You Thought You Knew Mardi Gras Foods?
Mardis Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday."
And on this day of seemingly non-stop celebrating, partying, parades, pageantry and excess, Marian Cairns, Southern Living magazine's test kitchen specialist, explained plenty of things you probably didn't realize about the day's fare, and shared some delicious recipes.
Though Mardi Gras is celebrated in Roman Catholic countries worldwide, no place does it like New Orleans, which draws tourists from around the world seeking to soak in and indulge in its Cajun and Creole cultural influences.
A week of festivities culminates on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of Lent and the sacrifices that come with it for Catholics. Fat Tuesday is a day to indulge in excess and enjoy its many foods, sounds, drinks and sources of fun before being forced to give them up.
New Orleans has been celebrating Fat Tuesday since French Settlers arrived in the 1700s, and continues the tradition to this day.
On The Early Show, Cairns offered a simple tutorial on Mardi Gras, the King Cake, and the differences among Gumbo, Etouffe, and Jambalaya. She also demonstrated the prepping of a cocktail invented in New Orleans, called a Sazerac.
Jambalaya: is a one-pot sausage and seafood stew; kind of a jazzed-up Louisiana take on paella.
Jambalaya and Gumbo are cousins. The difference is that, in jambalaya, the rice is cooked into the recipe and gumbo, which is more like a stew, is served over rice. Jambalaya can be made with or without tomatoes; Cairns' recipe uses tomatoes.
Étoufée is a richer, saucier recipe that starts with the a roux Every Louisiana cook knows first you make a roux. Roux is used to thicken everything -- it's the foundation of all of the classic mother sauces, a 50/50 combo of flour and oil or butter. The key is to stir it -- it goes from blonde to chocolate, and the darker it gets, the more flavor it imparts it the recipe. Étoufée traditionally includes shrimp, crawfish, lump crab meat, and is served over rice. You can dip your bread in it if you like.
Sazerac cocktail: Most people think of the Hurricane when they think of Mardi Gras, but in fact, the official drink of New Orleans is the Sazerac. Legend has it that the Sazerac was New Orleans' first cocktail (in fact in 2008, an amendment was passed making it the official cocktail of the city). Classic ingredients are Peychaud's Bitters, Herbsaint (an anise flavored, absinthe substitute), and rye whiskey (which is distilled from rye grain) -- it has a rich flavor that's similar to Bourbon (but Bourbon is distilled with AT LEAST 51 percent corn).
And for dessert, Cairns had the traditional king cake. There's a little "baby" baked into the cake and, tradition has it, whoever gets the baby is responsible for hosting the party next year.
Cajun as opposed to Creole
These culinary cousins are all about traditional Louisiana cooking.
Cajun is thought of as more "country" cooking, while Creole encompasses a more refined "city" food though, today, both borrow from each other and blur the lines into one giant "gumbo pot" that creates our country's richest and most diverse regional cuisine.
Creole traditionally refers to a more sophisticated melding of French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean influences (i.e. crab meat, richer more refined sauces), while Cajun, which also draws heavily on Fresh and Spanish influences, includes cooking traditions from the rural communities west and south of New Orleans, folks who were, in many cases, living off the land (i.e. crawfish, Tasso ham).
The beauty is, gumbo, jambalaya, and étoufée, can fall into both categories since, over the years, they all borrowed from one another (i.e. crawfish in the étoufée instead of crab meat; jambalaya with tomatoes is more Creole, while jambalaya without tomatoes is more Cajun.)
For Cairns' recipes, go to Page 2.
RECIPES
Chicken-and-Sausage Gumbo
Prep: 55 min., Cook: 3 hrs.
1 pound andouille sausage, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
4 skinned bone-in chicken breasts
Vegetable oil
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
2 celery ribs, sliced
2 quarts hot water
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 to 1 teaspoon hot sauce
4 green onions, sliced
Filé powder (optional)
Hot cooked rice
Garnish: chopped green onions
Cook sausage in a Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until browned. Drain on paper towels, reserving drippings in Dutch oven. Set sausage aside.
Cook chicken in reserved drippings in Dutch oven over medium heat 5 minutes or until browned. Remove to paper towels, reserving drippings in Dutch oven. Set chicken aside.
Add enough oil to drippings in Dutch oven to measure 1/2 cup. Add flour, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 20 to 25 minutes, or until roux is chocolate colored.
Stir in onion, bell pepper, and celery; cook, stirring often, 8 minutes or until tender. Gradually add 2 quarts hot water, and bring mixture to a boil; add chicken, garlic, and next 5 ingredients. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 hour. Remove chicken; let cool.
Add sausage to gumbo; cook 30 minutes. Stir in green onions; cook for 30 more minutes.
Bone chicken, and cut meat into strips; return chicken to gumbo, and simmer 5 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaves.
Remove gumbo from heat. Sprinkle with filé powder, if desired. Serve over hot cooked rice. Garnish, if desired.
Yields 4 to 6 servings
Jambalaya
1 (16-ounce) package spicy hickory-smoked sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 large onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups uncooked rice
1 (32-ounce) container chicken broth
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can stewed tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 pound unpeeled medium-size fresh shrimp
3 tablespoons chopped green onions
Brown sausage in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Drain, reserving 3 tablespoons drippings in pan. Add onion and bell pepper, and sauté 2 to 3 minutes or until tender. Add garlic, and sauté 1 more minute.
Add rice and chicken broth. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and next 3 ingredients.
Peel shrimp, and devein, if desired.
Stir in shrimp and green onions; cook 2 to 3 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink.
Yields 6 to 8 servings
Crawfish Étouffée
Prep: 35 min., Cook: 22 min.
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 medium-size green bell pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large shallot, chopped
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (14-oz.) can low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
2 pounds cooked, peeled crawfish tails*
Hot cooked rice
1. Melt butter with oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat; stir in flour, and cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until caramel colored. Add onion and next 6 ingredients; sauté 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
2. Add chicken broth, parsley, and chives; cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until mixture is thick and bubbly.
3. Stir in crawfish; cook 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve with hot cooked rice.
*2 lb. frozen cooked crawfish tails, thawed and drained, may be substituted for fresh.
Yields 4 to 6 servings
Sazerac
Said to be The Big Easy's first cocktail, it was originally served at the Sazerac Coffee House.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Ice cubes
1/4 cup rye whiskey or bourbon
1/4 teaspoon bitters
1/4 teaspoon anise liqueur
Lemon rind twist
Cook 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat 5 minutes, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, and cool.
Pack a 3 1/2-ounce cocktail glass with ice cubes, and set glass aside.
Combine whiskey, bitters, sugar syrup, and a few ice cubes in a cocktail shaker; stir to chill.
Discard ice cubes in cocktail glass. Coat inside of glass with liqueur, shaking out excess liqueur. (For stronger licorice flavor, leave excess liqueur in glass.) Rub lemon rind over rim of glass, and discard rind.
Strain whiskey mixture into prepared glass. Serve drink immediately.
Note: For testing purposes only, we used Jim Beam Straight Rye Whiskey, Peychaud's Bitters, and Herbsaint anise liqueur. Rye whiskey is distilled from rye grain instead of wheat and barley, giving it a smooth, rich flavor similar to that of bourbon.
Yield: Makes 1 serving