Cajun and Creole Recipes

Creole and Cajun cooking styles originated in Louisiana.  While Cajun and Creole are distinct they share many of the same characteristics.  Rice is a staple and other common ingredients are crab, river shrimp, lake shrimp, oysters, crawfish, freshwater and saltwater fish, plus squirrels, wild turkeys, ducks, frogs, turtles, pork, homemade sausages, beans of all kinds, tomatoes, okra, yams, pecans, oranges and wines, liqueurs and brandy.  Cajun cooking originated with a group of people who had their roots in France but were immigrants to Canada.  They were exiled from Canada and eventually settled into the swamps and bayous of southern Louisiana.  They are known as Acadians and are their own cultural group with their own language.  Ingredients for Cajun cooking came from the swamps and bayous, and include wild game, seafood, wild vegetation and herbs.  It is cooked in a single black iron pot. Cajun food was also influenced by the Native American and German neighbors of the Acadians. Creole cooking originated from the aristocracy of southern Louisiana.  The people who created this form of cooking were immigrants from Europe and were aristocrats.  They wanted to eat the same type of food they had in Europe, and their food is heavily influenced by French, Spanish, German and Italian cuisine.  The chefs who created Creole did so by using classic French techniques and local food stuffs.  Here are the ones found in Thom's Recipe File...

• Chicken and Okra Gumbo

• Easy Chicken Gumbo

• Easy Jambalaya

• Emeril's Essence

• File Gumbo

• Kicked Up Wings

• New Orleans Red Beans and Rice

• Popeye's Red Beans and Rice

• Red Beans and Rice