Ethnic flavors: Louisiana Cajun

Cajun favorites often include crawfish, lemons and sweet corn

By Marlene Parrish
Los Angeles Times Syndicate

(Los Angeles Times Syndicate) -- If you fly into New Orleans, rent a car and head west, you will be in the midst of Acadiana, or Cajun country. It has no beaches, no theme parks, no three-star restaurants and no battlefields.

What you'll find in the rural food markets, small family-run restaurants, and if you're lucky, private homes in the towns of Lafayette and Eunice, is some of the most memorable Cajun food you'll ever eat.

The trick is to know what to look for, where it comes from and how it's made.

So who are these Cajuns? Acadiana is a pocket of Americana that has a unique heritage. The word "Cajuns" is short for Acadians, who were originally French-speaking farmers in what is now Nova Scotia.

In 1755, the Acadians were forced from their homeland for refusing to swear allegiance to the British Crown. Many of the exiles migrated to the Louisiana Territory and settled in the bayou country of what is now southwestern Louisiana. They joined another group of settlers called Creoles, the descendants of African and West Indian slaves and European pioneers.

In the isolated swamps, they survived by fishing and farming. The Cajuns retained their French language and traditions, which are still an integral part of their culture. Most Cajuns are bilingual, and their unique patois is a colorful mix of old and new.

The most famous Cajun cook, Chef Paul Prudhomme, created a dish called blackened red fish, a culinary sensation that knocked the socks off the food world back in 1980. But Prudhomme's incinerated fish was only a variation -- a caricature, really -- of the traditional foods of Cajun cuisine.

The real Cajun menu reflects a farming heritage, nothing fancy. When local folks are asked to characterize Cajun food, they often answer by listing local dishes such as gumbo, crawfish etouffee (pronounced and often spelled "A-2-fay" on local menus), jambalaya, boudin sausages and syrup and pecan pies.

They talk about home-baked jalapeno corn bread, sweet potato muffins, tasso ham, banana bread and biscuits that come to the table warm from the oven, or they refer to certain ingredients such as crawfish, seafood, game, rice, corn syrup and red pepper. The crawfish is the ethnic symbol of the Cajuns as well as their most popular dish.

Cajun cookery has three central principles: that foods be strongly or intensely flavored, that they be thoroughly cooked and that they contain certain combinations of ingredients.

Cajuns say, "When you eat Cajun food, you don't have to imagine the taste. It's in your face." Rumor has it that some mothers put cayenne pepper into their older infants' baby food to prepare them for the table food that one day will enable them to earn the famous Cajun cast-iron stomach. This is not food for sissies or timid palates, but neither does it give rise to a Maalox moment. The flavors are assertive and spicy, but not necessarily what is considered "hot."

Seafood, meat and vegetable dishes are highly flavored with seasoning vegetables -- especially red peppers, onions and garlic -- and seasoning meats -- sausage, ham and salted pork. Desserts are intensely sweet; think pecan pie, pralines and sweet dough pie, a sandwich of a heavy, sweet fruit filling and half-inch-thick layers of a biscuit-like crust. In everything, except size and shape, sweet dough pie reminds one of a Fig Newton.

Where most recipe writers might say, "Cook until done," the Cajun would say, "Cook to death." At one time, long cooking was needed to kill bacteria and tenderize meats. That's no longer necessary, but the preferred way is still to cook everything until it's soft and mushy. A Yankee's crisp-cooked vegetables and rare meats would be laughed at and tossed back into the kettle to stew for a couple more hours.

One-pot gravy dishes (and this is serious gravy country) such as gumbo and fricassees are cooked over high heat for hours. According to a local saying, a Cajun can look at a field of rice and judge how much gravy it would take to cover it.

Almost all dishes are "browned" at some point, more for the flavor than for the cooking. The famous browned-flour-with-fat roux is a central starting point of many dishes. The proper color ranges from the color of peanut butter or a brown paper bag to dark chocolate brown.

Seasoning vegetables are a special category of vegetables. They aren't side dishes that are cooked and eaten separately, but are combined to add flavor and texture to other foods. Usually, they include onions, sweet bell peppers, garlic, celery and hot red peppers. Potent hot red pepper is a matter of pride, whether home grown or found in commercial products such as Tabasco sauce. Every Cajun table is set with at least two bottles of red pepper sauce to lift the flavor if necessary.

Cajuns rarely start the day without a plate of hot, fluffy biscuits dripping with butter and drizzled with amber cane syrup. All meals are washed down with copious quantities of rich, dark coffee. Locals say that coffee should be strong enough to dissolve the spoon.

Cajun Specialties

Acadiana claims superiority in the art of making gumbo, a thick stew of whatever happens to be available when the cook gets the urge.

Gumbo is history in a bowl. First, the French brought along their concept of fish stew or bouillabaisse. In Louisiana, they substituted shellfish for the Mediterranean fin fish. The Spanish added hot peppers, the Africans added okra and the Choctaws added the file powder (say, fee-LAY), a grayish-green powder of the sassafras plant.

The origin of the word gumbo isn't certain, but it's thought to be derived from ngombo or kingombo, African words for okra, which is often a principal ingredient. Turkey, fish, crab, seafood, chicken, rabbit or squirrel could play a starring role. The hearty, well-seasoned stew is sometimes, but not always, thickened with a sprinkle of file. Gumbo is always served in bowls and topped with a mound of white rice to balance the heat of the peppery broth.

You can always tell Cajun chef-impersonators, because they think gumbo is just another soup and they almost always neglect to make a dark-enough brown roux. And at serving time, they don't bother to add the compulsory scoop of rice.

After crawfish and gumbo, probably the best-known Cajun food is jambalaya. The song of that name is considered the Cajun national anthem. Remember? "Jambalaya, and a crawfish pie, and a file gumbo. Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou." Like most Cajun dishes, jambalaya is economical and allows the cook to use up whatever is in the larder. Thrifty cooks combine modest portions of leftover seafood, ham, vegetables and rice in one satisfying dish.

While daily home cooking is strictly women's work, social cooking in Acadiana is male-dominated.

Originally, traditional occupations found the Cajun men in the marshes and swamps and on boats in the coastal waters where they cooked out of necessity in their hunting and fishing camps.

Today, almost every Cajun home has some sort of outdoor cooking site. Most Cajun men build their own outdoor kitchens and barbecue pits in the back of the house where they reign as both host and entertainer. For a Sunday dinner with the extended family and for festivals and community events, the men take charge, cooking enormous quantities of indigenous foods. Men usually cook in full view of the guests, too, so that watching the cook becomes part of the entertainment. In Acadiana, cooking for a crowd is performance art.

Makes 12 or more thin slices.

Don't be surprised if your pie seems more like a cake. All three layers, cake-like crusts and fruit center, will be about the same thickness. The filling should be very thick; commercial coffeecake paste is the right consistency. Cajuns often fill their pies with a dark cane syrup paste.

The dessert is very rich. It can also be used as a breakfast sweet.

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 (10-ounce) jars coffeecake filling (apricot, peach or prune are good)
  

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and blend well. Add milk and vanilla and mix well.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix well.

Roll 1/3 of dough into ball. Roll remaining dough in another ball. Roll out big half of dough between wax paper into 12-inch circle about 3/8 inch thick.

Line well-greased 10-inch pie plate or 9-inch cake pan with dough. Spread filling over dough.

Roll out smaller piece of dough in circle for top. Place top crust over filling. Cajun cooks fold bottom crust over top one to make hemmed effect. If less thick crust is desired, bottom pastry edge can be trimmed and pie edge crimped.

Bake at 350 degrees until browned and done, 25 to 30 minutes.

Makes 4 servings.

In Cajun country, the cook cleans a mess of catfish and makes his own trimmings. When using fillets of farm-raised catfish from the store, ask the fishmonger to give you a fish frame from another fish. To be traditional, eliminate the potatoes and serve the stew with rice.

• 5 slices lean bacon
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
• 6 medium tomatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 large boiling potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 3 cups)
• 1 pound catfish trimmings (head, tail and bones)
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 2 teaspoons salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 2 pounds catfish fillets, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces.

In heavy 4- to 6-quart casserole, fry bacon slices over moderate heat, turning with tongs until crisp and brown and have rendered all fat. Drain, crumble bacon into small bits and set aside.

Add onions to fat remaining in casserole and, stirring frequently, cook over moderate heat until soft and translucent but not brown, about 5 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes, potatoes, catfish trimmings, Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt and few grindings of pepper. Bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly and simmer 30 minutes.

With tongs or slotted spoon, remove catfish trimmings and discard. Add catfish fillets and reserved bacon and mix well. Cover casserole tightly and continue to simmer over low heat until fish flakes easily when prodded gently with fork, 8 to 10 minutes. Taste for seasonings.

Serve stew at once, either directly from casserole or from large heated bowl.