Chasing the Gator: Isaac Toups and the New Cajun Cooking by Isaac Toups and Jennifer V. Cole

  • Blonde roux

    Blonde roux (page 9)

    from Chasing the Gator: Isaac Toups and the New Cajun Cooking Chasing the Gator by Isaac Toups and Jennifer V. Cole

    • Categories: How to...; Cajun & Creole; Vegetarian
    • Ingredients: butter; all-purpose flour
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Notes about this book

  • SULibraries on October 18, 2025

    641.5975 T726c 2018 (LOU)

Notes about Recipes in this book

  • Isaac's pepper paste of pain

    • foodgloriousfood on June 30, 2023

      Need to make this before making the Pasta in Purgatory recipe. But Isaac suggests other uses for the remaining paste.

  • Peel & eat shrimp

    • Baxter850 on November 12, 2023

      Was surprised by how good this version was. Great flavor and perfect technique.

  • Boiled shrimp for two

    • Baxter850 on November 13, 2023

      Surprisingly good. Technique is perfect for making sure the shrimp peel easily.

  • Cocktail sauce

    • Baxter850 on November 12, 2023

      Hard to go wrong with cocktail sauce. There are better recipes (or can just wing it).

  • Dirty rice

    • audrey_qvgjbv on June 01, 2026

      I admit I put the rice in the oven instead, but the recipe is good.

  • Gumbo #1: chicken and sausage gumbo

    • paul_449t9u on February 03, 2026

      I sub out the grape seed oil and usually make the roux with a duck fat if I have it. A good beer also goes a long way in adding flavor. This is one of my favorite gumbo recipes.

    • dante_2gz6vd on May 10, 2026

      My go-to gumbo recipe. I trade out the chicken thighs with leftover turkey and chicken fairly often, and it still turns out.

    • rachel_ywqstg on June 09, 2026

      Delicious and comforting! I’ve followed his videos on youtube featuring this recipe and it slaps everytime. Not sure why he writes red bell pepper in the recipe - he uses green (part of the “trinity”) in his videos. I also sub additional chicken stock when I don’t have beer on hand. In addition, I would add the chicken later in the recipe - if you add it at the beginning of the simmering process it becomes shredded (which may be his intention, but I prefer bites of meat)

  • Drunken shrimp

    • GrilloGunterKitchen on October 30, 2024

      Would add a few more tomatoes, just a personal preference! They were delicious in that broth and I wanted more of them!

  • Pasta in purgatory

    • foodgloriousfood on June 30, 2023

      This recipe requires another recipe, Isaacs Pickled Paste of Pain to be made first. Then you make the Purgatory Sauce adding a couple of tsp of the pepper paste. You can then use the Purgatory Sauce as a pasta sauce or to poach eggs in, or like I did as a Chili Base (1lb lean ground beef, 1c chicken stock and 2 cups sauce, simmer 45 mins) or just serve the sauce over pasta. Versatile recipe! Love the different suggestions on how to use it. I love that Isaac does this with his recipes. Here is the base recipe here are some riffs…. ok … go!

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  • ISBN 10 0316465771
  • ISBN 13 9780316465779
  • Linked ISBNs
  • Published Oct 23 2018
  • Format Hardcover
  • Page Count 256
  • Language English
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher Little, Brown and Company

Publishers Text

A badass modern Cajun cookbook from Top Chef fan favorite Isaac Toups and acclaimed journalist Jennifer V. Cole, featuring 100 full-flavor stories and recipes.

Things get a little salty down in the bayou...

Cajun country is the last bastion of true American regional cooking, and no one knows it better than Isaac Toups. Now the chef of the acclaimed Toups' Meatery and Toups South in New Orleans, he grew up deep in the Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana, where his ancestors settled 300 years ago. There, hunting and fishing trips provide the ingredients for communal gatherings, and these shrimp and crawfish boils, whole-hog boucheries, fish frys, and backyard cookouts--form the backbone of this book.

Taking readers from the backcountry to the bayou, Toups shows how to make:
  • A damn fine gumbo, boudin, dirty rice, crabcakes, and cochon de lait
  • His signature double-cut pork chop and the Toups Burger
  • And more authentic Cajun specialties like Hopper Stew and Louisiana Ditch Chicken.
Along the way, he tells you how to engineer an on-the-fly barbecue pit, stir up a dark roux in only 15 minutes, and apply Cajun ingenuity to just about everything.

Full of salty stories, a few tall tales, and more than 100 recipes that double down on flavor, Chasing the Gator shows how--and what it means--to cook Cajun food today.

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