On the Road

Penny ( with Junior and Joel) explains the Accordion Note the Craw-fish branding on the bellows Any description of our group’s field trip to Martin Accordions last evening will not capture the richness of the experience.   Our bus delivered us to an understated building immediately behind a Waffle house in Scott LA.   Sixty+ Road Scholar participants from two separate program groups filed into a good sized hall where our emcee – Penny Martin - immediately captured our full attention.  She told fun stories, made us laugh, chronicled the evolution of Cajun and Zydeco music, explained the importance of the music in keeping Cajun culture alive and shared the musical tradition of her very talented family.   Penny’s father (Clarence “Junior”- founder) and nephew (Joel) joined her on stage, explaining their instruments and playing a wide variety of music from many eras.  Joel's talent and mastery of the accordion was on display throughout.  A couple of other musicians showed up at t

Bill the Ragin' Cajun cooked the apples to perfection.  (He also did well to keep Dolly away from the rum!) Chef Nick Landry, who had a wide variety of experiences in his impressive culinary career, guided the group through today's lunch preparation of mixed green salad with spiced walnuts and strawberry vinaigrette, New Orleans style bar b que shrimp with creamy smoked cheddar polenta and fresh apple cobbler with sweet potato crumble.  We took our time today and strategically prepared those items that could sit - allowing us to later focus on the polenta and shrimp.  Bill got right to work on the apples while three of us prepared the cobbler crumb topping of melted butter and sweet potato pancake mix, spiced baked walnuts and strawberry vinaigrette for the salad.  We also roasted roma tomatoes which we had dipped in olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, oregano and basil.  After the tomatoes cooled their refined flavor diversified the salad flavors.  With our salad and cobbler

Diana and Irma must be debating the color of their roux. Crawfish at the Hook and Boil Today we returned to campus to again make our own lunch.  Chef Sanders Thomas skillfully guided the group – step by step - through the preparation of a Caesar salad, seafood gumbo and Creole bread pudding.     We started out by making a roux (of course) – only this time we used canola oil and flour as opposed to butter.  When the roux was good and dark we let it cool, so that we could later pour off some of the excess oil and then add the remainder to the boiling water of our gumbo.  At last we were able to utilize the “holy trinity” of Cajun cooking – green bell peppers, celery and onions in the gumbo stock.   In the end we smothered our rice (that we actually baked in the oven) with the gumbo.  We used half of a loaf of French bread to make the croutons for the salad and the other half to make the base for our bread pudding.  There was a fun mishap when the rum for the pudding dressing fo

Etouffee on the stove. Crawfish to be added. Hard at work! This morning we worked in teams of 3-4 to prepare our own lunch at the cooking classrooms of the University of Louisiana Lafayette.  We prepared four dishes fried eggplant with tasso cream sauce, broiled catfish topped with crawfish etoufee, shrimp and tasso corn maque choux and chocolate pecan pie.  Chef Becky Dubois who teaches at the University walked us through each recipe and then set us to work.  In the process, which felt busy but pretty relaxed, we were introduced to many general cooking concepts as well as some Louisiana specific foods.  We made a roux (a basic sauce), etoufee, a smothering or gravy and maque choux which was a dish influenced by the Indians who once lived in the area.  We worked with tasso, a smoked pork shoulder, crawfish, peppers, onions, mushrooms, corn and lots of butter!  

Beignets (french donuts) to start the day Road Scholar provided suggested reading in advance of our trip and I read a short book on Arcadia and Cajun history on the flight down.  The story is sadly familiar to the fate that so many minorities have faced - expulsion from their original homeland, scattered throughout the world and finally some of them finding a home here in southern Louisiana where they still faced further abuse for practicing their customs.  Finally in the last 50 years there has been an acknowledgement and celebration of their unique culture - maybe just before the information age wiped it out.  We arrived on Easter Sunday and all the local restaurants were closed, but we had an amazing local dinner - shirmp creole and catfish - right here at the hotel!  We're even more excited to check out the local establishments.

One week ago Mrs. Top Chef and I were without a plan. For the week of April 19, our nest would be empty, as our youngest traveled to Europe with her high school and our son wrapped up a semester in college. We searched the Road Scholar web site for adventures starting between April 19 - 21. There were many options but the spiciest and most intriguing was Cajun Cooking in Lafayette Louisiana. Mrs Top Chef and I booked it and are headed to the airport today. After a winter in the polar vortex, we're pretty excited to break away, learn something new and warm up in Cajun Country.