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Louisiana cooking is a rustic style that uses local ingredients with simple preparation. The French-speaking Cajun immigrants deported from Acadia in Canada by the British introduced this style of cooking to Louisiana.
Since that time,Louisiana's cuisine has expanded to include the abundant harvests and rich heritage and culture of its population.
Typical authentic Louisiana food consists of three pots. One contains the main dish, another will have seafood, sausage or steamed rice dish and the final one will be chock full of vegetables in season. Bell peppers, celery, and onions are the key vegetable ingredients although all seasonal vegetables are used. Game is popular and Alligator and wild meats are used as well as commercial varieties.
Gumbo
One of the most famous of Cajun dishes, Gumbo is a type of soup or stew. The core of a gumbo is a roux either dark or light to suit the main ingredient, which thickens the soup. Okra is also used for this purpose. Chicken makes a classic gumbo but various sausages such as Andouille, other meats and seafood are used.
Fil gumbo is not thickened until the end of cooking when sassafras leaves are added; a cooking technique borrowed from Choctaw Indians.
Jambalaya
Jambalaya is another authentic Louisiana food dish that always contains rice. Beyond that, everyone has their own individual recipe and while the other main ingredient is chicken, beef, shrimp or crawfish, almost everything else is added! Usually you will find chilli peppers, green peppers, celery, and onions.
touffe
This dish invented inLouisianais cooked using different shellfish such as crawfish or shrimp. touffe literally means "smothered" or "stifled" and is a way to cook seafood that is smothered in vegetables in a delicious tomato sauce resulting in this exquisite seafood stew. touffe is thicker than a usual stew and once again has a roux as the base
Rice
Rice is used for side dishes or main dishes and one such dish is rice and red beans. This glorious feast is made with red beans, onions, ham hocks, sausage, cooked rice, and seasonings. The ingredients are boiled together and then served over the rice with a tossed salad on the side.
Dessert
Every meal needs a dessert and carrying on the authentic Louisiana food theme, try pecan pie a favourite everywhere or Doberge Cake, which was created in 1933. It is layers of cake and pudding covered in butter cream with a glaze and completely scrumptious. It is commonly chocolate, lemon or caramel flavored.
Louisiana King Cake is associated with Mardi Gras. It is a simple twisted bread ring smothered in icing or sugar dyed purple, green, and gold - the colors of Mardi Gras. Sometimes a small trinket is hidden in the cake and whoever receives it gets to make the cake for the next Mardi Gras celebration.
Authentic Louisiana food is flavorful, spicy, well seasoned, and delicious made from the finest of seasonal ingredients from the region. The influences from the various nationalities that settled in the county have added to what is a truly iconic and unique cuisine that is adored by everyone who tastes it.
