Cajun cooking

[cookwithlove]

Hi,
What is the difference between cajun and creole cuisine and also I came across cajun Blackening spice?

[bluedogz]

Creole cuisine is the "higher" cuisine created in the 1700's by the rich planters/plantation owners in the Southeast USA, sharing many ingredients and techniques with European cooking.

"Cajun" is sourced from Acadian settlers to Louisiana around the same time, but is more of a "peasant food" style of cooking, using wild ingredients, heavy spice to mask gamy flavor, and one-pot recipes. Many recipes are adaptations of European recipes using local ingredients; gumbo=boullabaise (sp?), jambalaya=paella, etc.

Dunno about the "blackening spice" thing. I reckon it's just some cayenne and paprika with the price raised.

[cookwithlove]

Tks Bluedogz for the history of cajun cuisine. Any outstandings or famous from creole or cajun cuisine?

Tks alot.

[bluedogz]

Hmmmmm..... not sure what you're looking for. Famous what? Chefs? Recipes?

[Pete]

Bluedogz has it right, for the most part. Both Creole and Cajun cuisine are pretty much a mix of French, Spanish, and African food traditions adapted to the raw ingredients available in Bayou country. Creole tends to be a more refined rendition as it developed out of the Haute or finer cuisines of the the well-to-do while cajun has it's basis in peasant cuisine, especially that of the Acadians, who lived, for the most part in the bayous while the Creole came from "city folk".

Some of the more popular (and well known) dishes from these 2 cuisines are:
Gumbo
Shrimp Creole
Shrimp Etouffee (sp?)
Jambalya
Blackened Redfish (a relatively new phenomon)
Po'Boys (sub sandwiches)
Dirty Rice
Oysters Rockafeller (yes, created in New Orleans)
Bengiets
Just to name a few. Some of the foods associated with New Orleans, Bayou Country, Creole and Cajun cuisine are:
Shrimp
Crawfish (crayfish)
Redfish
Okra
Alligator
Rice
Peppers (sweet and hot)
Tasso (a spicy ham)
Andouille sausage
Boudin (another sausage)
Oysters
The list can go on and on.

[cookwithlove]

Thanks Pete for sharing abt Cajun cooking.

[epicous]

Originally Posted by Pete

Alligator

Similar to this?

Image of roasted reptile:
http://www.boingboing.net/images/roastcroc.jpg

[blueschef]

Generally the Cajuns "eat anything". They were/are poor folks who grow or forage the abundant offerings in the fertile Bayou country. They use very old French pesant teniques to feed there usually large famlies. There is a saying that in a Cajun country Zoo an animals discription ends with a recipe! They use everything and waste nothing!

Creole food was actuallymade by black "hired (note slaves)" who were the cooks for the wealthy/elete of the New Orleans area. Usually shown some of the "haute" French teniques to incorporate into there own culinary style.

I seriously recommend these two books to learn about the cusine of the area:
http://http://www.amazon.com/Chef-Paul-Prudhommes-Louisiana-Kitchen/dp/0688028470/sr=1-1/qid=1164555034/ref=sr_1_1/002-3345858-5854454?ie=UTF8&s=books

http://http://www.amazon.com/Prudhomme-Family-Cookbook-Old-Time-Louisiana/dp/0688075495/sr=1-8/qid=1164555034/ref=sr_1_8/002-3345858-5854454?ie=UTF8&s=books

[Dinengurth]

"blackened" is more a technique, not so much a spice blend. fish is usually soaked in melted butter or fat and then put in an insanely hot cast iron skillet, creating the blackened effect. this is usually done outside b/c when I say insanely hot, I mean way past smokin hot and can smoke out a kitchen.

[MikeLM]

"Blackened" cooking was either invented or popularized by Paul Prudhomme, who put Cajun cooking on the map twenty-five or thirty years ago. (It wasn't the widely-despised - by Cajuns - Justin Wilson.) Prudhomme's sister had a restaurant up near Carencro which achieved considerable notice, but every time we went by it was closed.

Prudhomme worked up a multi-spice rub (available in stores everywhere) and then dropped the food into an almost red-hot iron skillet to scorch the bejeezus out of it. I had blackened fish in NO or the Cajun Country a couple of times- done right, it's not bad, though pretty contrived.

You CANNOT do this in a kitchen if you have a smoke detector anywhere in the house, unless you want to feed the Fire Department, too.

Mike