Celebrating The Southern Flavors of Mardi Gras
We don’t know about you, but nothing pulls out of the gray days of winter in the American South quite like Mardi Gras. From the festivities to the flavors, Louisiana lights up throughout almost the entire month of February. We equate Mardi Gras with longer days, warmer weather, and the kind of togetherness we just need after a long, chilly, dark January. Since we’re passionate about food, we wanted to take a minute to talk about our 7 favorite Mardi Gras flavors:
Dirty Rice: This Cajun recipe staple is called dirty rice because of the brownish color the rice turns when it’s cooked with diced meat and spices. Most of the recipes we’ve found include ground beef, chicken broth, rice and aromatics like celery, onions, peppers and garlic. We love pairing Dirty Rice with lots of other entrees, but if you want a dish where the entrée is the rice, there are some amazing Jambalaya or Red Beans and Rice recipes out there: https://www.smalltownwoman.com/dirty-rice/.
Red Beans and Rice: Traditionally, red beans and rice is made on Mondays using the pork bones from Sunday’s dinner. If you have those laying around any day of the week, we’re sure the traditional recipes are amazing. Assuming you’re starting from scratch, you can use smoked andouille sausage, chicken stock, onions, peppers, celery, rice, and seasoning to pull together this amazing (and soul-warming) dish. Here’s one we like: https://damndelicious.net/2019/04/15/red-beans-and-rice/.
Chicken and Crawfish Gumbo: This recipe is not for the faint – it’s a hearty comfort food packed with intense flavors. Food historians agree that Gumbo has roots in West Africa and was originally made using okra as a thickener. Even today, if the roux is not just right, the recipe is going to suffer. Here’s a recipe we especially enjoy if you’re not making a trip to New Orleans: https://louisiana.kitchenandculture.com/recipes/chicken-and-sausage-gumbo.
Shrimp (or Crawfish) Étouffée: We struggled a bit with whether or not to include both Gumbo and Etouffée in this blog – they have a lot of similarities – but we are just too big of fans of this classic Louisiana stew to pass up on including it here. We’ve also found Étouffée to have a much stronger shellfish flavor, so some folks prefer one or the other. We’ve had this dish with crawfish and with shrimp – so to each their own. Since shrimp is a little easier to come by, we wanted to share this recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/shrimp-etouffee.
Pecan Pralines: OK, if you have room for dessert after these entrees, you have to start with pecan pralines. Although this recipe hails from a chef on the west coast, she has a Southern flair we think even the most rooted New Orleanians will enjoy: https://houseofnasheats.com/southern-pecan-pralines/. We’ll pretend House of Nash means Nashville and that’s in the South…. Does that count?
Beignets: Like a lot of Louisiana foods, these square donut pastries hail from France (introduced by French Acadians) and have been reimagined into all kinds of recipes. Whether you enjoy them for breakfast or dessert, they are usually served hot with powdered sugar. Sometimes they even look like little pillows. There are an almost endless number of recipes out there, but we thought we’d share this more classic one: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-beignets-recipe.
King Cake: OK – no one can have Mardi Gras without the royalty of New Orleans flavors – King Cake. King Cakes are fun because of their bright colors (purple for justice, green for growth, gold for prosperity) and because of their secret surprises! Today King Cakes usually include a plastic (or sometimes chocolate) baby inside. Whoever gets the baby in their slice gets to be King for a Day! While King Cake is amazing in Louisiana on Mardi Gras, bakeries around the country can also help you find your inner royalty. If you’re up for making your own, check this out: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/traditional-new-orleans-king-cake/.
