The Unexpected Cajun Kitchen

Bring the Big Easy home with these seventy original recipes! You don’t have to live in Cajun country to enjoy some of your favorite foods from Louisiana! The Unexpected Cajun Kitchen is a cookbook that draws inspiration from classic recipes down in the bayou and transforms them into modern-day dishes for all to enjoy. These recipes have a touch of nostalgia while using fresh, locally grown ingredients native to Louisiana—but can be found anywhere, if you know where to look. The dishes are interesting and easy enough for anyone to make at home. Whether you are a beginner in the kitchen, or an old pro, you will love whipping up new takes on the Cajun tradition. Divided into fun, modern chapters such as Small Bites, Date Night, and Happy Hour, recipes include: Cheddar scallion tasso biscuit sandwiches Spiced pork burgers with remoulade mayonnaise Muffuletta sliders Pecan praline cinnamon rolls Mango bourbon smash A fusion of deconstructed Cajun delicacies and traditional flavors, The Unexpected Cajun Kitchen is a necessity for any season. Gather everyone around the table and celebrate food, life, and love with a fresh and unexpected home-cooked meal.

Bring the Big Easy home with these original recipes! You don’t have to live down south to enjoy some of your favorite foods from Louisiana! This is a cookbook that draws inspiration from classic recipes down in the bayou and transforms them into modern-day dishes for all to enjoy. These recipes have a touch of nostalgia while using fresh, locally grown ingredients native to Louisiana—but which can be found anywhere. The dishes are interesting and easy enough for anyone to make at home. Whether you are a beginner in the kitchen or an old pro, you will love whipping up new takes on the Cajun tradition. Divided into fun, modern chapters such as Small Bites, Date Night, and Happy Hour, recipes include: Cheddar scallion tasso biscuit sandwiches Spiced pork burgers with remoulade mayonnaise Muffuletta sliders Pecan praline cinnamon rolls Mango bourbon smash A fusion of deconstructed Cajun delicacies and traditional flavors, Modern Cajun Cuisine is a necessity for any season. Gather everyone around the table and celebrate food, life, and love with a fresh and unexpected home-cooked meal.

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 recipes: 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.

Cooking through the seasons on Avery island in Louisiana.

The recipes found in this little cookbook aren’t the latest fad in fusion but a collection of simple, down home Louisiana favorites that are so good they make you want to pass them on. When Lauren Landry found herself away from her home of Lafayette, Louisiana she vowed never to be far from the tastes and smells that she grew up with. This cookbook author shares her love of the food that keeps her grounded in her roots. Many recipes start with, what’s known in Cajun country as the trinity; onions, bell pepper and celery. The mixture fills the air with anticipation of goodness to come. From Brunch Down the Bayou to Down Home Desserts, the sections of this little cookbook take the celebration from morning to night. So, if you need a reason to dirty the dishes, here are 25 good ones, and one more for lagniappe, the Louisiana word for a little something extra.

Plant-based foodies rejoice: you can finally indulge in New Orleans' iconic cuisine thanks to the 130+ recipes in this first-ever Cajun vegan cookbook. Classic dishes like jambalaya, étouffée, gumbo, and hushpuppies have gone vegan in this delicious cookbook which blends Louisiana's beloved flavor profiles with plant-forward ingredients that are fresh and sustainable, yet still authentic and delicious. 130+ recipes inspired by the Big Easy (including 90+ gluten-free options): • Breakfasts and Breads: Molasses & Roasted Pecan Pancakes, Backwoods Buttermilk Biscuits and Gray, and Strawberry Peach Heart Tarts • Soups, Salads, and Poboys: Southern Belle Pepper Salad, Gulf Coast Oyster Mushroom Soup, and Swamp Queen Poboy • Entrees: Heart of the Bayou Étouffée, Jambalaya Collard Wraps, and Chili-Rubbed Butternut Squash Steaks • Sides: Fried Green Tomatoes, Kale & Tempeh'd Black-Eyed Peas, and Cajun Potato Wedges • Dressings, Sauces, and Toppings: Tangy Tabasco Dressing, Cajun Nacho Sauce, and Smoky Maple "Bacon" Bits • Desserts: French Quarter Beignets, Cinnamon King Cake, and Salted Pecan Pralines • Drinks: Jalapeño Cauldron Lemonade, Café Au Lait, and Hurricane Party Each of the recipes was created under the influence of powdered sugar, café au lait, Louisiana jazz, and a sprinkling of '90s jams by Krimsey Lilleth, founder of the late-and-great Los Angeles restaurant Krimsey's Cajun Kitchen. May this cookbook inspire you to try new things, have fun with your food, and be reminded that life is one big party. Enjoy! “Krimsey’s restaurant was a real favorite of ours. We had her food at Billie’s rehearsals often…fortunately for all of us, she just put out a Cajun vegan cookbook.” - Maggie Baird, mother of Billie Eilish and FINNEAS and founder of the plant-based food initiative Support+Feed

In South Louisiana, food is more than just sustenance. It is a way to bring friends and family together and it connects us to our history and our culture. Few places are more tied to these culinary roots than Louisiana's River Parishes, which stretch along the levees of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Here the many cultures and diverse people who call the area home--Cajun, Creole, German, French, Spanish, African, and Native American--have mingled to produce a rich tradition of harvesting the largesse that Louisiana provides all year long. That abundance is crafted it into delectable dishes by the families who have cultivated these lands for generations. Chef Jarred Zeringue celebrates this seasonal bounty in this approachable guide to Cajun cooking. Featuring the flavors and culture he learned alongside his mother, grandparents, and many aunts and uncles, Jarred offers an intimate window into how his family--like so many in Louisiana's River Parishes--cook from the land, using the freshest ingredients in a lifestyle that embodies the farm to table philosophy. With nearly 90 recipes divided by the seasons, Jarred shares the traditional tastes of his childhood, with an emphasis on the smoked meats for which his smokehouse is renowned.