As Mardi Gras approaches, and
many people might be entertaining over the weekend with menus inspired by New Orleans, let's take a look at the two
cuisines that many people mistakenly interchange: Cajun and Creole. The two are similar, which accounts for the
confusion, sharing some similar ingredients like file powder, a version of mirepoix made of onions, bell peppers,
and celery, and each even having their own versions of jambalaya, gumbo, and etouffe. Yet, the cuisines are
different.
Cajun is the cuisine of French Acadians who were forced out of Nova Scotia in the mid 1700s and eventually settled in Louisiana. The word "Acadian" was transmuted into "Cajun" (say them both out loud and you'll hear).
The cuisine is a fusion of French and Southern cooking. The recipes use simple, local ingredients, and are considered somewhat "rustic." The base for many of the soups and stews is a dark roux made from flour and pork fat. There is a popular misconception that Cajun food is ragin' spicy, but though Cajun cooks use a heavy hand with spices such as cayenne and black peppers, the food is meant to have a balanced, not overpowering, heat. Another misconception is that Cajun cuisine includes "blackened" fish and chicken, but most foods prepared in traditional Cajun home and restaurants don't do this.
Cajun cuisine encompasses dirty rice, skillet cornbread, crawfish and other crustaceans boiled with cayenne and salt, a lot of catfish, use of pork in the form of andouille, boudin and chaurice (similar to chorizo) sausages, Tasso ham, gumbo, jambalaya, and etouffe.
Cajun sweets include beignets and pralines.
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