Eleven years ago – December of 2009 – I wrote a little essay for a now-defunct online publication entitled The Urban Campfire. When a friend send me the motivation for the publication, I was inspired. We are a creative cooperative made up of real people living real stories. We are fighting the wars, making the movies, traveling the globe, cooking the food, singing the songs, paying the mortgages. Chances are, you are too. Your story has a home here. Join the fire.
Though my title was changed by the editors from “A Westerner with Lagniappe” to “A Moveable Feast,” it was my first attempt at writing something for others and online. I never dreamed that eleven years later Andy and I would be happily blogging every other week about our lives and about food.
I’m re-posting this now because I just made the turkey gumbo recipe and I think you’ll love it. If you didn’t think to make broth with your turkey bones, simply substitute chicken and chicken broth. The chocolate bread pudding recipe is a timeless hit, too.
And an aside: seeing that plate of boiled crawfish makes me want to pack my bag and hightail it back to Louisiana for a spring visit. There’s nothing I miss more – except, of course, my Baton Rouge friend, Katie. Let the vaccinating begin!
A final aside: while I am re-posting this partly to simplify my post-holiday blogging, Andy is simplifying things too. But in his case, it’s simplifying recipes. Be sure to read today’s Andy’s Corner.
And now to my Urban Campfire contribution:
For a born and bred Coloradoan, the move to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 35 years ago (footnote: now it’s 45 1/2 years ago) was nothing short of terrifying. The summer nights with 90+ degree temperatures, the clothes-drenching humidity, the stinging caterpillars, the frequent typhoon-like downpours, the 2″sized cockroaches scurrying through the house, and the incredible cultural differences made me want nothing more than a return ticket to the West.
But time changes all things, and it wasn’t long before I was enjoying our new Southern life, with our close ties to the LSU community, including dear friends, theater performances at the Union Theater and later at the fun and funky Swine Palace, basketball games with the iconic Dale Brown at the helm, and the LSU Newcomers Gourmet Club. Though we didn’t often do Cajun/Creole food at those dinners, we developed a great fondness for cooking, good meals…and nice wine.
As my interest in Louisiana food expanded, I started collecting recipes and cookbooks, including the must-have River Road Recipes put out by the Junior League of Baton Rouge and Cane River Cuisine from the Service League of Natchitoches, LA, and The New Orleans Cookbook by Rima and Richard Collin.
And I started collecting recipes from all the born and bred Southerners who knew so much more about crawfish etouffee, and red beans and rice, and pralines, and roux than I did.
In 2001 we left Baton Rouge to return to the West and our roots. But as the holiday season approaches each year, I find myself practically waxing poetic about all things Southern – well, all things about Southern food. I’ve sent a shopping list to my good Baton Rouge friend Katie begging for her to restock my larder with those Southern necessities. I need Bergeron pecans from New Roads, cayenne pepper from Zatarains, LSU Beauregard yams, file powder, Tony Chachere’s Creole seasonings, and some real andouille sausage, preferably from LaPlace, Louisiana. (culinary note: the Beauregard yam is actually a sweet potato)
With all that in hand I’m ready to do my holiday cooking, which will include a left-over turkey gumbo, simple baked yams (or sweet potatoes – unless you’re from Louisiana; if you’re now thoroughly confused, a great read is You Say Potato, I Say Yam from the NYTimes) slathered with butter, and a bread pudding, sometimes with chocolate and sometimes with a whiskey sauce. I may still be a born and bred Westerner, but I’m a Westerner with lagniappe.
the unofficial urban campfire glossary
Andouille – a spicy smoked pork sausage (pronounced ahn DOO ee)
Atchafalaya: the Atchafalaya River (pronounced A-CHA-fa-LIE-a)
bayou: a creek or small river that is a tributary of a larger body of water; or a sluggish stream that meanders through lowlands, marshes, or plantation grounds.
beignet: a square doughnut with no hole (pronounced BEN-yay)
boudin: Cajun blood sausage (pronounced BOO-dan)
café au lait: coffee served with an equal part hot milk (delicious with a beignet)
crawfish: also “mudbug” (No one in Louisiana would EVER EVER refer to them as crayfish), a small cousin of a lobster living in the mud of streams or lakes; called a crawdad in other parts of the country
etouffee: a Creole dish typically served with crawfish over rice (pronounced AY too Fay)
file: a Cajun/Creole powdered seasoning made from dried and ground sassafras leaves, not the root (pronounced FEE lay)
lagniappe: a little something extra, as a gift a store or restaurant owner might offer with a purchase (pronounced LAN yap)
“suckin’ the heads”: eating crawfish (update: it’s actually sucking the head of the crawfish to enjoy the spicy juices; are you non-Louisianans grossed out?)
Turkey Bone Gumbo
turkey bones and skin
3 quarts water – or enough to barely cover the bones
1 T Creole/Cajun seasoning, such as Tony Chachere’s, if you can find it or substitute 1 T salt
1/2 c oil
1/2 c flour
2 onions chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
Tabasco
salt and pepper to taste
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 c chopped parsley
2 c chopped leftover turkey
1 lb andouille – or “Creole” – sausage, chopped. Use diced ham, if you can’t find the sausage
Green onion tops
File powder (may be omitted)
Put the turkey bones and skin into a large pot and add the water and the Creole seasoning (or salt). Bring to a boil and simmer, with no lid, for about 1 ½ hrs.
Warm the oil in a frying pan, then add the flour and stir over low heat until it’s medium brown (hazelnut colored). Add the onions, garlic, bell pepper, and celery and cook until wilted. Remove the turkey bones from the broth and slowly whisk the broth into the vegetable/roux mix. Add salt and pepper to taste, a dash of Tabasco, the bay leaves, basil and parsley. Simmer uncovered for 1 hour. If using sausage, fry it in oil until lightly browned in order to remove a little of the fat, then add the chopped turkey and sausage (or ham) to the gumbo and simmer 15 minutes longer. Add the green onions and cook a few minutes. Serve the gumbo over cooked rice and add a dash of file to each dish.
Chocolate Bread Pudding
Note: I usually double this, since it’s a big dinner party hit.
2 1/2 c milk, scalded and slightly cooled
3 c french bread, dried and cut into 1″-2″ (or so) cubes
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 c pecans (optional)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs, slightly beaten
Mix milk, bread cubes, melted chocolate, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, pecans, nutmeg, and eggs in a 1 ½ qt ungreased baking dish. Blend well, being sure the baking powder is distributed well.
Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour.
If you’re lucky, you’ll have some nice strong Community Coffee on hand to drink with it. Mmmmmm.
Great column redeux. It felt like a travel to the south with all the fixings.( humidity, cockroaches, crawfish boudin) Thank you for the pronunciation help within the glossary. You make Louisiana sounds exotic!
Your blog was a great way to start the day!
Thanks Deb, better to travel there now than in July. In so many ways Louisiana was exotic to us as newcomers. I wonder if a southerner landing in Glen Ellen would feel the same sense of exoticness.
Was Linda Schneider the first of our group to make this? Hard to believe it was over 40 years ago!! I remember that this recipe is well worth the work — “simple” or not!! Your old LSU colleague and friend, Bill
It is hard to believe that 40 years have passed. I don’t recall if Linda made this first. but I do recall that the food got better and better with each bottle of wine we opened. Happy New Year to you and Geraldine.
We always said moving to Louisiana (in ’92) was like moving to a foreign country. Probably most surprising was the continuous partying, going straight from Christmas into Mardi Gras — with daily king cakes at work!
Thanks for the comment Tricia. You’re absolutely on target about the partying part. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I suddenly have a craving for the daily king cake fix. Happy New Year to you and Charlie – may the spirit and thoughts of daily king cakes help us all through the first part of 2021.