Notes about Recipes in this book

• Green gumbo (Gumbo z'herbes)

  • TrishaCP on June 10, 2014

    Traditionally a Lenten dish, this is actually a perfect recipe any time of the year when greens are plentiful and beautiful (including carrot, turnip, radish, and beet tops). I used a combination of collards, mustard greens, beet greens, radish tops, parsley, and scallions. I didn't have a ham bone, so just used ham stock in place of water and that worked fine. This was immensely flavorful and tasted better the second day. However, you do have to be ok with eating thoroughly cooked (soft) greens to enjoy this.

• Black eyed peas, pig tails, and rice

  • TrishaCP on April 09, 2016

    No pig tails or ham for me, just a nice flavorful pot of black eyed peas that taste like you want them to taste. I didn't bother cutting up the ham bone.

• Oyster and sausage jambalaya

  • TrishaCP on July 22, 2013

    The authors state that this is their favorite jambalaya, and I have to say it is pretty spectacular. I made a half batch, but still had to cook it for the full amount of time to get the rice cooked all the way. Don't be concerned about the long-cooking time for the oysters- most stayed plump and juicy and those that didn't just added their flavor into the rice. My final tip is to be mindful of the spice level of your sausages before adding any chili powder and cayenne. (Maybe I am the only person that needs this reminder?) We used a boudin that was already pretty hot, along with the spices, and it was just on the verge of being overly spiced.

• Crawfish étouffée

  • TrishaCP on October 23, 2016

    Subbing the crawfish fat for much less olive oil undoubtedly impacted the richness and flavor, but even so, this was very good indeed. We used 1/8 tsp cayenne and lashings of Crystal hot sauce to taste.

• Baked oysters

  • kkmatti on August 05, 2023

    Good baked oyster recipe. My biggest criticism would be that the long cooking time shrank the oysters to such a small size that they disappeared. It wasn't easy to taste them with all of the bread crumbs. We added a little Parmesan cheese to the top.

• Shrimp sauce piquante (shrimp Creole)

  • TrishaCP on February 06, 2016

    The allspice and mace are particularly nice in this.

  • anniette on October 30, 2021

    This is our family favorite of nearly 40 years standing. We like to multiply the recipe many times, and make it ahead, freezing the sauce, adding the shrimp later, when we thaw and heat it to serve. We do puree and add just a couple of shrimp when preparing the sauce, for the flavor. My own note says: "Invite someone to dinner. This is a magnificent meal and should be shared."