Cooking Up a Storm

After the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, many people returned to
their homes to find precious items destroyed. These included treasured
family recipes. This book, although incorporating many New Orleans
recipes, does not use them exclusively. The recipes come from several
countries. Many of them had been printed in the Times-Picayune many years
ago. The recipes in this book come from a recipe exchange column that the
paper currently prints. Almost all of them have been used often and are
extremely well tested.
    I have found two serious defects in the book. Although there is a section
for alcoholic drinks, there is none for non-alcoholic drinks. The second
defect is the use of some specialty foods. They do recommend the
substitution of kielbasa for andouille sausage but the closest Italian
grocery store to me is at least two hundred miles away (brown sesame
seeds). I don’t even want to talk about mirlitons (chayotes) or Elmer’s
(Gold Bricks).
    The eight recipes I used were all easy to make and only one was not liked
by my tasters. I had all the necessary equipment and only had to go to
three stores (I finally got the coconut cream at a liquor store.) The
one recipe not liked was a basic red beans and rice. I don’t understand
what happened. I grew up on this dish. It was extremely bland. I do
know that the recipe said to do some seasoning to taste but if you don’t
know what the dish is supposed to taste like, how can you season to taste?
    Every recipe investigated had interesting headnotes. There was usually a
request from someone looking for a recipe and the report of how the recipe
was found. They also talked about how varied the recipes were. These are
not just traditional New Orleans recipes. They also came from Vietnam,
Italy, Mexico and other countries. The content is interesting but the
writing often refers to people or places that non-locals would not be
aware of. I did find the material interesting.
    The paperback book has a pleasant heft to it. The photos on
the cover include a major one of crawfish. Some friends of mine, who are
not used to them, did not care for it. However, as a native New
Orleanian, it didn’t bother me at all and brought back some old memories.
The back cover has an explanation as to the purpose of the book. The book
has few photographs on the inside and what is present look like newspaper
photos. But it does have some pleasant and simple drawings used to
separate chapters. Some of my friends would have liked to have seen
photos of what the dish is supposed to look like. The general layout was
pleasant with one recipe per page and being divided into traditional food
divisions – cocktails, seafood, poultry, etc.

TESTED RECIPES

1.  Blue Cheese Puffs – Easy to make. They had a savory taste and nice
texture. The recipe says to serve warm or at room temperature. The
consensus of the tasters was to serve them warm.
2.  Poppy Seed Salad Dressing – Light, nice flavor, perhaps a little too
light. For some it added flavor to the salad.

3.  Spinach Madeline – While people raved about the taste, there was a
slight hiccup with the recipe. It said to prepare the spinach and then
the prepared spinach was never mentioned again. I just took a guess as to
when to combine the spinach and the sauce. Also, the use of – add spices
“to taste.” I don’t know what it is supposed to taste like. I used
pepper jack cheese for the pasteurized processed Mexican-style cheese.

4.  Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya – The hit of the tasting session.
Nothing was left of this. The tasters said there was a good blend of
ingredients.

5.  Red Beans and Rice – This was the great disappointment of the tasting
session. Nobody liked it. Although the beans were cooked with salt pork,
everyone said it was too bland.

6.  Ursuline Academy Anise Cookies – This received mixed reviews, even
from the same individual. One tester said she loved the first cookie and
hated the second. They all came from the same batch. Other statements
were nice texture and good flavor.

7.  Pina Colada Cake – Tasty, sweet, good, moist (perhaps a little too
moist). One taster said a little too sweet and perhaps make them into
small bite sized bits (although I let the tasters cut their own pieces
from the pan).

8.  Praline Cheesecake – The tasters thought the cheesecake tasted good
and had a good texture but the crust was a little bland.

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