Cajun Cooking
Cajun cooking is originated from South Louisiana and is one of the most popular cooking varieties all over American continents. Cajun cooking combines all basic ingredients of many American foods and blends them into a unique flavor using wonderful seasonings and sausages. Most of the Cajun dishes are seasoned with black and cayenne pepper. The beauty of Cajun cooking is the blend of seasoning perfectly matches the dish and the amount of seasoning is equal to the portion served.
Blackened Redfish is the most famous Cajun cooking dish that was first created by Chef Paul Prudhomme a native of Louisiana in 80s. Redfish or steak or chicken is first dipped in clarified butter and sprinkled with seasoning and then cooked in an iron skillet in high temperature, creating black crust. Seasoning is made of black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt and some herbs.
Many Cajun dishes are cooked using fresh chilies like jalapenos and habaneras. There is also a wide variety of hot sauces that are made in Louisiana and are used in Cajun cooking. Cajun cooking consists of ingredients that are obtained locally like local seafood and seasonal vegetables and fruits. The specialty of Cajun cooking is the dishes are cooked in one pot irrespective of the quantity. Normally rice is cooked in one pot and the main dish is cooked in another pot.
Notable Cajun dishes include blackened fish, blackened steak, blackened chicken, turtle sauce piquant, jambalaya, gumbo, andouille sausage, boudin, soft-shell crab, cochon du lait, stuffed crab, crawfish etouffee, car fish bisque, crawfish, and a number of shrimp dishes. Cajun cooking dishes are very spicy as they are made of rich spices like pepper and chilly.
There are many restaurants all over U.S. especially offering Cajun foods, and K Paul’s Louisiana kitchen is the notable one. Blackened redfish and Steak were created first here only. Chef Paul Prudhomme has the honor of popularizing Cajun food to national and international levels. Chef Paul also made available the magic seasoning and sausages to the public which makes the Cajun food as a wonderful dish. Cajun cooking and Creole cuisines of New Orleans resemble each other.
Cajun culture is a unique one among Native Americans. Cajuns are originally French speaking inhabitants of Nova Scotia which was earlier called as Acadia.
These hardworking people were exiled by the British in 1964 and scattered around French Canada, New England, Louisiana and some also returned back to France. Cajuns blended their own culture with Native Americans and African- American cultures and that is what we call now as the Cajun culture. Cajun living style, music and cooking are unique.
“Dirty Rice” is one of the most delicious Cajun dishes that every American loves to have in his meal. This dish is prepared by blending garlic, Serrano chilies with uncooked rice along with sautéed holy trinity and stock just like Risotto or Paella. The other way of cooking ‘dirty rice’ is mixing cooked rice with seasonal fresh vegetables and chopped meat. Seasoning is done using Thyme, parsley, salt, bay leaf, black pepper and cayenne pepper like any other Cajun dish.