A Look at Louisiana Creole Cuisine

By Christine Szalay Kudra

Louisiana Creole cuisine is a cooking style, which originated in Louisiana. This wonderful cuisine blends many culinary influences including French, Spanish, Indian, Portuguese, African, and German, to name a few. Creole cuisine is similar to Cajun cuisine but Cajun cooking is based on provincial French cooking and is more rustic. Creole cuisine is based more on classical European cooking. Both of these cooking styles adapted to locally available Louisiana ingredients.

The Spanish influence on Creole cuisine can be identified in the use of citrus juice marinades, spicy peppers, beans, and rice. The use of tomatoes in Creole dishes is linked to popular Italian and Spanish dishes at the time, there are also subtle British, Irish, Dutch, Greek, and Caribbean influences in this tasty cuisine.

The first Creole cookbook in English was published in 1885. This cuisine was already recognizable by then as a regional cuisine and Creole dishes were being served outside of the region in which they were best known.

Rising Popularity of Cajun and Creole Dishes

Cajun influences because important in the 1980s and a lot of tourists became interested in trying Cajun dishes, being unaware that Creole recipes were also widely available in the Louisiana region. Restaurants merged Creole and Cajun dishes and adapted their menus and recipes to suit the demands of the new wave of tourists. Cajun and Creole cooking techniques do overlap but these two cooking styles are also quite different.

A new Creole strain of cooking began to emerge in the late 1980s, focusing on lighter preparations and using fresh ingredients where possible. The Cajun food craze died down but Louisiana Creole cuisine is still a strong force in nearly all major restaurants in New Orleans.

Recipe for Eggs Sardou

This is a classic Louisiana Creole dish and it contains artichokes, poaches eggs, hollandaise sauce, and spinach. You will find eggs sardou on many New Orleans restaurant menus and the following recipe serves six people.

What you will need:

• 10 oz package thawed spinach, well drained
• 2 chopped green onions
• 8 oz sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 12 warm poached eggs
• 2 teaspoons melted butter
• 2 chopped cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan
• 1 drained can artichoke hearts
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• Hollandaise sauce (packaged or homemade)

How to make it:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Saute the garlic and green onions in the melted butter in a skillet until fragrant, then stir in the spinach, whipping cream, sour cream, cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Cook this mixture over a low heat for a minute. Do not let it boil. Arrange the artichoke hearts on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, bottoms down, and bake for about ten minutes or until they are hot. Cover them and keep them warm.

Divide the spinach mixture between six serving plates, and then top it with the artichoke hearts. Arrange the eggs on top, and then add the hollandaise sauce. Finally sprinkle the paprika over the top and serve right away.

Perhaps reading about Creole cuisine on a food blog or website has stirred your interest. This wonderful cooking style is not difficult to master and you can even do a recipe search by ingredient to match up your preferred ingredients with the perfect Creole recipe.

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