Creole cuisine is a style of cooking that originated in Louisiana and is best known for its emphasis on blending the culinary influences of African, French, Spanish, American Indian, German and Italian cuisines. While this type of food is enjoyed by adults all over the world, it's also a great way to sneak in some extra vegetables for picky kids.
If you're looking for fun cooking activities that your kids will enjoy, give them a taste of healthy soul food here at Prep Kitchen Essentials. Some of our most popular cooking classes give kids a glimpse into a different culture by teaching them how to make Creole cuisine. While the list of recipes that made Louisiana cuisine famous in its own right is endless, there are some fan favorites that we focus on when teaching kids how to make precious cuisines.
Kids Creole Cooking - Let's Make Creole Food!
The Creole culture is known for its resourceful people - and you'd be surprised what a population of people used to working with very little can create using just a few ingredients. Traditional recipes including ingredients like onion, garlic, shrimp, and green beans can be used to create delicious cuisine that the entire family is sure to enjoy. Foods like popcorn shrimp, gulf shrimp etouffee , and spicy red beans and rice are Creole favorites
What Is Creole Food?
What is Creole cooking? Louisiana Creole cuisine is a hybrid style of cooking originating in southern Louisiana, United States, that combines French, West African, Spanish, Indian, and other regional influences, along with influences from the wider regional cuisine of the Southwestern United States. It differs from its traditional cousin Cajun cooking in the sense that it incorporates a greater number of regional flavors and influences, frequently by substituting more "French-style" ingredients for "American" ones.
Today there is a relatively wide variation in recipes among the different regions of the United States, where the demand for Creole meals is high. In addition to New Orleans, many cities like Austin, Houston, Atlanta, Memphis, and St. Louis (St. Louis style) have also become major markets for Creole food. Many restaurants in these cities have emerged which specialize in this style of cuisine. However, it is now slowly making its way inland to areas in the northeast where availability and affordable ingredients are better. As a result, there is now a new focus on regional cooking, with restaurants specializing in a particular region creating unique dishes.
How Is Creole Food Different From Cajun Food?
Creole recipes are characterized by their heavy usage of cream, butter, eggs, spices, green bell pepper, onion, and carrots; they are typically rich in vegetables, meats, and seafood. Though the term is sometimes used to describe any kind of food prepared in the manner described above (sometimes even containing white rice instead of white flour or pasta), this term is most commonly used to refer to certain special dishes. For example, one of the biggest differences between Cajun and Creole cooking is the heavy use of cream in their recipes; this is both a result of different regional styles and an attempt to preserve the traditional ways in which these regions began their diets. Creole recipes tend to be higher in fat and lower in carbohydrates than those of Cajun cuisine.
Red Beans and Rice
From saveur.com
Ingredients:
1⁄4 cup canola oil
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 ribs celery, finely chopped
2 large yellow onions, finely chopped
2 green bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
Kosher salt, to taste
1 tbsp. ground white pepper
1 tbsp. dried thyme
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 1⁄2 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 lb. dried kidney beans, soaked overnight
4 bay leaves
2 smoked ham hocks
1 tbsp. hot sauce, such as Tabasco
Cooked white rice, for serving
Thinly sliced scallions, to garnish
Instructions
Heat oil in an 8-qt. Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add garlic, celery, onions, and peppers, season with salt, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 12 minutes. Add white pepper, thyme, oregano, cayenne, and black pepper, and stir until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add beans, bay leaves, ham hocks, and 6 cups water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, covered, until beans and ham hock are tender, about 2 hours. Remove hocks from pot, remove and discard bones and skin, and finely chop meat; return to pot along with hot sauce, and stir until combined. Serve over rice in bowls and sprinkle with scallions.
Buttermilk Beignets
via epicurious.com
YIELD Makes about 4 dozen beignets
INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 cups bread flour plus extra for flouring work surface
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Peanut oil for frying
Confectioners' sugar for serving, as much as you think you'll need—then double that!
PREPARATION
Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until small bubbles form at the surface. Remove from the heat, add the buttermilk, and then pour into a stand mixer bowl. Whisk in the yeast and the sugar and set aside for 5 minutes. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed, using a dough hook, until the dry ingredients are moistened, 3 to 4 minutes. Increase the mixer speed to medium and continue mixing until the dough forms a loose ball and is still quite wet and tacky, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the dough aside in a draft-free spot for 1 hour.
Pour enough peanut oil into a large pot to fill it to a depth of 3 inches and bring to a temperature of 375°F over medium heat (this will take about 20 minutes). Line a plate with paper towels and set aside.
Lightly flour your work surface and turn the dough out on it. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour, gently press to flatten, fold it in half, and gently tuck the ends under to create a rough-shaped round. Dust again and roll the dough out into a ½-inch- to ¹/³ -inch-thick circle. Let the dough rest for 1 minute before using a chef's knife, a bench knife, or a pizza wheel to cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares (you should get about 48).
Gently stretch a beignet lengthwise and carefully drop it into the oil. Add a few beignets (don't overcrowd them, otherwise the oil will cool down and the beignets will soak up oil and be greasy) and fry until puffed and golden brown, turning them often with a slotted spoon, for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to the prepared plate to drain while you cook the rest. Serve while still warm, buried under a mound of confectioners' sugar, with hot coffee on the side.
Make ahead:
The beignet dough can be made up to 8 hours in advance of frying. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking spray. After cutting the dough, place the beignets on the paper and place another greased sheet of parchment paper, sprayed-side down, on top. Wrap the entire baking sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The beignets can be fried straight from the refrigerator.
The "Holy Trinity": A Creole Version Of A French Mirepoix
via louisianatravel.com
Ingredients:
approximately 2-3 tbsp. pan drippings, butter or vegetable cooking oil (adjust amount as needed to ensure veggies do not stick)
green bell pepper
onion
celery
Method of Preparation:
Using the same pan drippings from the meat you may have just browned for your dish — or starting with a healthy splash of oil, butter or (gasp!) bacon grease, if you don’t have pan drippings — heat the fat in a skillet over medium heat.
Add finely chopped green bell pepper, celery and onion to your pan in a 1:1:1 ratio, or use the amounts favored by many local chefs of 2 cups onion to 1 ½ cup celery to 1 ¼ cup green pepper.
Sauté the mixture, stirring just enough to prevent burning, until the vegetables start to soften and release their moisture, forming a glaze-like liquid in the pan. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking slowly, stirring often, until the vegetables are fully caramelized and darker in color.
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