Real Cajun Cooking - Pure and Simple

Welcome to Real Cajun Cooking - Pure and Simple

RealCajunCooking.com lets you choose from hundreds of authentic Cajun recipes. Learn to easily prepare and cook original Cajun-style family meals with help from south Louisiana's Cajun cook and connoisseur, Jacques Gaspard, who's been preparing great Cajun meals for decades. Create the best gumbos, seafood, jambalaya, stews, salads and deserts -- the way they were originally prepared. Besides great original recipes, you will discover a hodgepodge of stories, recordings, videos and humorous anecdotes to entertain. So enjoy! Don't forget to tell all of your family and friends about Real Cajun Cooking.

What Kind of Gumbo to Cook?

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

When I ponder on what kind of gumbo to cook, I first like to look in my freezer to see what's on hand... or, in the local papers to see what is on sale at the supermarket.

Gumbo is a real Cajun dish. It is served in a soup bowl over cooked rice and garnished with chopped green onions and an optional pinch of filé lightly sprinkled on top.

Any of the following meats may be added to make a delicious gumbo: beef, pork, chicken, goose, wild duck, quail, dove, guinea, rabbit and squirrel, to name just a few. Sausage, tasso, and okra may also be added.

Seafood gumbos are made with shrimp, crab, crawfish and oysters, or a combination of these. The basics in making gumbo are the same. However, the seafood mentioned here take about 15+ minutes to cook so you should add it to the slow boiling gumbo about 15 -- 20 minutes before it is done.

Please check out these links for everything you need to make a great gumbo:

Tough Love Bean Stew

Anonymous wrote: "Can you teach me how to prepare a high-energy Cajun meal which will give my grown-up kid the courage to get off his lazy butt and find a job?"

Answer: Yes, Anonymous, I can. Serve the following simple Cajun seasoned bean stew only once a day for a week. That should certainly give your kid an incentive to look around for something else to eat. It's a good start.

1 small can pork & beans, (generic brand)
3 dashes Tabasco sauce
salt & pepper to taste
1 glass of lukewarm water (for drinking)

Note: Best served straight out of the can at room temperature. May be eaten with a plastic spoon or fork preferably outside with the doors locked.

Be careful, tho. The toes you step on today may be connected to the butt you're gonna have to kiss tomorrow. Ahheee!! Lache pas la patate!

Cajun Dirty Rice (Rice Dressing)

Cajun Dirty Rice (Rice Dressing) is not dirty at all as you will discover once you make some.This meal is so easy to prepare and the taste is absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs. ground meat (half pork and half beef)
2 Tbs. oil*
1 small bell pepper, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/2 cup green onion tops, chopped
a few sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped
(1) 10.5 oz can of Campbell's beef broth
1 1/2 cup cooked rice
1 package beefy onion soup mix
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Brown the ground meats. Add onions, bell pepper and celery (optional) and cook until tender. Next, add 1 can of Campbell's beef broth, the package of beefy onion soup mix and seasonings. Cook on medium heat for 15 minutes. Finally, add the meat mixture and chopped green onions to the cooked rice; stir and mix well.

This simple dish can become an entire meal in itself.

Enjoy!

Boudreaux and the Snake (Cajun humor)

Upon arriving at the edge of the bayou to do a little fishing, T-Boy Boudreaux soon realized he had forgotten to bring any bait.

Just then he happened to see a little garter snake passing by with a worm in its mouth.

Boudreaux snatched up the little snake and robbed him of his worm.

Feeling sorry for the little snake with no lunch, T-Boy snatched him up again and poured a little Bud Light down his throat. Then he went about his fishing.

An hour or so later he felt a tug at his pant leg. Looking down, T-boy saw the same snake with three more worms in his mouth.

So, I guess the moral of the story is "Where there's life--there's Budweiser".

Fried Catfish Nuggets

These spicy fried catfish nuggets are absolutely delicious! There's no doubt your friends will beg you for this recipe, but don't give it to 'em. Just send them over to Real Cajun Cooking - Pure and Simple so they can discover how to make this and other tasty dishes, too.

Ingredients

12 catfish fillets cut into bite size pieces
2 egg whites
1 Tbs. Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp lemon pepper
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cornstarch
4 oz. fresh beer
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow corn meal
1 quart peanut oil

In a bowl add the egg whites, Tony Chachere’s seasoning, cayenne pepper, lemon pepper, salt, Tabasco sauce, baking powder and beer together and thoroughly mix. Next, dissolve 2 tsp. of cornstarch in a small amount of cold water and add it to the solution. Again, blend all of the ingredients together then add a handful of nuggets at a time to the batter and coat them well.

In a separate bowl, with a lid, mix 2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of yellow corn meal together. Add the fish nuggets, close the lid, and shake until they are well coated on all sides.

Heat peanut oil to 365°F. and fry the fish nuggets for about 7 minutes or until they float to the top. Don’t attempt to fry too many nuggets at one time.

Peanut oil can be used several times before it is discarded. Bon Appetite! ... Ahheee!!
KT