This hearty Crawfish and Pumpkin Bisque defines the fall season in Acadiana for me and represents the best of rural farm-to-table sourcing. Combining the sweet tail meat of crawfish and fresh seasonal corn cut from the cob, it is certainly a winning combination. But, when you introduce pumpkin along with curry powder and cane molasses,…
White Beans Supreme with Ham Shank, Tasso and Smoked Pigtails over White Rice
Every once in a while, I like to get back to basics like my recipe for White Beans Supreme. It’s a simple Cajun recipe with easy preparation and satisfying results. It’s no-fuss, home-style, comfort food that is heart-warming and sticks to your soul like white on rice. Beans and rice are a staple of every…
Tomahawk Ribeye
Now and then, I must seek out the thickest cut of beef I can find for a manly meal. It is a primal urge. Cooking steaks portioned in gargantuan slabs are not really about the quantity of the meat, but rather it is all about the quality of the outcome. Let me explain. Over the…
Chic Steak Sandwich at the Acme Café
Ding…ding…ding! Order up! Chic Steak Sandwich, extra mayo, hold the pickle! My father, George Graham, Sr., was slinging burgers at White Tower in Michigan in the years before WW II and wound up welding aircraft parts in a factory in Detroit until war’s end. Flush with cash and a dream, he and my mom headed…
Braised Beef Shanks with Parsley Pecan Pesto
Let’s cut to the meat of this story–whole sectional cuts of beef are irresistible to me. They harken back to pioneer days and more rustic farm-style butchering techniques. But beef shanks are rarely seen whole in the supermarket. My guess is that retailers fear that timid customers will panic and run screaming from the meat…
Cajun Pork Jambalaya
A black pot of Cajun Pork Jambalaya is a defining Cajun recipe that speaks the language of Louisiana. But as is the case with many Louisiana dishes, there are two distinctly different styles of jambalaya in Louisiana–Creole and Cajun. Perhaps, it is this Cajun recipe that most defines the two culinary cultures. The point is that…
Roast Beef Po’boy
Growing up in South Louisiana, po’boys were just about as common as hamburgers are today. In small towns back then, we didn’t have a burger chain on every corner. It was mostly mom-and-pop sandwich shops and greasy spoon cafés that put out their home-cooked specialties, especially a down-home Louisiana roast beef po’boy. I grew up…
Chicken-Stuffed Bell Peppers with Maque Choux Sauce
When I saw the bin of ripe green bell peppers at my local farmer’s market, I immediately thought of stuffing them. In Cajun country, stuffing sweet peppers with ground anything is a basic Cajun recipe that every home cook knows by heart. Usually it’s a mixture of beef and pork sausage with just the right…
Perfect Herb-Roasted Chicken
Roasting a whole chicken is as basic to French Acadian cooking as it is to French Provencal cooking. Although the spice blends vary and most Louisianans would be stumped at the thought of trussing a bird, the two cultures still elevate the lowly poulet to a stellar dish. It seems these days that roasting a…
French Mustard-Braised Rabbit
The people of South Louisiana have many ancestral ties to their French cultural roots–cooking included. For instance, a delicate roux made by a trained saucier in the kitchen of a Michelin-starred French restaurant takes the same basic technique as a Cajun recipe for one made by a skilled Cajun cook on a home stovetop. Although…