The Delights Of Cajun Cuisine

Cajun cooking is a popular medium at online culinary schools in Louisiana, where the weather is hot and the people are friendly. While Spanish, French, African and Caribbean cuisines have made their mark and have found a home in the south, Cajun food is a combination of all those cultures that is easily identifiable once you get your first taste of a Cajun dish.

Born in the deep southern parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, Cajun food started off as the culinary expression of extremely poor deported immigrants from the French colony of Acadia and farmers of that region. They faced the same hardships of any destitute community. They needed to make their food stores last for long periods of time, and couldn’t afford expensive meats, so they fortified their diets with rice and caught fresh seafood from the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River.

Cajun fare is an amazing experience. If you’re new to the craze, begin with some of these classic dishes:

Pork

Boudin – Boudin is a Cajun sausage that is made of pork meat, rice, and seasoning. It is then stuffed into a natural or synthetic casing. Boudin is known to generally contain pig liver to add extra flavor.

Tasso – This Cajun ham is a specialty in Southern Louisiana. It is made from the shoulder butt of the pig and is loaded with garlic, spices and cayenne pepper. The cut is smoked, allowing the fat and juice to permeate throughout the meat.

Andouille – Andouille is a coarse-grained, smoked pork sausage made with onion, garlic, pepper, wine and a variety of seasonings.

Seafood

Fish – Cajun parties often serve many different kinds of fish, including bass, salmon, trout, perch, catfish, redfish and snapper. These are often breaded and fried, or seasoned with oregano, cayenne pepper, bay leaf and celery.

Shellfish – One of the most delectable dishes on any serious Cajun menu has to be the shellfish. Crawfish, shrimp, oysters and blue crab all make the list, and are usually prepared with lemon, lime, onions, garlic, sugar, thyme and black pepper.

Gumbo

Gumbo is in a category all by itself. It remains the most recognizable and most popular dish in the Cajun cuisine repertoire. This soup has definite African and Native American influences – the word “gumbo” translates to “okra” in English. Most gumbos are thickened with roux and flavored with sassafrass leaves. Classic gumbo is made with chicken and andouille, but the possibilities for this dish are endless.

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