Salt, the ancient balancing act of Life.

Salt mounds by fotopedia

In today's health conscience world, we like to believe we are so well educated on the things we consume to keep us healthy.  We put so much emphasis on sugar, fat, and carbohydrates that we often ignore one of the most basic needs of the human body.  Salt is vital to our day to day life, yet it is also deadly if not consumed in the right amounts.  Like everything else in life, salt is a balancing act, and to often we ignore the importance of this strange little rock crystal.  Salt is needed by almost all living things.  Salt is the key to your body regulating it's fluid levels, and salt is the mineral that your brain uses to send electrical signals to your body.

Historians disagree on the dates that man first started using salt.  This date obviously predates written history.  With it being so vital and such a basic instinctual need, I think it's safe to say that man has always being using salt.  The most common and oldest form of salt production is the simple technique of evaporation.  Today salt is mined in huge underground caverns.  While most people use salt in their cooking or sprinkle a salt shaker over their plate, refrigeration has changed the amount of importance we place on salt.  We've only had refrigeration for roughly a hundred and twenty five years or so, but it's been in place long enough that we can't remember what we did before we had the luxury of refrigerators.  Before refrigeration the only way to make meat last more than a few days was to salt it.  There are a couple of ways to salt meat.  You can simply make a coating of salt on the meat or put it in briny water to absorb the salt. Salt was well known as a necessity because it was used daily to preserve food.  It is well known that salt was once a very important commodity in trading.  At one time in history trading for as must as the equal weight of gold.  Another interesting note about the history of salt is the word salad is from Roman times and means salted vegetables. The Romans also had the word "salarium" which was the salt that was used to pay soldiers.  Yes, you guessed it, that's where we get the word salary.  Unfortunately, like so many things in our modern world the many uses of salt are done at a factory instead of your home.  We don't see the salt going into the daily things in our lives so we don't understand it's importance.

Table salt.

These days salt has a bad reputation.  We blame salt for strokes, high blood pressure, and even neurological problems.  It's not that salt is bad for us, it's the fact that we are no longer aware of it in our food supply.  I recently learned the hard way that a single can of cola has ninety percent of your daily needs for salt. Definitely something to think about when you open your third cola before noon.  How much salt do you get in the fast food drive through lane?  That's a guessing game.  Like everything else in life, to much of a good thing can be bad for you.  We can't live without salt but we also can't indulge in it without limits.  We take for granted the important roll salt plays in our daily life.  Sounds like salt is the poster child for all that is wrong with people today.  We overindulge in a good thing and give no regards to it's consequences. We think we are so advanced that we don't have to account for our need of such a base thing.  We would do well to not think so highly of ourselves that we don't consider some of the most simple things like water and salt are more important for long life than money and notoriety.  Could it be that our vast intelligence is insignificant compared to our primal needs for a crystallized mineral?  The more likely answer is we should use our intelligence to balance our basic needs instead of our greedy, selfish ways.

Have a great day and I hope you taste a little salt in your food today.

With a little Roux, the Cajun pot thickens.

Roux by flickr

One of the basic cooking elements of Cajun food is learning how to make a roux.  What is a roux, you ask? It's actually quite simple.  A roux is a mix of flour and oil that is "browned" to make a thickening agent.  There are varying opinions on roux.  Some are in favor of browning a roux hot and fast, while others insist on the slow method. This argument also includes the black pot method.  A black pot lends itself to hot and fast so slow roux cookers avoid it at all cost.  Depending on who you talk to a roux needs to be just a little brown in color. While others see the need to have their roux almost black. In any case, you must know how to make a roux to open the door to the world of Cajun cooking.


No matter what side the roux battle you fall on, it is still the key to some of the best dishes in Cajun cooking. The first and most iconic Cajun dish that requires a roux is Gumbo.  Without a roux, gumbo would be nothing more than soup.  But gumbo is so much more than soup.  Most love chicken and andouille gumbo. If you can't get your hands on andouille, then whatever sausage you prefer will do fine. Others are passionate about their seafood gumbo.  I've seen just about every form of seafood know to man put in gumbo.  Some keep it simple with just shrimp.  While others put shrimp, crab, and oysters all in the same pot to make you feel like a rich man.  The different meats put in gumbo is usually a reflection of the individual cook's passion, but it's the roux that binds it all together.  A more traditional dish with a roux is stew.  Obviously the thickening effects of roux lend itself well to making a stew.  Down here you can take just about any meat and make it into stew.  Turkey neck stew is really popular these days.  I'm a big fan of taking the left over Thanksgiving turkey carcass and making a stew.  Especially if it's a colder Thanksgiving.  Some Cajuns still use a roux to make gravy, but more and more are skipping this step.  Another Cajun favorite is Sauce Piquante.  A sauce piquante has a roux and adds some form of tomato paste or tomato ingredient.  Again, most forms of meat work fine with a sauce piquante.  Most make simple chicken sauce piquante on a regular basis.  One of my favorites is very seasonal, that's alligator sauce piquante.  Alligator are only hunted for one month a year so the meat is usually very pricey and sold out very quickly.

Chicken and sausage gumbo courtesy of flickr

So I hope you get a chance to come to Louisiana to eat some good food.  There are so many options to choose from that you are bound to find something you like.  And just remember that if you dish is has a thickness to it, it means that somebody took the time to make a roux. And that means they probably have a story behind their version of roux.  That is the uniqueness of Cajun cuisine.  We all cook similar dishes but we all have our little family preferences that make each dish both Cajun and personal at the same time.

Hope you have a great day and that you eat well today.

Breaking Bread. More than just a meal.

Picture courtesy of flickr

In America we associate the phrase, "breaking bread" with Christian or religious services.  This is a mistake that hurts our society very dearly.  The truth is the practice of eating together predates Christianity by many thousands of years.  In pagan times, people would actually eat a meal with their enemies.  This was a sign of mutual respect and often led to more peaceful resolutions.  Something happens when you sit at a table with someone else and share a meal that is a basic need to all parties at the table.  The Jews then used the eating of unleavened bread to remember when God freed them from Egypt.  Again, this is people sitting at a table to share in the need for basic foods and remember a shared history that was vital to their lineage.  Then Jesus marked the eve of his crucifixion with the sharing of bread and a meal.  They shared more than a meal, they shared a memorable moment that would change their lives and eventually catapult their beliefs around the world.

Unfortunately, we Americans don't get the more significant meaning of sitting down and sharing a meal.  We literally eat on the run.  And when we do sit down to eat, we act like we are in a race.  Because we don't sit down and eat with others we are missing out on so many benefits of breaking bread with others.  Sharing a meal is also sharing life.  Food is a basic necessity and so is love and companionship. When eating at a table you are sharing your life in many ways.  Taking the time to speak and listen creates bonds that are much needed for our feeling of self worth.  It also gives your food time to digest and prevents over eating.  There aren't many people to talk to in the fast food drive through line and swallowing that burger on the Interstate is not doing any favors for your stomach.  Europeans seem to have a better grasp on the concept of eating together.  Did you know that most European cars have no cup holders?  They don't eat on the run and they take at least an hour to eat a meal.  Scientific studies show that Europeans don't have the obesity problem we do.  So scientist study the food they eat to try to see the difference.  When they should be looking at the way they eat instead.  In America, food is all about speed.  We want to get our food, shovel it down, and get on with life.  When in all reality life is sitting at the table with you waiting to be shared.

Dinner courtesy of flickr

When was the last time you sat at your own kitchen table with your entire family?  When was the last time you had a sit down lunch with an old friend?  What's stopping you from inviting that new family in the neighborhood to eat at your table?  Most people say, "If you want friends, you need to be friendly.".  I say if you want to build lasting relationships sit at a table with someone and eat a meal.  Take your time.  Don't be in a rush.  Put your fork down and ask questions of your kids, friends, or guests.  Share your life with people along with your life giving food.  Make "breaking bread" a habit and great relationships will follow.  The secret to life is to have a heart as full of joy as your belly is full of food.  I hope you have a great meal and even greater company at your table today.

A little sugar in your coffee can revolutionize the world.

Photo by Wikimedia

Who doesn't love their morning coffee?  Here in Louisiana it's a requirement to have at least one cup of coffee to start the day.  And of course, I love my two spoons of sugar to sweeten the cup just a bit.  Down here we are surrounded by sugar cane fields, so no one gives it a second thought.  Except for me, of course! Where did the original idea to squeeze some sugar out of tall grasses come from?  My snooping around found some interesting things about sugar. Let's take a look at the journey of sugar as far as the granular stuff we consume today.


It is believed that sugar cane was first domesticated in what is now known as New Guinea.  This is estimated at a very rough number of 8,000 years ago.  Keep in mind this is on the boundary of the Stone Age and the Bronze Age.  So farming is still small and primitive.  Sugar cane slowly found it's way through Indonesia and up to Asia.  Then later, around 600 A.D., spice trade routes started introducing parts of Europe to the sweet granules.  Interestingly, in both Asian and Arabic languages the word sugar means "gravel" or "sand".  The problem was that making sugar was labor intensive.  Hours and hours of harvesting, squeezing, boiling, and dehydrating made for very high prices.  When the British came to power in India, they created the East India Company.  One of the goals of the company was to harvest sugar cane in India at a cheap enough price to appease the folks back home.  They created better presses and vessels that could boil the sugary soup faster.  At the time they would press the sugar into cubes or a "sugar-loaf" which looks like a cone.  That's why the Brits like one lump or two.  The problem was that lump was almost as expensive as a nugget of gold. Then that pretty boy, Chris Columbus sailed the Ocean blue and found the West Indies.  Finally, some more tropical lands to plant the sugary grasses from New Guinea.  Again, still labor intensive.  So the British put their best blacksmiths on the job.  They built better presses.  Made machinery that ran off of water gravity systems.  The Brits even learned to boil in a vacuum vessel to save time and fuel.  These new innovations brought the price of sugar down.  So they had to build a sugar mill at every sugar cane plantation.  It is estimated that by early 1800 their were some 3,000 sugar mills in the New World alone.  All in the name of some sweet coffee.

Photo by Geograph.

Then something remarkable happened.  All those blacksmiths went back to Britain with new ideas of machinery.  They started applying their new forging ideas and tools to other things, such as weaving, paper production, and even steel.  By the mid 1800's the Industrial Revolution was born. Meanwhile sugar was now cheap enough to add to bitter chocolate, cakes, pies, and breads.  You see, we owe our modern world and all it's conveniences to the Industrial Revolution.  And we owe the Industrial Revolution to the quest for sugar.  But now we've come full circle.  This incredible sweet crystal, that Romans believe healed ailments, (sound like early Coke?) is now bad for us. We have to much sugar and now I have to drink Diet Soda instead.  Or even worse, I have to drink water. Why is everything that taste good, bad for you? Anyways, keep in mind that just when you start to doubt the human race remember, mankind has turned the world into a mass producing, industrial monster, all in the quest for a little sweet juice from a grass.

HAVE A SWEET DAY!

Facts check in Wikipedia

A taste of Louisiana

Life in Louisiana is very unique and it's food is even more unique.  We are very passionate about our food.  We eat everything we can find and we spice it up like nowhere else.  Let me start with a few breakfast items.  Yes we eat coffee and beignets like advertised to the world.  Heavy on the coffee.  Most are familiar with "French toast" here we make it a little different and have two different names for it.  Some refer to it as Pan Pan Deaux, and others call it Lost Bread, but simply put it's stale bread coated in milk and egg wash then fried and sprinkled with sugar.  We love grits in the South.  Shrimp and grits is not uncommon but in my family we put Boudain in our grits.  What is Boudain you ask?  It is a sausage made from pork, rice, liver, green onions, and other spices.  In Louisiana, pork is a basic food group.  Boucheries don't happen as often as they did in the past but they still are a clinic in how we use the entire pig.  As the locals say, "we eat everything on the pig except the oink".  Most people would throw away a perfectly fine pig head.  In Louisiana we make Hog Head Cheese and pickled pig lips. Whoever made the commercial that says, "Pork, the other white meat" has never been to a boucherie.

Next we have our fruits and vegetables.  We love our onions and down here we refer to green onions as shallots.  I grow my own vegetables so I know a thing or two about tomatoes and in Louisiana, Creole tomatoes are things of idol worship.  My personal favorite is cucumbers.  We also brag on our own personal favorites when it comes to squash, beans, and peas.  One local favorite that is not for me is the mirliton.(pronounced "melly ton")  It's a "prickly pear" or a "vegetable pear".  But the vegetable that is a staple of Cajun cooking is okra.  Okra is something that can be cooked any which way and served at almost every meal.  It is also the base veggie for gumbo.  We also love our fruits, growing strawberries is an art form and picking wild blackberries is a rite of passage.  Figs are also included with those two and more jelly and jam you can eat is made every year. Also, if you grow fruit you must know how to make wine.  Whether it's strawberry, blackberry, or muscadine wine, everyone has a very passionate opinion about it.  As far as nuts go, there is only one you need to know about.  That's the pecan.  If you can't make pecan pie then you're not marrying material.  Most of our seasonings fall into the veggie category. Onions, bell peppers, parsley, celery, and basil are all chopped fine and considered seasoning.  And of course we love our cayenne pepper.  Whether it's in a jar pickled in vinegar, or a sauce, or dried season, a little red pepper makes everything better.


Everyone knows that Louisiana is a seafood lovers paradise.  Crawfish is one of our favorites.  While these mud bugs are plentiful, they are only available for about half the year.  Crawfish season usually starts in late January and ends in early June when they start to get to hard.  What can you make with crawfish?  There's crawfish etouffee, fried crawfish tails, crawfish bisque, crawfish jambalaya, crawfish stew, and oh yeah we like to boil them.  If you don't know how to boil crawfish, you'll never get a good woman to marry you.  We love shrimp as well.  There are two types of shrimp.  There is brown shrimp and white shrimp, and it would do you good to know the difference.  My wife's shrimp etouffee is the best.  Name a fish and we probably have it.  We have an abundance of freshwater and saltwater fish.  Two of my favorites are Red fish on the grill and the wife makes a mean fish court bouillon.  My all time favorite seafood is oysters.  While there are many ways to cook oysters, I prefer them raw.  In Louisiana they are good and salty.  They are so good you can pull one out of the cool water, crack it open and eat it on the spot.

Seems like I've only scratched the surface.  I haven't mentioned all the wildlife we eat.  Such as deer, squirrel, rabbit, alligator, quail, and ducks.  By the way nobody uses the word venison.  Most people that eat deer don't know it's called venison.  I've also failed to cover all the different types of dishes.  We have gumbo, jambalaya, etouffee, court bouillon, stews, deep frying, pan frying, barbecues, boiled seafood, baking, caking, preserves, and a few more that escape me at the moment.  Anyway, I hope that if you get to come to the bayou you don't waste a meal at a burger joint.  There's food everywhere and there's usually a good story told behind every meal.  Cooking is a part of our heritage and we not only enjoy it, we love to share it.  So in the words of my Dad, "come to la vey, and bring a little pig sha!".  That's truly C'est bon!