Cajun spice should blend really well with any kind of meat and you will get something that’s truly exotic. Known as being a rustic cuisine, we could find three main components, including celery, onion and bell peppers. In fact, the traditional French cuisine often blends carrots, celery and onions. Cajun cuisine extends this further by the frequent addition of dried cayenne pepper, green onions, bay leaf and parsley. Although there’s no set rule about the Cajun cuisine, we should be able to find the patterns. Although French cuisine is an important part of Cajun dishes; we could also find influences from the Caribbean, Italy, Spain, Portuguese and Africa. There are different ways Cajun dishes are cooked, such as grilling, barbecuing, deep frying, boiling, etouffee, deep frying, stewing, injecting and pan broiling. Instead of using farmed animal, we often find that Cajun cuisine rely more on game meat, as well as corn and rice. The original Cajun dishes use catfish, but we could also find the use of red fish and trout.
The basis of gumbo, an important Cajun dish, is dark roux; which is modified by the Acadians. The thickening agent is bacon fat or oil, muxed with flour. This is something that is also commonly used in French way of cooking. The cooking process could reach up to 45 minutes depending on how dark the roux should be. However, it doesn’t mean that you can overcook the gumbo. You will ruin the ingredients if the gumbo is overcooked. The temperature shouldn’t be too high and you shouldn’t stir it continuously. You can choose lighter roux, if you want to have a delicate dish. Acadian stocks is usually heavily seasoned and often based on stock made from shellfish, crawfish head or shrimp. This is quite unique in the Cajun cuisine. Boudin is a type of Cajun sausage, which is consisted of pork, pork liver, garlic, rice, green pepper and various spices which are wrapped in various casing.
Jambalaya is an important Cajun dish, which is based on rice and mixed with seafood, meat and others. Common additions to jambalaya are usually celery, green peppers and other vegetables. When preparing jambalaya, light stock is typically used. Jambalaya is usually much easier to prepare, while gumbo with its dark roux is more difficult to master. Crawfish boil is a dish that uses crawfish, corn, onions and potatoes. In order to improve the taste, “crab boil” or “crawfish boil” is often added to the water. It is a small muslin bag that contains cayenne pepper, mustard seed, bay leaves and various spices. When eating crawfish, people usually remove the head and suck the abdominal juices; then eat the meat. Bocherie is an exotic Cajun meal that uses every little bit of the pig, including the organs. Poutine is derived from a classic French dish, the beef bourguignon. Cajun dishes are often about the use of proper spice, which could mean the difference between spectacular and mediocre meals. Fortunately, making the right blends is quite easy and you can also purchase Cajun spice blends in the supermarket; using fresh or dried ingredients.
