September/October 2020

Louisiana Cookin'

Authentic Cajun & Creole Cuisine

Louisiana Cookin'1 min readLeadership
Louisiana Cookn’
EDITOR Caitlin Watzke SENIOR COPY EDITOR Rhonda Lee Lother COPY EDITOR Meg Lundberg CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kirk Estopinal, John D. Folse, Lorin Gaudin CREATIVE DIRECTOR/PHOTOGRAPHY Mac Jamieson SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER John O’Hagan PHOTOGRAPHERS Jim Bathie,
Louisiana Cookin'2 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Editor’s Letter
EACH YEAR, we look forward to introducing our new class of Chefs to Watch in this issue. When making our selections, we look for individuals who respect Louisiana’s traditions while drawing from their own backgrounds and pushing the culinary envelope
Louisiana Cookin'3 min readCooking, Food & Wine
New & Irresistible
The Commissary, which opened in April, was designed as a commercial kitchen to streamline operations for the Dickie Brennan & Co. family of restaurants; a market to sell direct-to-guest steaks, seafood, and prepared refrigerated items like Turtle Sou
Louisiana Cookin'2 min readRegional & Ethnic
Flavor of Fall
THE ARRIVAL OF FALL in Louisiana means that locally grown sweet potatoes are readily available at grocery stores and farmers’ markets throughout the state. In addition to being a popular alternative to regular spuds, sweet potatoes are loaded with nu
Louisiana Cookin'3 min read
Sweet Satsumas
ONE OF OUR FAVORITE TIMES OF YEAR for Louisiana produce is satsuma season, which typically starts in October and peaks in December. Much of the citrus grown in Louisiana comes from southeast of New Orleans, in Plaquemines Parish. Satsumas are easy to
Louisiana Cookin'3 min readRegional & Ethnic
Wild Game Cooking
WHAT OTHERS USE AS BAIT or try to exterminate, Louisianans use as the main ingredient in bayou delicacies. Crawfish, opossum, raccoon, nutria, alligator, and tree perch (that’s squirrel for the uninitiated) are just a few examples of our exotic cuisi
Louisiana Cookin'3 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Challah
LET’S BREAK BREAD. A portion, a challah. Golden, braided loaves of airy, egg-rich, honey-sweetened challah bread are beloved by many, though the bread’s origins are deeply connected to the Jewish community. The word challah comes from the tradition t
Louisiana Cookin'2 min read
Mama’s Home Cooking
“EVERYTHING I COOK, I COOK IT WITH LOVE. I’m not going to do it any other way,” says Reta Nell Durgan, chef and owner of Mama Reta’s Kitchen in downtown Lake Charles. At her restaurant, Reta serves a simple menu of soul food and Southern home cooking
Louisiana Cookin'11 min read
Louisiana Cookin’ Chefs to Watch
For the past 19 years, Louisiana Cookin’ has identified up-and-coming chefs around the Bayou State as Chefs to Watch. These chefs are passionate individuals with a dedication to their craft and a talent that enriches Louisiana’s ever-evolving culinar
Louisiana Cookin'8 min read
New Ways with Banana’s Foster
New Orleans is the birthplace of many of our favorite dishes, but perhaps none so sweet as bananas Foster. The dish was invented at Brennan’s Restaurant in 1951, when Owen Brennan tasked his sister Ella and Chef Paul Blangé with creating a new desser
Louisiana Cookin'5 min read
Fall On The Bayou
MAKES 24 (photo on page 61) Inspired by a New Orleans favorite, these oysters are doused with a garlic butter sauce. Adding a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese before cooking would make this appetizer even more decadent! ¼ cup unsalted butter, cubed4 clove
Louisiana Cookin'4 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Louisiana’s Best: Smokin’ Hot
There’s no doubt about it: barbecue is a big deal in the South. From Texas and North Carolina to Memphis and St. Louis, there are a variety of regional barbecue styles that highlight different meat cuts, cooking methods, and sauces. Unlike other stat
Louisiana Cookin'2 min read
Cajun Custard
BELOVED THROUGHOUT CAJUN COUNTRY, tarte à la bouille can best be described as a sweet custard pie. French for “burnt milk tart,” this sweet treat is made up of a thick crust resembling sugar cookie dough and a silky custard filling made from everyday
Louisiana Cookin'2 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Speedy Supper
AS OUR SCHEDULES start to pick back up in the busy fall months, having a simple dinner in the rotation helps keep things stress-free. One of our favorite kitchen tools for easy weeknight cooking is the baking sheet. Every part of your dinner, from th
Louisiana Cookin'3 min read
Big Easy Brew
COFFEE IS SYNONYMOUS with the city of New Orleans. From Café du Monde’s famous café au lait to the fiery spectacle that is Antoine’s Café Brulot Diabolique, coffee is ingrained into many of the city’s culinary traditions. One of the Crescent City’s l
Louisiana Cookin'3 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Mosquito Supper Club
“I GREW UP not even knowing the word Cajun yet living a ‘Cajun’ life,” Melissa Martin writes in her cookbook, Mosquito Supper Club (Artisan Books, 2020). Melissa opened her New Orleans restaurant of the same name to share the stories behind the food
Louisiana Cookin'2 min read
Modern Manhattan
IN THE LATER PART OF THE 2000s, around 2008 or 2009, I was working on a cocktail book called Rogue Cocktails. We put it out the second year Cure was open. It was an independently published book of drinks that offered different takes on things. A lot
Louisiana Cookin'2 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Index & Resources
Appetizers Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp with Creole Mustard Dip, 65 Charbroiled Oysters in Garlic Butter Sauce, 65 All’s Fair, 93 Black Pepper Drop Biscuits, 81 Red-Eye Gravy Eggs Benedict with Black Pepper Drop Biscuits, 81 Bananas Foster Banana Bread, 53 B

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