Gumbo Soup

It is already the middle of March. But it is still cold in Louisiana. It was 41 degrees F when I woke up this morning!!!
I need hot soup. So I decided to make this gumbo soup, which is one of the traditional Louisiana dishes. I was told that guineas fowl are the best to make gumbo soup. They are not familiar birds in regular super markets and I only found it in the local farmers market. It was quite expensive comparing to chickens. However, the soup became more flavorsome and thick.

After eating this soup, I checked the temperature. It is still 43 degrees F. Yet, thanks to this delicious soup, I feel much warmer.

Fried Shrimps and Fried Soft Shell Crabs

About 4pm in June 4, 2009 at a parking lot in Ishikawa prefecture in Japan, a person encountered a mysterious incident. It was a clear and calm day. But he heard noise sounded like raining behind him. He turned around and found out approximately 100 tadpoles fall from the sky. Some were alive and others were dead. This strange incident happened one after another. Two days later, June 6, 2009 around 7:30 am, 50 miles south from the place of the first incident took place, an old woman witnessed roughly 40 tadpoles fall from the sky.

The local weather station denied the possibility of tornado, which might take away tadpoles and small fishes from rivers and rice pads and release them from the sky. Some people hypothesized birds might be the cause. Birds might drop them from the sky. But is it possible to be approximately 100 tadpoles at once from the sky?

In the book, “Kafuka on the Shore” by Haruki Murakami, one of the popular novelists in the recent era, there are a few incidents in which thousands of fishes suddenly fell from the sky. There is no rational explanation about the cause or effect of these events in this story. They just happen and become forgotten, which makes readers anxious and uncertain about the realities and fall into the Murakami’s unrealistic world.

One summer day in 2007, while I was eating fried shrimps and fish with my husband under the big oak tree in our back yard, the same kind of episode occurred on front of us. A small fish suddenly fell from the sky. We knew there was a big bird nest on the oak tree. So we immediately identified the source of this fish. My husband quietly and quickly moved the fish and we in a minute continued eating without any concern. Delicious crispy shrimps, a fish from the clear blue sky and our pleasant lunch surrounded hysteric chicks’ voice. All of them reminded me of the Murakami’s world.

When I read the recent articles about “tadpoles rain from the sky”, I can’t help but cooking fried shrimps, eating them and waiting for something felling from the bright blue sky. I called this picture surrealistic but my husband called it is grotesque.

Ingredients:
4 soft sell crabs
1 lb shrimps with their heads and shells on
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (or Cajun seasonings)
2-3 cloves of garlic

Directions:
1. Wash the soft shell crabs and shrimps well and cut off shrimps’ whiskers. Season them with salt and black pepper (or Cajun seasonings).
2. Coat the crabs and shrimps with the flour.
3. Chop the cloves of garlic half. Heat the olive oil and the garlic in a fry pan. Fry the crabs and shrimps for a few minutes.
4. Transfer the crabs and shrimps into a serving plate and sprinkle lemon juice.

Boiled Crawfish

When you smell boiled crawfish around your neighborhood in Louisiana, you know spring arrives. The season of Louisiana crawfish is from early spring to early summer. The best crawfish boil is done at home using a big pot with Cajun spices, potatoes, onions, corns, garlic and other vegetables and eat with many friends and family. This is one of the typical Cajun dishes. Do not hesitate to use your fingers to get dirty because this also brings the dynamic sprit of Cajun culture. Actually, it is impossible to eat crawfish without using your fingers!

Acadians, as the Cajun ancestors are known, originally came from France. In the early 1600’s, Acadians moved to settle Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in Canada when France established its colonies there. However, after British took over the colonies from France, in 1755 many of the Acadians were brutally deported. According to Wikipedia, more than 12,000 Acadians were expelled from Canada between 1755 and 1763.

Eventually, many of the Acadians escaped to Louisiana where France had colonized. First, they arrived to New Orleans, which was already occupied by other immigrants. As a result, they were forced out further southwest of New Orleans, which were undesirable swamp areas. They had to live in horrible conditions in which the summer was terribly hot and humid and malaria and yellow fever were constantly present.

Living in an unwanted swamp region was challenging. However, this circumstance gave plenty of “spices” into the distinctive Cajun cuisine.

Crawfish has been used for just bait for a long time. They had been considered as smelly and ugly creatures. However, throughout the tough life living in swamps, Cajuns discovered their unique taste and turned them into an exquisite Cajun dish. Adding Cajun spices, vegetables and, sometimes, Cajun sausages brings out the fine flavor of crawfish in an excellent way.

Once a year, my husband and I decided to eat boiled crawfish to celebrate whatever we wish. This spring, we celebrated my fist spring in Louisiana and have a high regard for Cajuns who amazingly survived, thrived in this region and developed their own unique culture.

Rice with Vegetables in Cajun Flavor

The first kitchen tool I purchased after I moved to US was a rice cooker. It was around $20. It was cheap but did not work the way I expected. It cooked rice but only the rice on the bottom part of the pot. The rice on the top part was half cooked. I mixed the rice and cooked it again. But it still did not work well. After a few attempts, I gave up and donated it to Salvation Army. Then I purchased a rice cooker made by a Japanese well-known company with around $100. It worked nicely! For more than a decade I used this rice cooker simply for cooking white rice or brown rice. However, recently I discovered this machine gives me more varieties of cooking than I have imagined. Today’s recipe is one of my discoveries. I put rice, vegetables, Cajun seasonings, and olive oil in the rice cooker. Then switch it on. 15 to 20 minutes later, your appetite would be crazy about the aroma of this dish! I use mushrooms, green onions and dills in this recipe. But you can use many kinds of other vegetables, too. If you are health conscious, please use brown rice instead of white rice. Brown rice is rich in fiber, manganese and many kinds of vitamins. Again, the rice cooker saves my energy and hours being in kitchen. This is a MUST kitchen tool. I will introduce other recipes using this machine in another time!

Ingredients:
2 cups rice (I use Nishiki rice, which is a form of Japanese rice. Any other medium-grain rice is fine)
2 cups water (Please note this is based on rice you use. Some rice requires more water to be done well and others are less.)
1 cup chopped mushrooms
½ cup chopped green onions
¼ cup chopped dill
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning

Directions:
1. If you use a form of Japanese rice, please the rice wash well.
2. Put all the ingredients in a rice cooker. Mix well.
3. Switch on and wait till the switch is off.
4. Transfer to the plates and sprinkle olive oil. Serve hot!