Outside Louisiana the distinctions
between Cajun and Creole cuisine have been blurred. However,
Creole dishes tend to be more continental, although using
local produce. Cajun victuals are more spicy hot and tend
to be more hearty. But outside Louisiana the distinctions
are academic.
The cornerstone of Cajun cuisine is "the trinity".
Traditional French cooking often involves a "mire poix"
(consisting of onion, celery, and carrot, finely diced) as
the flavor base for many dishes. Cajuns use "the trinity"
(onion, celery, and bell pepper, finely diced). With this
base, flavors are layered and concentrated. Inexpensive and
readily available ingredients, seasoned and cooked with skill
and served over plain white rice, provided the fuel that early
Cajun settlers needed for survival. Many of those dishes are
still served in homes and restaurants today as a touchstone
to the past.
High on the list of favorites of Cajun cooking are the stews
called gumbos, a word brought to Louisiana from Africa. It
means okra, one of the principal ingredients of a gumbo. (The
word came into Caribbean
Spanish as guingambó, which is now the word for okra
in Puerto Rico. A filé gumbo is made with sassafras
leaves, a practice borrowed from the Choctaw Indians. The
backbone of a gumbo is the roux, made with fat, not butter
as with the French. The classic gumbo is made with chicken
and the Cajun sausage called andouille. But the ingredients
all depend on what's available at the moment.
Another Cajun classic is the variety of jambalayas that is
available at any time. The only certain thing that can be
said about them is that they contain rice and almost anything
else. Usually, however, you'll find green peppers, onions,
celery and hot peppers. Anything else is optional.
Rice proved to be a valuable commodity in early Acadiana.
With an abundance of water, rice could be grown practically
anywhere in the region, and grew wild in some areas. Rice
became the predominant starch in the diet. Easy to grow, prepare,
and digest, the survival of the Acadians depended on it.
The food of the Cajuns had to meet certain requirements.
Many households were Catholic and consisted of 8-12 people,
so farming was a requirement, regardless of the head of household's
other vocations. Whoever did the cooking had to prepare food
for a lot of hard working people everyday. Rice became the
easiest, cheapest, and tastiest way to do that. Cajun cuisine
grew up around the ability to stretch what little meat, game,
or other protein they had.
And, of course, to sop up the juices what would a meal be
without cornbread? The corn pone one hears about in the South
is derived from an Algonquian dish made with corn (maize)
flour, salt and water. Wheat and flour was hard to find in
many areas, and did not last long in the south Louisiana humidity.
This made the cornbread a necessity.
In most cases, whatever is found on a Cajun table is what
a Cajun found in the field or water a short time before and
a short distance away, like crawfish or gator or rabbit or
chicken. The cuisine is simple, lively, hearty and plentiful.
Information provided by wikipedia.org
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