Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2025 från Louisiana Cookin'

RANDY K. SCHMIDT is a New Orleans native who learned photography at a young age from his grandfather and has grown his craft over the years to include clients around the country for editorial, restaurant, and event photography. Randy is a regular contributor to Louisiana Cookin’ and has also worked with Visit Mississippi, Taste of the South, ReGrained, and more. CORY JAMES FONTENOT is a Louisiana native based in New Orleans. His photography style parallels the life and ambition of an adventure seeker and storyteller. He seeks inspiration from his culturally rich surroundings and his love for people and food. COLIN WILLIAMS has been the bar manager at Saffron Nola for the past two years and has used his background as a trained chef and sommelier to incorporate traditional Indian…

For boiled crawfish that are worth the wait, waste no time getting to Cajun Claws in Abbeville. Scores of loyal fans line up during the height of mudbug season for Donni Choate’s perfectly seasoned, exquisitely plump crawfish. Here are some other good tips on having the best experience there: Call ahead (because they only boil when there are enough high-quality mudbugs around), make friends while you wait, and try the fried shrimp (one cannot live on boiled crawfish alone!). If you can’t make it to Abbeville, try some of these tip-top boiljoints. Cajun Claws 1928 Charity St. Abbeville 337.893.9437 facebook.com/theoriginalcajunclaws Crawfish Town USA 2815 Grand Point Hwy. Henderson 337.667.6148 crawfishtownusa.com Hawk’s Crawfish Restaurant 415 Hawks Rd. Rayne 337.788.3266 hawkscrawfish.com Hot Tails New Roads | Prairieville Zachary hottailsrestaurant.com Randy Montalbano’s Seafood…

About 10 years ago, a handful of guys in Lafayette’s food scene decided they wanted to spend some time together cooking, cutting up, and honing their craft. What started as a house party among friends grew into a rollicking late-night community-wide gathering on Thursdays (that may have gotten on the local authorities’ radar). The focal point of the party was gravy, a treasured Cajun comfort food that requires little more than roux, some protein, rice, and plenty of stirring. The gathering—which started off as a weekly event—became less frequent as the years went on, but the Gravy Boys, as they became known around town, still get together to bond over a cast-iron pot of rich, hearty gravy. How did Gravy Thursdays get started? Tanner Dimmick: I wanted to get better…

Chocolate Doberge Cake MAKES 1 (9-INCH) CAKE 1¼ cups unsalted butter, softened3¼ cups firmly packed light brown sugar4 large eggs, room temperature1 cup sour cream, room temperature1 tablespoon vanilla extract2¾ cups all-purpose flour1¼ cups Dutch process cocoa powder1 tablespoon baking soda1 teaspoon kosher salt1⅓ cups boiling waterVanilla Buttercream (recipe follows)Chocolate Ganache (recipe follows) 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly spray 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with baking spray with flour. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper. 2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and brown sugar at medium speed until fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. (The ratio of butter to sugar makes this seem like it will not ever get fluffy, but it will come…

BEVERAGES AND APPETIZERS Crawfish Pâté Chaud 37 Crawfish Pistolettes 60 Fish Cakes 25 Pass the Amchoor 92 BREADS AND DOUGHS Green Onion-and-Cheddar Biscuits 66 Paprika Buttermilk Piecrust 95 DESSERTS Chantilly Cake 81 Chocolate Doberge Cake 78 Lemon-Berry Baked Alaska 82 Lemon-Blueberry Bread Pudding 82 Strawberry Wine Shortcake with Cream Biscuits 28 Tarte à la Bouillie with Strawberries 17 MAINS Crawfish Eggs Benedict 66 Crawfish Enchiladas 65 Crawfish Étouffée 60 Crawfish Pie 64 Crawfish Veronica 62 Creamy Crawfish and Rice Casserole 58 Creole Garlic Noodles with Shrimp 40 Loaded Crawfish Sweet Potatoes 61 Pan Fried Fish with Grilled Green Onion 23 Pork Steak Gravy 54 SAUCES, SYRUPS, AND TOPPINGS Chocolate Ganache 78 Spiced Mango Syrup 92 Spicy Hollandaise Sauce 66 Vanilla Buttercream 78 Whipped Mascarpone Cream 78 SOUPS AND SIDES Crawfish Bisque…

The Crawfish Comeback After last year’s difficult crawfish season, we’ve gotten early inklings that this season appears to be off to a good start. As crawfish is many Louisianians’ favorite springtime treat, it’ll come as a great relief to return to some sort of normalcy. In this issue, we’ve included about a dozen recipes that focus on crawfish or would work very well with the addition of the little crustaceans. A perennial favorite is Crawfish Bisque with Stuffed Crawfish Heads (page 59). This is certainly a labor-of-love dish that pays dividends once you get it to the table. One spoonful of the bisque paired with one of the savory crawfish heads will be enough to transport you back to childhood days (when someone was around to stuff those heads for…

This year marks the 50th anniversary since my family, like many other Vietnamese families, left their war-torn country to seek a new home here in the United States. After the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the US opened its doors, offering refuge to those displaced by the war. Initially settling in major cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston, a smaller group settled in the Gulf Coast areas, where my family began to form tight-knit communities and rebuild their lives from the ground up. What we didn’t know then was that we would not only reshape our own lives but also play a part in transforming America’s culinary landscape. Looking back now, I’m amazed at how far Vietnamese food has come in this country—what was once a…

Creamy Crawfish and Rice Casserole MAKES 8 SERVINGS ¼ cup unsalted butter4 stalks celery, chopped1 cup chopped red bell pepper1 cup chopped yellow onion2 (16-ounce) packages crawfish tails, rinsed and well drained2 (10.5-ounce) cans cream of celery soup3 cups long-grain rice, cooked according to package directions1 (8-ounce) can diced water chestnuts, drained1 (8-ounce) block sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded1 cup whole milk½ cup chopped fresh parsley, divided1 tablespoon Creole seasoning2 cups soft fresh French bread crumbs¼ cup unsalted butter, melted 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. 2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add celery, bell pepper, and onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about6 minutes. 3. In a large bowl, combine vegetable mixture, crawfish, soup, rice, water chestnuts, cheese, milk,…

PRESENTED BY CAMELLIA BRAND Saint Laurent Pizza SHREVEPORT | @stlaurentshv From pop-up food stands to a brick-and-mortar of its own, Saint Laurent Pizza is the tasty result of years of hard work and dedication. Its cool atmosphere includes 16 vintage arcade games in the back that are free to play, making this the ultimate destination to hang with friends, have a first date, or bring the kids for tons of family fun. With pasta and pizza dough handmade daily, the result is delicious dishes that will have you savoring every bite. And don’t ignore the drink menu. With natural wines from small growers and local beers alongside craft cocktails, this pizza place has carved out its own spot for the Shreveport community. Hot Stuff NEW ORLEANS hotstuffneworleans.com From the team…

Thirty years ago, I had the pleasure of traveling to Napa Valley, California, with Chefs Dean Fearing, Stormin’ Norman Van Aken, and Stephan Pyles. The real celebrity in our motley crew was Julia Child. To my recollection, Stormin’ Norman was at the wheel and Julia rode shotgun. Our route ran from Napa to Calistoga, California, along Route 29, with some fairly sharp curves along Saint Helena Highway. Fearing, Pyles, and I were in the backseat of the convertible, and with every curve, we got a bit antsy with the speed. Julia heard us mumbling about our near-death thoughts when she piped up and said, “Boys, don’t worry! If we crash, I’ll be on the front page of every newspaper in America and you’ll be memorialized as the best chefs in…

New Orleans and Lafayette are often the first destinations that come to mind when considering the Louisiana food scene. With their deep roots in Creole and Cajun foodways, it makes sense that they snag many of the culinary headlines, but there is a cadre of chefs and farmers in Shreveport-Bossier who have been hard at work bringing good, clean, local food to one of the Bayou State’s overlooked corners. Based in Haughton—about a 20-minute drive from downtown Shreveport—Evan McCommon and his family turned their farmland, which has served many purposes for the family across generations, into an engine of food excitement, changing the minds of chefs and everyday diners with every meal. Finding a New Way When Evan took over the Mahaffey Farms property in 1995, it was essentially a…

In the pages of Fresh from Louisiana: The Soul of Cajun and Creole Home Cooking, I’ve delivered a roadmap of the culinary delights that await you and the fresh ingredients that will astound you. Eating in the South is tied to the seasons, and Louisiana is no exception. Farm-fresh is the cultural mandate of Louisiana cooking and the essence of what sets it apart. I’ll also show you the places I know and introduce you to the people I’ve met that make Louisiana’s culinary culture so colorful. If you read my first book, Acadiana Table, then rest assured that this next one will take a deeper dive as I crisscross the state in pursuit of the stories behind the recipes. Speaking of recipes, the ones I’ve chosen for this book…

I’ve worked in restaurants for 16 years now and learned that a lot of restaurant work involves being technical and precise while also being as quick as possible. These skills are essential to any great employee, and any restaurant that strives to be the best needs all its employees to work toward this standard. There is, however, a defining trait of all the best restaurants, from ones with Michelin stars all the way to mom-and-pop establishments, that I think proves far more elusive than it should. This, of course, is the idea and practice of hospitality. Far smarter and more accomplished industry veterans than me have talked at length about this topic (Will Guidara, the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, springs to mind), and I don’t believe that I…

“Learning how to make a Venetian-style goblet takes so much control, a lifetime to achieve. Now, I’m dripping glass Jackson Pollock-style. It’s chaotic, hard to control. The fall of the glass determines the painting. It’s like a duet, a dance with the glass.”—SOLANGLE LEDWITH, Swamp Girl Glass Blowing From dangerous liquid glass, Solange creates gossamer Venetian-style goblets and dramatic art with bubbles of glass blown inside the larger for an astonishing layered effect. The shop overflows with her work, including a large cast woman’s torso draped in a fiber art bustier. There is an asymmetrical glass bowl fixed to a pedestal, glowing in golf leaf. Vases in all shapes, awash in color, line the shelves. Glassware ranges from the functionally pretty to the downright divine. ABOUT Solange discovered her passion for…