So, what exactly is a tartine? By definition, it’s a French open-faced sandwich with sweet or savory ingredients. A rather fancy little word that conjures up snooty French folks taking dainty bites in between sips of their French 75. Not exactly down-home Cajun fare is it? Well, I beg to differ. These tartines are locally…
Sun Jewel Melon Ice Cream
Even at my age, summer in the South conjures up childhood memories of the many ways we fought to stay cool on those sticky hot, horrendously humid Louisiana days. It amazes me today at the simplicity of those times and how we savored the most ordinary events in our life like hand-cranked ice cream. Back…
Tomahawk Ribeye
Now and then I must seek out the thickest cut of beef I can find for a manly meal. It is a primal urge. Cooking steaks portioned in gargantuan slabs are not really about the quantity of the meat, but rather it is all about the quality of the outcome. Let me explain. Over the…
Chic Steak Sandwich at the Acme Café
Ding…ding…ding! Order up! Chic Steak, extra mayo, hold the pickle! My father, George Graham, Sr., was slinging burgers at White Tower in Michigan in the years before WW II and wound up welding aircraft parts in a factory in Detroit until war’s end. Flush with cash and a dream, he and my mom headed back…
Beer-Braised Beef Shanks with Parsley Pecan Pesto
Let’s cut to the meat of this story–whole sectional cuts of beef are irresistible to me. They harken back to pioneer days and more rustic farm-style butchering techniques. But beef shanks are rarely seen whole in the supermarket. My guess is that retailers fear that timid customers will panic and run screaming from the meat…
Cajun Pork Jambalaya
Jambalaya is a defining Cajun recipe that speaks the language of Louisiana. But as is the case with many Louisiana dishes, there are two distinctly different styles of jambalaya in Louisiana–Creole and Cajun. Perhaps, it is this Cajun recipe that most defines the two culinary cultures. The point is that Creole jambalaya includes tomatoes while…
Roast Beef Po’boy
Growing up in South Louisiana, po’boys were just about as common as hamburgers are today. In small towns back then, we didn’t have a burger chain on every corner. It was mostly mom-and-pop sandwich shops and greasy spoon cafés that put out their home-cooked specialties, especially po’boys. I grew up in Washington Parish an hour…
Chicken-Stuffed Bell Peppers with Maque Choux Sauce
When I saw the bin of ripe green bell peppers at my local farmer’s market, I immediately thought of stuffing them. In Cajun country, stuffing sweet peppers with ground anything is a basic Cajun recipe that every home cook knows by heart. Usually it’s a mixture of beef and pork sausage with just the right…
Perfect Herb-Roasted Chicken
Roasting a whole chicken is as basic to French Acadian cooking as it is to French Provencal cooking. Although the spice blends vary and most Louisianans would be stumped at the thought of trussing a bird, the two cultures still elevate the lowly poulet to a stellar dish. It seems these days that roasting a…
French Mustard-Braised Rabbit
The people of South Louisiana have many ancestral ties to their French cultural roots–cooking included. For instance, a delicate roux made by a trained saucier in the kitchen of a Michelin-starred French restaurant takes the same basic technique as a Cajun recipe for one made by a skilled Cajun cook on a home stovetop. Although…