• dclong on August 02, 2015

  This is a pretty amazing cook book. It's huge, heavy, and full of pictures. Oh, and full of great recipes! The first 124 pages are about the history of Louisiana. If you collect cookbooks or like Cajun/Creole/Southern food, you must add this to your collection.

• lizard on May 05, 2012

  Please index this incredible book ASAP!

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Creole tomato grits

  • TrishaCP on March 12, 2015

    Somehow neglected to write a note when I made it a few months ago, but this was a fantastic and exceedingly rich dish. (Though the richness was cut by the tomatoes and the heat from the chiles.) I had frozen Hatch chiles so used them in place of the canned chiles, and they were great. I also used evaporated milk in place of the heavy cream (cleaning out the pantry) and it worked just fine.

• Chicken and sausage gumbo

  • TrishaCP on March 09, 2020

    This is basically what you want a gumbo to be. Both for the eating and making, it would be easier to use boneless skinless thighs, though maybe it would impact the flavor. We do add mushrooms and like the extra umami.

  • dclong on August 02, 2015

    This is my go-to chicken and sausage gumbo recipe. My only changes are to omit the mushrooms and add my own mix of Cajun seasoning. It's just a simple and good recipe. You definitely should follow the advice to pre-boil the chicken to make fresh stock if you don't have any homemade stock on hand.

• Gumbo des herbes

  • TrishaCP on June 30, 2018

    This recipe is from Leah Chase, and is supposedly the best gumbo des herbes recipe. (Though Mrs. Chase's gumbo des herbes recipe is also in One Big Table, and is different. Hmmmm....I went with this one because it included the trinity, omitted in the One Big Table version.) I loved the greens, but this was a bit meat forward for me and I prefer the version in the Food of New Orleans where the greens aren't pureed. I used collards, turnip greens, radish greens, carrot greens, arugula, chard, and kale. It was too late in the summer for mustard greens when I made this, and I definitely missed them here.

• Louisiana-style crawfish étouffée

  • TrishaCP on February 04, 2018

    This is basically a perfect recipe. Amazingly good. We used crayfish this time but I would use this for shrimp étouffée too per the below.

  • dclong on August 02, 2015

    This is the recipe I use to make shrimp etoufee. I just sub out the 2lbs of crawfish for 2lbs of shrimp. I usually get shell on gulf shrimp and peel them myself so I can use the shells to make a shrimp stock. I'll throw in a slice of of lemon and scraps from doing prep work for the recipe (onion, garlic, celery, bell pepper) and simmer in a little over 2 quarts of water for 30 minutes and strain.

• Bourbon pecan pie

  • TrishaCP on November 23, 2018

    It's been a while since I've made or even eaten pecan pie, and I forgot how sweet they taste. At least this version with cane syrup. My guests all liked it though. I had to bake this pie in advance, freeze it, and then defrost it in the oven. After defrosting, it looked liquidy again, so I returned it the fridge overnight to maintain the set. There was still some minimal weeping when I served it (I think from the cane syrup), but nothing major.

• Persimmon nut bread

  • TrishaCP on November 30, 2018

    This was an ok quick bread- a bit dry so I would recommend checking before the time specified in the recipe.

• Buttermilk pancakes with orange honey butter

  • seattletony on November 28, 2014

    Very fluffy and nice coloring. Good taste, though the butter didn't come together as well with oj.

• Cabbage and ground beef soup

  • foolcontrol on January 16, 2018

    This recipe was good. We enjoyed it. It is a great way to use a lot of cabbage. I will probably use a half a teaspoon less sugar than the recipe calls for next time.

• Bisque of three lettuces

  • dclong on August 02, 2015

    This is recipe that I have to make once a year once it gets cold out. It’s kind of an unassuming green soup, but it’s packed with Louisiana flavor. The andouille sausage pureed in with the vegetable base adds this amazing, rich smoky flavor that you don’t expect in a bisque.

• Bayou Lacombe crab boulettes

  • Baxter850 on May 04, 2020

    Absolutely delicious. No suggestions for recipe but added a creole mayo/pepper vinegar dipping sauce.