Best Cajun dish

[Poppinfresh]

Ahhh cajun. One of my specialties. If I could only pick one, it'd have to be jambalaya, but it'd be a tough call. I mean, I'd have no problems turning my nose at boudin, but so many of the others...

[ironchef]

Crawfish Etouffee

[Phil]

Originally Posted by ironchef

Crawfish Etouffee

My wifes' kin live in Morgan City. Boy, can they cook. I love it all. Course you cook the old fashioned way they do, and and you will gain a pound or fifty

[Constance]

I forgot to mention dirty rice and jambalaya. I found it interesting that of the families I knew, the jambalaya was always made by the man of the house. One of the best ones I tasted had wild rabbit and smoked sausage in it (along with some other things).
My in-laws were the Gonzales family, from Gonzales, La. In that neck of the woods, they didn't use okra or tomatoes in the gumbo, and no tomatoes in the jambalaya. I happened to catch a show that Emeril was doing on jambalaya, and he mentioned that his friends in Gonzales didn't use tomatoes in their jambalaya or gumbo, so it wasn't just my in-laws.

I had gumbo at a little hole-in-the-wall in New Orleans called Felixe. Theirs was more creole than cajun, and while it didn't have okra either, it did have some tomato flavor in it...possibly some paste added in with the roux and vegetables.
The flavor was deep and spicy without being hot. Actually, nothing I ate when I lived there was particularly hot. That seems to be a new trend now.

[AllenOK]

Oh, man, I love Cajun. The first restaurant I ever worked in was a Cajun restaurant.

I make a nice batch of Jambalaya, gumbo, Blackened (insert meat here), and BBQ'ed shrimp.

I haven't had a good boudin, or Dirty Rice, since I left the Cajun restaurant. I need to work on perfecting some Etoufee.

[thumpershere2]

It's all good, No one here in the great north knows how to cook Cajun.

[mudbug]

Like thumpershere, I can't choose just one dish.

But I respectfully beg to differ about the other part of the message!

[Claire]

There was this great little place in Metarie that made the best "barbecued" shrimp/crawfish (depending on the season). It didn't taste like anything I've had before or since, and you literally wanted to lick the plate. Bknox, mufalettas are SO easy to make at home, you needn't deprive yourself.

Buy a good, firm, round loaf of bread (a boule in some stores). Slice in half horizontally, then scoop out a little of the bread from each side to form a sort of cavity. Brush with olive oil.

Make a sort of tapenade (only coarser) from both green and black olives, diced onion, roasted red bell peppers, lots of garlic and olive oil. A sprinkle of good red wine vinegar. At the last minute, toss in the bread crumbs you've removed from the loaf. Fill the hollow in the lower slice of bread with half of the olive salad. Then pile on slices of salami, ham, roast beef, etc and some provolone, swiss, cheddar cheese. The varieties of meats and cheeses is up to you. Pile on the rest of the olive salad so it fills in the hollow in the top piece of bread. It is fine right now, but I also like to toss it into a hot oven for just long enough to crisp the surface of the bread. slice into wedges.

Messy, but fun. A great party food. My favorite is at Napoleons in NO.

[vargr80]

ha ha im cajun born and bred in south louisiana. hands down a good gumbo gonna put you to sleep like nothin else. and honestly thats the best guage of a great cajun meal.

i wont preach to ya how to make one. everyone has their own thoughts. but i will give you a few pointers that help when your not used to making one.
first off use jugged water not tap. it will keep the flavor better.

secondly dont pre cook your meats. wait till the water and roux mix comes to a boil and add your meats into the boiling mixture. this will really inrich the flavor of the juice

third mix up your ingredients when it comes to the "meat" of the gumbo. here is my absolute favorite. chicken breast and thighs. turkey wings. andoulle and smoked sausage. theres a lil somethin in there for everyone and the mix of the flavors is exelente and best of all none of those ingredients is very expensive.

fourth im a big fan of deboning the chicken before hand a nice trick is to debone the chicken but put the wing, drumstick and thigh bones into a cheese cloth and tie it shut and let it boil in with the rest of the mix. just remove it before its dinner time

and last but definatly not least. cook it down. real gumbo is an all day affair. my grandmother used to tell me you should eat a meal in between when it starts cooking and you actually eat it. ive followed that rule to this day and i never have complaints.

[VeraBlue]

The gumbo at Liuza's By The Track. That would be followed closely by thier barbecued shirmp po'boy. They hollow out the bread and slide the shrimp into in, like stuffing a torpedo. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I've done more mardi gras themed meals than I can count. I love making (and eating !!) jambalaya, etouffe, fried green tomatoes and probably my favourite side dish is maque choux. Possibily my favourite entree would be red beans and rice, but it has to have the ham bone, andouille sausage and it must be made with dried beans. I'm also quite fond of aligator on a stick, but can only get that down in the quarter.