Who doesn't love real Cajun cooking? South Louisiana has such a fun-loving culture, unique. Food is a big part of that culture. Back in January, I headed to Lake Charles to meet up with Ron Ardoin, Jr. (pronounced R-dwan...rhymes with Boudin (Boo-dan) We had a big day of consulting and lake management work ahead of us.
Ron, Jr. owns Lake Area Pond Management based there. He'd invited me to his 'Cabori (pronounced "ca-bon" like "cinna-bon) for revelry, fellowship, food, and my Wednesday night live Facebook broadcast. His dad, Ron, Sr. was the chef. He'd made a cast iron dutch-oven pot of fresh crawfish etouffee and was wrapping up a dish I'd not yet seen or heard of, Crawfish bread.
That stuff stole the show that night. The different tastes, the textures, flavors, the setting...the whole experience is memorable. The Etouffee was supposed to be the main course, but in my mind, it complemented the Crawfish Bread, hands-down.
In Louisiana Creole cooking, the "Holy Trinity" is equal parts onion, celery, and green bell pepper. It's used as the base for many of their dishes, especially gumbo, etouffee, and jambalaya. Credit Chef Paul Prudhomme for the name. If you add fresh garlic, it's called "the pope". We love "the pope".
Crawfish Bread Ingredients
Sourdough Bread (buy a loaf, your size) Two pounds of crawfish tails Celery; chopped Garlic
Large Onion; diced
Large Green Bell Pepper; diced Vi cup vegetable oil V2 cup butter 2 cans Celery soup 8 oz. Shredded Cheddar Cheese.
In a large pot or skillet—cast iron works great—melt the butter, add vegetable oil and heat on medium. Add the holy trinity, equal parts celery, onion, bell pepper. Add "the pope", four or five cloves of chopped, fresh garlic. Sautee until onions are translucent. Add the crawfish tails and celery soup and simmer for fifteen minutes. Turn off the fire, add the shredded cheese and stir until melted. Split the sourdough bread in half, like a hot dog bun. Scoop some crawfish concoction onto the bread, fold it over like a sandwich and eat. It tasted like Ron had buttered the bread on top and added a dash of garlic salt, added the crawfish mixture, folded the bread over, and staged it in the oven to keep warm. When he set it on the stove and cut into it, the different smells and colors made me wrap a big smile around my face.
