New Orleans: Fact Sheet
Taste Takes Off New Orleans
The final destination of Taste Takes Off international travels is
to New Orleans. The programme was shot just a few weeks before
Hurricane Katrina brought such appalling destruction. Inevitably
the disaster touched everyone we met. Some have gone through very
difficult times but everyone who took part in the programme is very
much alive, well and back in business with a smile.
New Orleans will never be quite the same again so this programme is a unique record of a city just before disaster struck. Nine months on from Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans is slowly getting back on its feet.
Located at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi river in the State of Louisiana is the former trading port of New Orleans. Founded by the French, governed by the Spanish and eventually absorbed by the United States the city has a multi layered history. Life revolves around two things here, first there's music, it's the birthplace of jazz and a stronghold of blues. Then there is food. Two cuisines form the cornerstone of Louisiana's culinary fabric; there's the elegant and refined Creole cuisine of New Orleans, a New World take on classical French style and rustic Cajun food the 'frontier French' of the exiled Acadians which has its heart in Louisiana's rural communities.
Poppy Tooker
For an overview on the food scene in New Orleans we call
in on resident food guru Poppy Tooker. Poppy heads the local
Slow Food convivium and is passionate about the culinary history of
Louisiana. Since the hurricane the cooking school featured,
Culinaria has closed down. Poppy now teaches at Savvy Gourmet at
4519 Magazine Street, which reopened in October 2005, quite a
feat!
Contact: email
poppy@poppytooker.com
Savvy Gourmet 001 504 895 2665
Email
info@savvygourmet.com
Crescent City Farmer's Market
The Crescent City Farmer's Market has reopened on Tuesdays and
hopes to open on more days soon. There's a selection of the
freshest, tastiest fruits, vegetables, seafood, baked breads and
freshly made pies, bedding plants, dairy products, freshly cut
flowers, direct from our region's finest farmers, fishers, and
bakers. All stalls at this market are run by the growers and
producers so you can ask all the questions you want about how to
prepare the crab they're selling or how to cook okra.
For up to date information on the markets opening days visit their website at www.crescentcityfarmersmarket.org
The USA Slow Food Organisation has been very active in the business of getting the storm affected fishermen and food producers of Louisiana back up on their feet. The business of many has been decimated. In New Orleans there used to be 4 thriving markets. There is now just one.
For more information go to the USA Slow Food main web
site:
www.slowfoodusa.org
Poppy has asked that if anyone would like to help the storm affected producers there are 2 ways that donations can be made.
The Terra Madre/Katrina relief fund web
site
Or other way of making donations:
Slow Food USA bank coordinates:
HSBC, 452 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY (USA) 10018
SWIFT: MRMDUS33
Account # 610711954
Routing # 021001088
Quoting: Terra Madre Fund
NEW ORLEANS SEAFOOD GUMBO
1 kg prawns
4 crabs
1 large onion
1 green pepper
2 stalks celery
6 spring onions
1 kg okra, sliced to 1/2cm thick
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour
500g fresh or tinned tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
Freshly ground pepper and salt
As much cooked rice as you like to accompany the gumbo.
To make the stock, peel the prawns and throw the heads and shells into a large pot. Add the skin, tops and bottoms of the onion. Add the core of the green pepper. Chop off the celery leaves and bottoms and add them. Add the tops and bottoms of the spring onions. Cover with water almost to the top of the pot and boil for 20 mins. Strain and reserve.
Finely chop the onion, pepper, celery and spring onion. In a pan fry the okra in oil on a high heat until browned. To make the roux, heat oil in a large pot then add the flour. Cook this mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it takes on a dark, milk chocolate colour. It should be the consistency of a thick sauce so you may need to add a little flour or oil until it's right. It is absolutely essential to allow the roux to brown. Add the onion to the roux and cook for about 5 minutes until the mixture darkens even more, then add the pepper and celery and cook another 5 minutes. Stir in the stock, ladle by ladle, until you have added up to a litre to make a thick soup. Drain the tinned tomatoes or peel fresh ones, chop and add to the soup along with okra, garlic, thyme, bay leaves and pepper. Simmer. In the meantime prepare the crabs.
To Prepare the Crabs
Put crabs in the freezer for half an hour then boil them
for 5 minute. Pull off and discard the upper shell.
Turn the crab over and locate the 'apron' which is a piece shaped
like a handle on a male crab and a bell on females. Remove the
apron and the membranes that attach it to the crab. Cut the
crab in half and remove and discard the feathery gills. Add
crabs to the soup and simmer for half an hour.
Ten minutes before serving add the prawn meat, chopped spring onions and salt to taste. Serve on top of plain boiled rice.
Crawfish
When springtime comes to Louisiana's coastal wetlands,
residents prepare for its annual crustacean invasion. As water
temperatures warm, millions of crawfish awake from long winter
sleeps and start prowling the muddy swamps and marshes of the Bayou
State. Crawfish are a distant relative of our saltwater
crayfish although at around 4 oz a piece it takes quite few to
satisfy an appetite. Naturally they are a huge item on menus
at this time of year. You'll find crawfish ettoufee, crawfish
boudin (sausage), crawfish poboys, it's done anyway you can think
of although in rural Louisiana the most common preparation is to
boil it up. The crawfish boil is one of the cornerstones of
Louisiana culture and the highways are lined with seafood
restaurants offering seasonal boiled seafood especially
crawfish. The backyard crawfish boil is also a traditional
social event and we were kindly invited to experience one first
hand by local crawfisherman Joey Fonseca and his family.
The usual procedure is to bring a large pot of water to the boil, then add your choice of seasonings; salt, lemon juice spices and most definitely cayenne pepper or even just liberal amounts of Tabasco sauce. The crawfish are then loaded into a mesh basket and immersed in the boiling pot. After a couple of minutes they're cooked, removed from the pot and poured into a heap on a table, then its time to dig in.
In the hurricane crawfisherman Joey Fonseca did lose boats and equipment. He lost a lot of sales but has now created a whole new wholesale business selling direct to restaurants.
Voodoo
Voodoo is as much a part of the culture in New Orleans as
food and music. On almost every corner in the French Quarter
you'll find a shop selling a range of voodoo paraphernalia, dolls,
herbs and emulets. It came to America via Haiti aboard the
slave ships from West Africa and its origins are an infusion of
traditional African beliefs and Catholicism. Voodoo devotees
as in other religions believe in a Creator and the Loa and Orisha,
the Loa act as intermediaries (like saints in Catholicism) between
the Creator and the human world. The Loa interact with people
and things to help maintain a spiritual balance.
Food also plays a part in voodoo; it's a popular offering to spirits and also a practical cure for many problems. To find out more about food and Voodoo we visited the Spiritual Temple of High Priestess Miriam Chamani. Priestess Miriam claims to have experienced the power of forces since she was a child. Later she was led to various spiritual orders and in 1982 was consecrated as a bishop at the All Nations Spiritual Church in Chicago. Priestess Miriam founded the Spiritual Temple in 1990 and since then has been helping the people of New Orleans overcome their problems and fulfil their potential.
Miriam lost her home during the hurricane but her temple has survived intact.
Contact: Voodoo Spiritual Temple
828 N. Rampart Street
New Orleans, LA 70116
Tel: (504) 522-9627 or 504 566 0274
www.voodoospiritualtemple.com
Kleibert's Alligator Farm
New Orleans boasts the largest alligator population of any
city in the United States, but even so the chances of bumping into
one are pretty slim. To see one up close you need to visit an
alligator farm like Kliebert's. Harvey Kliebert started his
farm 50 years ago and with 250 broad stock which he caught, most of
them are still alive and producing today. Harvey and his
daughters now farm about 3000 alligators in 6 outdoor ponds and
supply meat to restaurants all across America.
Contact: Kliebert's Alligator Farm
41083 West Yellow Water Road
Hammond
Louisiana
Tel: (985) 345 3617
The Kleibert Farm is out of town and was not seriously affected by the hurricane.
Jacob's Smokehouse
Andouille (pron: on-doo-ee) is a spicy smoked pork sausage
which is a staple ingredient in Louisiana cooking, particularly in
rice dishes such as gumbo and jambalaya. Sausage making is a
German tradition that made its way to Louisiana with the first
German settlers in the 1700's. Since French was the language
at the time the sausage was given the French name andouille.
Most families had their own recipe for making andouille as well as
different techniques for smoking, all of which were highly
classified information. At Jacob's smokehouse owner Aaron
Lines is the 4th generation of his family to run the business and
as well as andouille Aaron produces a range of other Cajun pork
products such as boudin (pork and liver sausage cooked with rice
and spices) and tasso (lean ham cured with herbs, spices and file
then smoked until it has the consistency of beef jerky)
Contact: Jacob's Smokehouse
Contact: Aaron Lines (owner)
505 West Airline Hwy
La Place
Louisiana
Tel: +1 (504) 415 2297
www.jacobsandouille.com
The smokehouse is out of town and was not seriously affected by the hurricane.
Guest Chef Susan Spicer
From the beginning of her career chef Susan Spicer set about
redefining traditional Creole cuisine developing her own style of
contemporary Louisiana food. It has been a recipe for success
as twenty years later she is one of New Orleans most respected and
recognised chefs. Her multi awarding winning restaurant
Bayona is located in a beautifully restored Creole cottage in the
heart of the French Quarter and is one of the hottest tables in
town. We called in on Susan who shared with us her special
recipe for gulf oysters.
Contact: Bayona Restaurant
430 Rue Dauphine
New Orleans
Tel: (504) 525 4455
Email:
bayona@bellsouth.net
www.bayona.com
The restaurant did suffer damage and was closed for quite some time. Chef Susan Spicer took time off to have long needed surgery. Bayona has now reopened and both Susan and her restaurant are doing well.
SPINACH SALAD WITH LIGHTLY BREADED OYSTERS AND DIJON
VINIAGRETTE
For the Dressing
Finely chopped shallots
Dijon mustard
Red wine vinegar
Fresh rosemary
Squeeze of lemon
Olive Oil
Whisk all ingredients except the olive together then slowly add the olive oil.
For the Oysters
Oysters out of the shell
Egg whites
Breadcrumbs
Oil for frying
Beat the egg whites until fluffy. Dip each oyster into the eggwhite then coat in breadcrumbs. Fry until golden brown.
Toss together spinach, mixed salad greens, clam shell mushrooms. Place the oysters on top and drizzle over the vinaigrette.
Tabasco Sauce
For over 130 years the McIlhenny Company has been
producing their world famous Tabasco Pepper Sauce at Avery Island
in Louisiana. In the beginning Edmund McIlhenny returned to
his home on Avery Island after the civil war and began
experimenting with a recipe for pepper sauce. He sold 658
bottles his first year and from that point the sauce caught on like
a house on fire. Today McIlhenny's produce 750,000 bottles
each day and export to 140 countries around the globe. The
basic recipe hasn't changed since Edmund mixed his first batch and
simply uses peppers, salt and vinegar. The process involves
mashing the peppers on the day they're picked. The mash is
then transferred into white oak barrels which are sealed with salt
to prevent any moisture getting in. The mash ages in these
oak barrels for three years with the salt calcifying on the
top. Once the aging is complete the mash is strained and
bottled.
Avery Island is one of the major tourist attractions in Louisiana. As well as being home to the Tabasco plant which visitors are welcome to tour, there are jungle gardens, a wildlife sanctuary and an egret colony. The island itself occupies roughly twenty-two hundred acres and sits atop a deposit of solid rock salt thought to be deeper than Mt. Everest is high. Geologists believe this deposit is the remnant of a buried ancient seabed, pushed to the surface by the sheer weight of surrounding alluvial sediments
Information
www.tabasco.com
