is a sauce that is poured over just about everything savory: especially fish and crawfish - of the fish, most often, catfish...it is a Delicious Sauce...keeps in the icebox for a long time too, in a jar with a tight-fittin' top....
In your blender, stuff in about a quarter of a chopped mild red pepper, a diced stalk of celery that is nice and crisp, two chopped whole green onions, a cup of mayonnaise, two tablespoons of a strong mustard, two tablespoons of ketchup, one or two tablespoons of fresh grated horseradish, half of a cup of flat parsley leaves, fresh, if you can get em, three shake-outs of worstershire sauce, a tablespoon of smokey paprika, and some flakes, or more if you like, or red pepper or a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper...blend and blend until smooth....always stir it up some more for serving...it is So Good!!!!....
THICKENING SAUCES THE CAJUN WAY
Best as I know, in any sauce you make for Cajun food, you may at times need to thicken...here's a couple of ways:
Beurre Manie' is an 'uncooked roux of about three ounces of flour and four ounces of butter, that have been kneaded together, and you add this cool mixture of a paste very slowly into the sauce that's too thin...it works just fine.
A Liaison is a mix of three beaten egg yolk in on cup of heavy cream...you add tablespoons of hot water to it slowly, until it's hot enough to add to a hot/warm sauce that needs thickening and richening....deliciously silkey addition!!!!
VELOUTE'
is one of the Cajun 'Mother Sauces' - it's simple, but it's used a Lot in Cajun saucing: Cajuns add stock from any of the meats or veges they parboiled or boiled, and the usual Cajun seasonings - especially the salty ones, like Celery Salt, Garlic Salt, or Onion Salt...
First, you bring the 'stock' you saved to a boil. In a small iron frying pan, combine around two or three ounces of flour with two or three ounces of mixed butter and olive oil...cook over high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until you have a honey brown roux. Whip the stock into the roux a little at a time, avoiding makin' any lumps. simmer this very low for at least a half hour, skimming the surface and stirring as needed...Strain the sauce into a colander with just one layer of cheese cloth...add pepper and more salt to your taste...
Veloute' is the base for so many other sauces! You can can add cheeses, wines, mushrooms, onions, garlic, beaten eggs, heavy creams, any seasonings you want...it's a wonderful Base, and that's why it's one of the French Mother Sauces the Cajuns picked-up-on over the decades....there are Lots of 'secondary' sauce recipes on line made with Veloute'....
Well, there are Lots more sauces for Cajun Cooking, but these are the ones I know...use your imagination and the internet and find some more!!! The Hunger is in the Sauce, I always say!!!!! Which leads to the Poem....
Roux and Sauces
Veloute' - Remoulade -
Liaison - Beurre Manie' -
Names that do not
Flow easy from my tongue...
o, Forgive me, my Ancestress
Who gave my Father the fluid
Grace of the Cajun Tongue -
The Taste for Heat and Spices
From his Childhood and his
Cajun Blood...
Thin Strong Line of France
Among the Southern Ladies
British Isles Confederates
Welsh Aristocrats and
Faded Glories of Evangeline...
Pass the Remoulade, Cher -
A toast in my Jar
For Cajun on the lips
In the Heart
People often confuse expressions of ordinary things with "haute cuisine." Those of us who made simple "gravy" all our lives figured out the differences.
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