Real Cajun

Nothing is hotter right now than Cajun. A recent featured city during the Montreal High Lights Festival, New Orleans style of Cajun food has been getting a lot of press. Most specifically Donald Link's book real Cajun has been a popular go-to reference for authentic Louisiana Cajun recipes.
We recently did two nights of Real Cajun. Here is what we made in no particular order.

Old School Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya
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Fried Chicken Livers
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Lake Charles Dirty Rice
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Chicken and Andoulle Gumbo
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Peach Buckle


The Jambalaya didn't really turn out like the picture. Mostly because I was a little short on time and cooking it for as long as the recipe asked for just wasn't time sensitive. I will say the flavour was there. The recipe calls for smoked sausage like andoulle. We don't get that sausage here in Montreal so I substituted Chorizo. It gave it the smoky flavour we needed. It definitely had a paella-ness to it.



When I mentioned fried chicken livers to the guests, there were a few strange looks. But once you have one bite, you're hooked. Anything deep fried is good. Especially chicken livers. They were soaked in buttermilk and dredged in flour and served on a crouton. Some chili on top and voila. They were awesome. One thing though is that the really spat up when frying. So use a net over the oil.


Give me a bowl of rice and I'm a happy boy. But when you fry up ground pork and ground chicken livers, fry them up and fold them into rice, you had me at fry! This is like nothing I've ever had. Reminiscent of Chinese fried rice, this incorporates pork, chicken livers, chili and vegetables folded into perfectly steamed rice. The flavour was deep and rich with a mild liver taste. A definite winner.



It wouldn't be a Cajun class unless we put together some gumbo. In this case, we fried up some chicken and sausage gumbo. This rich, thick, meaty stew is a staple and can be difficult to make. I tried to cook it as fast as I could for the class and it came out pretty good. I had attempted this recipe the weekend before and it was the same. Served over rice, it was very hearty. But it was a certainly big bowl of brown.



For dessert we made a typical southern Peach Buckle. It is essentially a simple cake batter with fresh peaches folded in. One tip. Don't make this outside of peach season. Use fresh, in-season peaches and it will be an amazing dessert. But we made it, and it came out OK for off season. But in season, it will blow your mind.