In a Cajun Kitchen: Authentic Cajun Recipes and Stories from a Family Farm on the Bayou

by Terri Pischoff Wuerthner, Bruce Turner (Foreword)

When most people think of Cajun cooking, they think of blackened redfish or, maybe, gumbo. When Terri Pischoff Wuerthner thinks of Cajun cooking, she thinks about Great-Grandfather Theodore's picnics on Lake Carenton, children gathering crawfish fresh from the bayou for supper, and Grandma Olympe's fricassee of beef, because Terri Pischoff Wuerthner is descended from an old Cajun family. Through a seamless blend of storytelling and recipes to live by, Wuerthner's In a Cajun Kitchen will remind people of the true flavors of Cajun cooking.
When her ancestors settled in Louisiana around 1760, her family grew into a memorable clan that understood the pleasures of the table and the bounty of the Louisiana forests, fields, and waters. Wuerthner spices her gumbo with memories of Cajun community dances, wild-duck hunts, and parties at the family farm. From the Civil War to today, Wuerthner brings her California-born Cajun family together to cook and share jambalaya, crawfish étoufée, shrimp boil, and more, while they cook, laugh, eat, and carry on the legacy of Louis Noel Labauve, one of the first French settlers in Acadia in the 1600s.
Along with the memories, In a Cajun Kitchen presents readers with a treasure trove of authentic Cajun roasted pork mufaletta sandwiches, creamy crab casserole, breakfast cornbread with sausage and apples, gumbo, shrimp fritters, black-eyed pea and andouille bake, coconut pralines, pecan pie, and much more. In a Cajun Kitchen is a great work of culinary history, destined to be an American cookbook classic that home cooks will cherish.

Genres: Cookbooks

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 2006

Reviews

[Linus Treefoot · Rating 5 out of 5]

The family stories make entertaining reading

...apart from the recipes. I have tried only a few recipes from this book but they have all been winners. I especially like the sweet potato recipes. The potato salad was great too.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. A few recipes I want to try.

Amused at how wrong the author is in one section.

Bannocks are from Scotland originally, not Nova Scotia. Scots migrated to Nova Scotia, bringing Bannocks with them, but it did not _originate_ in NS. Then the Acadians (people from Nova Scotia and Canada) went down to Louisiana, and brought it with them.

I personally am Acadian, cajun, and creole (Yes there is a difference. And I'm pretty sure I'm creole.) just all on my fathers side. I do look forward to trying some of the recipes.

Sadly, my hunt for Rice pancakes is still underway.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made several recipes in this book and they were all good. I loved having it for Fat Tuesday. It was half cookbook and half family history of the author and I skimmed that part. I especially liked the lagniappe at the end of every recipe.

[Courtney]

Tried the fried chicken - a BIG batch, so both our frying pans were in use. We had to put the chicken from a pan into the oven instead of to a lower heat pan. It tasted good though! I'll have to try it properly when I borrow the cookbook again (or track down a copy).