Cajun or Creole? A refresher course

Jambalalya, crawfish bisque, red beans and rice, gumbo, shrimp Creole, maque choux, the list could go on and on. It’s the stuff natives of south Louisiana grew up on and just a few of the many dishes the earliest residents created.

A ll of these homegrown specialties are either Creole (meaning born in the New World) or Cajun (of the Acadians), or a combination of both. Here’s a refresher course on how the basic ingredients and techniques got to south Louisiana in the first place.

Native Americans

Long before the French arrived, tribes such as the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Natchez, Houmas and Chitimachas were drying fruit, herbs and meats and simmering game and turtle in stews.

They also gathered pecans, cultivated sweet potatoes, caught fish and shellfish, pounded sassafras leaves to make the thickener filé and ground corn into grits.

The French

The Catholic French sailed here in the late 17th century, and by 1718 had built the Port of New Orleans. The French brought memories of classic Parisian cuisine.

They made roux, sauces and stocks, seasoned with herbs and started many a dish with a mirepoix, a mixture of diced carrots, celery and onion.

The colonial French were also fond of the seafood soup bouillabaisse, along with pralines (the French original made with almonds) and imported liqueurs and wine.

The Africans

The French began importing slaves in 1719, and with Africans came black-eyed peas, watermelon, okra, a love of simmered greens and rice.

Slaves also knew how to season with spices, and in the kitchens of their masters they continued doing what they had done in their own countries: skillfully stew and fry.

The Germans

Because slaves were considered too valuable to spend time growing food to sell to locals in New Orleans, in the 1720s Scottish speculator John Law lured Germans.

An industrious group of them settled in what is today St. James and St. Charles parishes, where they set up the state’s first dairies. They also grew turnips, spinach, cauliflower, artichokes, onions, garlic, cabbage, white potatoes and sweet potatoes, were prolific bakers and knew how to cure meats, such as the smoked pork sausage we call andouille.

The Spanish

When the Spanish took over the Louisiana colony in 1762, they brought along jamó n (ham), chaurice (spicy smoked sausage), tomatoes and cayenne pepper, along with a love of onions, garlic and parsley.

They also had an affinity for eating beans with rice and for cooking paella, the one-pot ham and rice dish.

The Acadians

The Acadian French arrived in New Orleans in 1785 and ended up west of the city in the prairies and marshes, where they foraged for just about anything that flew, crawled, climbed or swam.

Although they’d been living in Nova Scotia, the Acadians were still partial to the one-pot meals of peasant France. They were also unfamiliar with Louisiana ingredients and, consequently, adopted cooking techniques from established residents.

Over time they developed into their own hearty Cajun cuisine, including robust roux-based versions of gumbo and jambalalya . The Acadians also became experts at cattle ranching and smoking meats, and are now the state’s leading rice growers.

The Croatians

During the 1840s, commercial sales of oysters, fish and shrimp got a big boost with the arrival of seasoned Croatian fishermen.

These former sailors from the Adriatic Sea lived on Louisiana’s coast south of New Orleans, and started the state’s oyster cultivation.

The Sicilians

In the 1880s, waves of Sicilians arrived, bringing with them a passion for bread, wine, pasta and tomatoes. Louisiana’s Italians took to truck farming almost immediately, growing vegetables like zucchini, spinach, garlic, lemons, eggplant, fennel, figs, leeks and cucumbers.

In many cases, traditional Italian dishes melded with Creole dishes .

Although the line of distinction between fancy Creole cooking and rustic Cajun cooking has over the years been blurred, chef John Folse makes the distinction eloquently: “Creole … is that melange of artistry and talent, developed and made possible by the nations and cultures who settled in and around New Orleans.” And Cajun is “the mirror image of [the Cajun] unique history … a cooking style that reflects their ingenuity, creativity, adaptability and survival.”

Copyright © 2011, Capital City Press LLC • 7290 Bluebonnet Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA 70810 • All Rights Reserved

Tobasco born in 1870

Pepper sauce is a ubiquitous condiment across south Louisiana. In 1870, a new brand was patented: Tabasco.

In 1869, Edmund McIlhenny’s pepper sauce was available at the W.H. Henning grocery in New Orleans. The next year, the condiment was christened Tabasco sauce and was sold by numerous local retailers.

The hot sauce soon became popular across the Gulf Coast, and reportedly was “used very extensively at public places as well as in families.”

The spicy mixture is made of red peppers and salt from Avery Island, near New Iberia in southwest Louisiana.

In 1931, the McIlhenny company declared all other pepper sauces imitations.

The McIlhenny family still makes the sauce in much the same way, and the Tabasco name has become famous around the world. Competitors, including Crystal and Louisiana brand sauce,  have also made their way onto dinner tables and into recipes.

© 2011 NOLA.com. All rights reserved.

FDA to crack down on fresh oysters

It's not everywhere that the newspaper runs a headline like this one.

But as the Federal Department threatens to sterilize oysters, the region's seafood and restaurant industries have become alarmed.

This, from the Times-Picayune's editorial page:





THE FDA SHOULD GET OUT OF OUR GUMBO

By Editorial page staff, The Times-Picayune
October 28, 2009, 11:11PM

A Food and Drug Administration decision to impose draconian new rules on oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico could wreck Louisiana's $300 million-a-year industry and restrict the diets of raw oyster lovers here and elsewhere for most of the year -- all in a misguided effort to prevent a serious but rare health threat.

The FDA announced guidelines, to go into effect in 2011, that would require all Gulf oysters harvested from April through October to undergo a sterilization process before they can be sold. That could double or even triple the cost of Louisiana oysters for consumers and alter their taste, texture and color, something that could hurt this state's famous cuisine.

The agency is taking the step because of vibrio vulnificus, a bacteria that thrives in warm water and can sicken people with immune system disorders who eat raw oysters. People who suffer from AIDS, cancer, kidney disease and diabetes and those who abuse alcohol are at risk. About 30 people per year become ill from vibrio vulnificus, and half those cases are fatal.

But requiring every single Gulf oyster to be sterilized for seven months of the year -- even those destined for the pot or pan and not the half shell -- isn't reasonable. Labeling and other steps to educate those at risk so that they can avoid raw oysters makes far more sense, and the FDA agreed to that very approach in the late 1990s.

Now, suddenly and without warning, the FDA is ushering in a sweeping change without conducting a study or seeking public comment. The agency doesn't seem to have even considered the devastating impact on Louisiana's oyster industry, which employs 3,500 people and produces a third of all oysters consumed in this country. Currently, post-harvest processing can only handle about 10 percent of total production during the seven targeted months. Small mom-and-pop operations will have a difficult time coming up with the money to buy sterilization equipment by 2011.

Louisiana can set its own rules for oysters consumed within the state and doing so will at least ensure that Louisianians can continue to enjoy unprocessed raw oysters. But that won't help the industry significantly since most of Louisiana's oysters are sold out of state. State officials should push the FDA to reconsider this drastic and unfair step.