groups who have lived in south Louisiana.

Creole cuisine still carries the reputation of being more refined and fancy, with elegant sauces and use of more expensive ingredients including butter, cream and typically more tomatoes than Cajun cooking. Creole includes the African and Caribbean heritage that eventually became mingled with the French and Spanish through sharing cooking techniques and ingredients.

Many of the staples in Creole cooking came by way of the slave trade. “The slaves didn’t come from the same place; they didn’t speak the same language,” explains culinary historian Jessica B. Harris. “They are juxtaposed within this New World and in the end a new cuisine is created. We call it Creole and it was one of the world’s original fusion foods.”

Cajuns don't spare the spice when they cook and they don't skimp when it comes to using locally made Tabasco.

Techniques and cooking methods form a link from African to Creole cuisine, for example, use of a mortar and pestle for pounding dry peppers, seeds, nuts, fruits and vegetables. This technique of making a paste to add to sauces is probably the origin of the Creole roux, the base for all gravies and sauces.

Cajuns add the spice. As a robust, country cuisine, Cajun uses pepper more liberally. The cornerstone is "the Holy trinity" of finely diced onion, celery and bell pepper. Similar to the use of the mire poix (finely diced onion, celery, and carrot) in traditional French cooking, flavors are layered and concentrated and usually cooked in one pot.

Inexpensive and readily available ingredients and seasonings (parsley, garlic, bay leaf, scallions, paprika and cayenne pepper — the dried and powdered form or as one of the locally made pepper sauces, such as Tabasco) are often served over plain white rice.

As any Creole grandmother will tell you, you can't cook Louisiana-style without a great roux: flour cooked in a skillet with fat or oil. (See “Firs’ Ya Make Da Roux,” below.) Roux can range in color from white to brown to black, depending on how long it's cooked, and the darker the color, the deeper the flavor. Creole gumbos favor the more delicate light roux, and cooks not only brown the flour, they also brown the onion, garlic and other vegetables seasonings for the gravy.

Cajun restaurateur and raconteur Dickie Breaux says roux serves as a flavor extender, not as a thickener. “Okra is the true Cajun thickener, but the secret of a great roux is a seasoned black iron pot that has been cooked in for 101 years," says Breaux, adding, “More Louisiana divorces are held up over who gets the roux pot than any other known reason.”

Mumbo Gumbo

High on the list of favorites of Cajun cooking is gumbo. Its primary ingredient, okra, is used as a thickening agent. In fact, the name gumbo is derived from the word for okra in several African languages.

Okra and filé (sassafras powder) are rarely used in the same batch of gumbo; some people say that using both will make the gumbo too thick, and others even say that the two flavors cancel each other out. If using okra, it should be cooked long enough that it loses the slimy texture it develops several minutes into cooking. Filé powder, on the other hand, should not be added until the very end of cooking; boiling filé causes the whole pot of gumbo to become stringy and gummy. Some people wait even longer and stir a pinch or two of filé into each bowl of gumbo before serving.

“One thing I recognized early on was that gumbo is never just gumbo,” contributes Lagasse. “Although there are certain constants — gumbo is always a soup or stew eaten over cooked white rice — other points are highly variable. There are thin gumbos and thick gumbos, gumbos thickened with okra, gumbos thickened with roux, sometimes with both, and then there are gumbos thickened with filé powder. The main ingredients might be chicken, any type of meat or game, smoked or spicy sausage, seafood, or any combination of these ingredients. There is even a ‘green’ gumbo, sometimes called ‘gumbo z’herbes,’ that traditionally contains no meat or seafood whatsoever, only green leafy vegetables.”