The Cajun Foodie

Through a recent experience of mine (which I am not allowed to talk about) I learned a few things.  The major one being this: Though south Louisiana food is, without a doubt, some of the best food in the world, it is extremely simple and limited.  I mean all we do, for the most part, is sauté some vegetables, add some type of sauce base, some type of stock, some seasonings, some type of meat, and then throw it over rice.  Delicious, yes, but creative? Not really.  I mean, there are things that a good coon-ass like myself (and I’m sure some of you) would never even dream of.  I mean, smoked duck tacos? Pumpkin lamb stew? Homemade chorizo?  Risotto cakes fried in truffle oil?  Black mole sauce? WTF?  Who even knew you could eat a pumpkin?  What the hell is a mole?  Well, let me tell you, there is a whole world of food out there that I didn’t even know existed.

Well, I guess I had an idea (thank you Food Network) but I am more of a jeans and cowboy boots kind of guy.  White tablecloths and dress codes kind of throw me off.  Surely I can’t really afford to eat at these restaurants anyway, nor could I ever pull off this complicated cuisine in my tiny kitchen in Madisonville, LA.  Well, I was wrong.  It turns out most of these “white tablecloth” type of dishes are very simple.  It may take a bit of a process, but the steps are, most of the time, simple and easy to follow.  And, with the right ingredients, most people with a little cooking ability can pull off fabulous cuisine in any kitchen.  Of course, those fancy, often pretentious, $50-$100 a plate restaurants don’t want you to know that.

Anyway, that’s why I came up with this idea for a series of dishes that I have labeled “A Higher Class of Coon-Ass”.  These dishes are based in true Louisiana coon-ass tradition, but with fine dining flare.  Here is the first:

Jambalaya Risotto

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 4-5 cups of chicken stock
• ½ cup amber beer
• ½ cup white wine
• 5-6 very ripe tomatoes, diced (or 2 cans if you must)
• 1 chicken breast
• 1 pork chop
• ½ lb of good andouille or Cajun smoked sausage
• 2-3 slices of bacon
• 1/2  green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2  sweet yellow onion, chopped
• 2 stalk of celery, chopped
• 1 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2-3 sprigs of parsley
• 2-4 oz of butter
• French Bread – optional
• Cane Syrup – optional

Process:

Tomato puree:

• Render fat from bacon in a sauce pan and strain out meat pieces.
• Add ½ of the rendered fat back into the sauce pan and sautee 2/3 of the chopped vegetable mixture in bacon fat until soft.
• Cut meat into 1-1.5 inch cubes and cut sausage into 1-1.5 inch pieces.  Add them to vegetables and brown lightly.
• Add in diced tomatoes, season and stir.
• Simmer for 30 minutes, taste and add seasoning if necessary.
• Simmer for another 30 minutes or until the pork is tender.
• Remove meat and set aside.  Once cool, cut the meat into small bite size pieces.
• Put about a cup of the tomato mixture (without the meat) in a standard blender and puree.
• Set aside.

Risotto:

• In a separate sauce pan, begin heating up chicken stock and beer over medium heat.  Try to keep it just under a boil.
• Add remaining bacon fat and butter to a large skillet or sauté pan and melt butter over medium heat.
• Add remainder of vegetable mix and sauté until very soft being careful not to brown.
• Add white wine and deglaze pan over medium high heat.
• Add rice and blast rice for 2-3 minutes or until the edges of the rice are translucent.
• With a soup ladle, add about 1 cup of the hot chicken stock/beer mixture so that the liquid is just at the level of the rice.
• Simmer, stirring often if not constantly.
• As the liquid in the rice reduces, add more stock ½-1 cup at a time, keeping the liquid to just at the level of the rice.  Stir often.
• Before the last chicken stock/beer addition, add about 2-3 tablespoons of the tomato puree and stir in.
• Add the remainder of the chicken stock/beer mixture and simmer until rice is cooked but still holds its form.
• Taste and season.  The texture should be creamy, not mushy.  It should sort of resemble a rice pudding with the rice kernels still intact.
• Add a few pieces of each the chicken, pork chop and sausage and stir in.

o   Another option is to use the meat pieces as a garnish on top.

• Garnish with a tablespoon of the non pureed tomatoes and chopped parsley.
• Serve with a piece of French bread with a swirl of cane syrup.

P.S. – Season 2 of the tv show Masterchef premieres on Fox June 6.  I’m just saying…

JB out…