Roux to Do
The Art of Cooking in Southeast Louisiana
by The Junior League of Greater Covington
Favorite Recipes Press, 2004
$24.95, cloth
208 pages
There are recipes that seem to pop up in every community cookbook - pound cake, deviled eggs, spinach salad - dishes you can't complain of, but hardly inspiring enough to buy a new cookbook. Those same recipes are here, but pound cake is studded with butterscotch chips and pecans, Deviled Eggs Luziane are rich with chopped shrimp and perfumed with dill, and Christmas Spinach Salad sparkles with bits of crumbled bacon and glowing pomegranate seeds.
Those are just some of the distinct flavors in this award-winning cookbook. Every year, the McIlhenny Company gives the Tabasco award to outstanding community cookbooks, and this one didn't win on home field advantage. The book gives entree into a cuisine that is a real American treasure.
Most of the recipes have distinct local flavor. Muffuletta Pasta is a clever adaptation of a regional specialty and one that will work for a busy cook in search of big flavors, fast. Sliced deli meats, a jar of olives, tossed in hot pasta and dinner is ready.
Others, like Duck Spring Rolls, Beignets de la Mer, and Cajun Curry Bundles reflect the skill and creativity of local cooks in adapting local culinary traditions, and who enjoy eating and entertaining. There's no fussing here about diets or healthful ingredients. These are meals that celebrate time at the table.
The recipes are organized into chapters for each course of the meal, including a generous brunch section full of sweet and savory indulgences like Crawfish Blues Corn Bread that turns a quick bread into a spicy, cheesy treat. French Toast is made custard style, stuffed with cream cheese and chopped pecans, or studded with bananas. Make-Ahead Praline French Toast will perfume the house with cinnamon and rouse the laziest slug-a-bed, plus it's a cinch for the cook. The slices of slightly stale French bread are set in an oozy-sweet blend of brown sugar, corn syrup and melted butter, and soaked in eggs and milk overnight. In the morning they bake into crispy, soft, slabs, with a built-in syrup.
No Louisiana cook book is complete without a Lagniappe section, the bits, pieces, and delectable little extras that don't quite fit anywhere else, but can't be left out. Louisiana Hot Pepper Pecans are just such a one. Baked in butter and flavored with a savory and spicy blend of soy sauce, Tabasco and creole spice, they are irresistible. Hide them away if you want any left for the cocktail table.
With chapters divided by the poster art used to advertise local food festivals and events, studded with sidebars, notes, and cooking tips from its contributors, the book offers authentic flavor and a real feel for its well-fed community.
© 2007 Claudia Kousoulas
