Bayou Feasting Through the Seasons of a Cajun Life

by Martin, Melissa M.

• ISBN13: 9781648291401
• ISBN10: 1648291406
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2024-09-24
• Publisher: Artisan

Summary

Author of Mosquito Supper Club, James Beard Award Winner for Best Book: U.S. Foodways, IACP’s Book of the Year, and an NPR Best Book of the Year, Melissa Martin shares a year in the life of South Louisiana cooking and all the dishes that are eaten to celebrate life’s big and small moments.

People on the Louisiana bayou mark the seasons of the Cajun calendar with traditions, emotions, and gatherings around the table to feast. In this highly anticipated next book from the author of the James Beard Award-winning Mosquito Supper Club, Melissa Martin shares a year of celebrations, both big and small, through 100 traditional Southern Louisiana recipes that combine humble ingredients, such as onions, potatoes, and peppers, and the local bounty, including shrimp and crabs. Made-to-share recipes like Carnival Crawfish Boil and Etouffee ring in the New Year and kickstart the Carnival season, which is a time for abundance and decadence. Lent unfolds with simple, fresh foods like Cabbage Slaw and Fried Fish Collars. Summer ushers in the bright bounty of shrimp season. Families and friends band together in October for boucheries, feasting on Smoked Sausage and Deer Tamales, then gather with loved ones for hearty homey holiday dishes like Fried Turkey, Holiday Dressing, and Red Velvet Cake. With illuminating sidebars and stunning photography, Martin illustrates what Cajun people already know: the table is a place for restoration, nourishment, and, most importantly, communion.
 

Author Biography

Melissa M. Martin grew up on the Louisiana coast and has lived in New Orleans for 25 years. After graduating from Loyola University New Orleans, she worked as an adult literacy teacher before moving to California following Hurricane Katrina. Working in the Napa Valley, she honed her self-taught culinary skills to a professional level. Martin returned to New Orleans and opened Satsuma Café, a casual farm-to-table restaurant, and worked at Café Hope, a nonprofit restaurant, teaching at-risk youth to cook seasonal food. In 2014, she opened Mosquito Supper Club, a Cajun restaurant created to celebrate the bounty of the shrimpers, oystermen, crabbers, fin and crawfish fishermen, and farmers that define bayou cuisine. Her first book, Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou, was named a Best New Cookbook by Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, NPR, The Splendid Table, Eater, Epicurious, and more. It won the James Beard Award for Best Book of the Year in U.S. Foodways and was awarded Cookbook of the Year and Best American Cookbook by the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals). Follow her on Instagram at @mosquitosupperclub and on Twitter at @mosquitosupper.

Table of Contents

Cooking to the Beat of Life   
My Cajun Table         
 
Abundance   
Carnival Crawfish Boil          
Crawfish Rolls
Soft-Shell Crawfish Po’Boy  
Mim & Eunola’s Étoufée      
Crawfish Fettucine
Hearty Oyster, Herbsaint, and Fennel Soup
New Orleans–Style Barbecued Shrimp         
Shrimp Sauce Piquant
Apex Jambalaya
Breakfast Ring
King Cake      
Les Oreilles de Cochon
 
Simplicity      
Fresh Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Herbs 
Strawberries and Pickled Beets         
Fermented Cabbage   
Dried Shrimp and Cabbage Salad
Cabbage Slaw              
Hush Puppies 
Smoked Fish Dip       
Crab Egg and Sweet Pea Rice
Fish Cheeks with Green Onions and Parsley
Fried Fish Collars      
Filé Gumbo    
Bunny Carrot Cake
Strawberry Poke Cake
 
Warmth
Bayou Shrimp Salad in the Style of Nice      
Creole Tomato Dressing with Boiled Shrimp
Pickled Shrimp          
Nanny’s Shrimp Boulettes       
Shrimp and Watermelon Salad          
Shrimp Rolls
Fresh Okra, Shrimp, Rice, and Benne           
Crab Boil with Potatoes and Corn     
Decadent Crab Rolls  
Jumbo Lump Crab Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette    
Panfried Soft-Shell Crab       
Red Crab Stew           
Summer Seafood Gumbo      
Blackberry Sweet Tarts         
Buttermilk Ice Cream
 
Grace 
7UP Biscuits  
            Muscadine Preserves
Milk-Soaked Fried Eggplant
Fried Potato Sandwiches
Shaved Persimmons and Greens       
Mirliton Slaw 
Corn and Squash Salad with Peaches
Corn Maque Choux
Corn, Salt Pork, and Tomatoes          
Shrimp-Stuffed Mirlitons      
Camille’s Mirliton and Okra Succotash        
White Bean, Andouille, and Greens Soup
Persimmon Cake        
Satsuma Sorbet with Condensed Milk and Benne
 
Traditions     
Cracklins        
Hog’s Head Cheese   
Boudin           
Boudin-Stuffed Chicken          
Smoked Sausage        
Pork Backbone Stew 
Deer Tamales 
Duck and Mushroom Fricassee         
Duck and Andouille Gumbo
Rabbit and Dumplings           
Afternoon Pecan Cake
 
Love   
Lump Crab, Spinach, and Artichoke Dip      
Fried Oyster, Radicchio, and Grapefruit Salad         
Turnip Gratin 
Turtle Soup
Chicken-Fried Quail    
Holiday Dressing       
Fried Turkey
Happy New Year Cabbage Rolls       
Black-Eyed Pea Soup
Gateau Nana
Alberta Songe’s Red Velvet Cake     
Pecan Crescents

Resilience      
Quick Pickled Yellow Onions           
Corn Bread with Dark Onion Butter 
Shoestring Onion Rings         
French Onion Soup    
Hamburger Steaks, Caramelized Onions, and Gravy
Fried Chicken Livers, Caramelized Onions, and Rice          
Seven Steaks
Velma Marie’s Oyster Jambalaya     
Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo          
Caramelized Onion and Fig Tart
 
Roots 
Mayonnaise   
Lemon Aioli  
Drawn Butter with Lemon and Bay  
Shrimp Butter
Small-Batch Boiled Shrimp, Head On          
Pickled Mustard Seeds          
Quick Pickled Red Onions    
Quick Pickled Red Blackberries       
Smothered Okra         
Shrimp Stock 
Pork Stock     
Roasted Chicken or Duck Stock        
Beef Stock     
Candied Pecans
 
Resources       
Acknowledgments     
Index  
About the Author