New Orleans Cuisine

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New Orleans cuisine is what happens when West European, African, Caribbean and Native American-Indian influences come together in the kitchen. There is no food like it anywhere else on the planet, and believe you me, it is an outstanding culinary experience.

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Note: If any of these ingredients are not available locally where you live, and if they are in bold and linked, you can purchase them in our online ethnic foods grocery store by simply clicking on them. You will be taken to a page here at Ethnic Foods R Us where you can locate the ingredient(s) you need in order to prepare the recipe in true, authentic and traditional fashion.

Ready to try some? Good. Here we go, with a fine selection of recipes that are representative of true …

New Orleans Cuisine!

Please note: For your convenience, you can click on the recipes listed below and be taken directly to a page with just that one recipe on it, in printer-friendly format.

You are certainly welcomed to read through this whole page, several of the recipes are here as well, and there are some videos and pertinent information on background, history, customs, special notes, etc., so it is well worth the read.

Here is the list, in alphabetical order:

Cajun Jambalaya

Crawfish Etouffee

Louisiana Crawfish Boil

New Orleans Gumbo

New Orleans Red Beans and Rice

New Orleans Cuisine: Gumbo

New Orleans Cuisine: Gumbo

Gumbo is a quintessential New Orleans cuisine cuisine style all-in-one, main course, full meal in itself kind of dish. There are lots of variations on it, you can use different meats and seafoods, but this version is one of the very best New Orleans gumbo recipes we’ve come across.

Ingredients:

Directions:

In a 10-inch frying pan, melt the shortening. Add the onions, celery and peppers. Cook for 3 minutes. Add parsley and cook for 2 minutes. Add okra, reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes.

Pour all frying pan ingredients into a Dutch oven and add tomato paste and water, stirring frequently. Add 4 cups water and the tomatoes and cook for 30 minutes.

Add all the meats and cook for 20 to 25 minutes more, stirring frequently. Serve over hot, cooked rice.

Cajun Jambalaya

jambalaya

Another distinctly New Orleans cuisine, a-full-meal-in-itself dish is the remarkable Jambalaya. Traditionally New Orleans jambalaya recipes call for a variety of levels of spiciness, but never very mild. This recipe is on the spicy hot side. You can control the level of spiciness to your tastes of course, by the amount of the seasonings and spices, but hey – if you want the real New Orleans tasting experience – go for the gusto!

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. In a bowl combine shrimp, chicken and Creole seasoning, and work in seasoning well. In a large saucepan heat oil over high heat with onion, pepper and celery, 3 minutes.
  2. Add garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, Worcestershire and hot sauces. Stir in rice and slowly add broth.
  3. Reduce heat to medium and cook until rice absorbs liquid and becomes tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.
  4. When rice is just tender add shrimp and chicken mixture and sausage. Cook until meat is done, about 10 minutes more.
  5. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Creole seasoning.

Next up, let’s take a trip down to the Bayou, and taste a famous and favorite ethnic feast created by the Cajun people.

We’re going to be eating some of these little guys:

crawdad

Crawfish

There is nothing more ethnically authentic and traditional, indigenous to New Orleans cuisine and Louisiana, than the eating of crawfish. They are sometimes called crawdads, mudbugs, or freshwater lobsters—which, to the larger saltwater lobsters, they are taxonomically related, as members of the superfamilies, Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. And there is an interesting history behind the beady eyed little critters becoming a culinary favorite throughout this deep south region of the USA.

On the south and west outskirts of New Orleans, Louisiana, there is a region known as The Bayou, where the people who live there are referred to as the Cajun. This area was first inhabited by (other than the Native Americans, of course) a group of exiles from France who had been sent to Canada, but who migrated down into this hot, swampy land.

The region of Canada they came from was called Acadia, so the locals named them Acadians. Over time, due to heavy southern accents, the name morphed into Cadians and, after more time had passed, they were called, as they still are today, Cajuns.

Food is hard to come by in the sweltering, Bayou swamplands, so the Cajuns had to get creative about coming up with sustenance for themselves. It didn’t take them long, however, to notice that between March and June, vast quantities of these crawfish came out of hibernation, crawling out of the mud, and swimming around in the shallows in search of their own food.

Surely, it would make sense, some Cajun must have decided to see if they tasted any good, and the rest is history. Cajuns developed a love for the crawdads and soon the taste for eating them spread all over Louisiana, to the point where farmers everywhere began harvesting them in order to supply the huge demand.

Crawfish are served steamed or boiled as a main entrée, or with other ingredients in soups, stews, pastas, just about any kind of dish you can think of. But by far the most popular, and fun, way of eating them is in a big family and friends get-together, preparing and serving up a whole large table full of the multi-ingredient feast, called the Crawfish Boil.

So now that you know what a Crawfish Boil is, and how it came to be so popular in, and famous for, the people down in Louisiana, let’s get into how to prepare the meal so you can enjoy one of the most authentic Cajun food recipes you will ever come across.

Louisiana Crawfish Boil

crawfish-boil-Small

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Using the largest cooking pot you have, fill it one third the way full with water.
  2. Toss in the bay leaves, both the liquid and dry crab boil seasonings, the whole garlic bulbs, oranges, lemons, artichokes, and potatoes.
  3. Next grind in the sea salt and black pepper, do a taste test for how much, depending on your saltiness preferences.
  4. Turn the heat up to high, and bring everything to a rolling boil, then turn the heat down to just a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes.
  5. Now add in the green beans, mushrooms, onions and corn, and stir well together, then allow to cook for another 15 minutes.
  6. Next add in the sliced sausage, stir well, and cook for another 5 minutes.
  7. Now add in the crawfish, turn the heat back up until the mixture is boiling, then reduce the heat again to just a simmer, and cook about another 5 minutes (maybe a minute more if you are using frozen crawfish). You will know when to stop cooking when the crawfish shells turn bright red and the tails can be easily pulled out. Take a crawfish out and test how well cooked it is by peeling it, which should be easy. You do not want to overcook crayfish, because the will get tough and not be as tasty.
  8. Strain the mixture through a large sieve or colander, and serve while good and hot.
  9. To present the meal in true traditional Louisiana style, spread newspapers or a tablecloth over a picnic table and spread your Crawfish Boil out on top with several serving tongs. Everyone grabs a plate and loads up all the yummy edibles they want.

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