in what way are they 'cajun'?

There is a common misconception outside of south Louisiana that Cajun food is hot and spicy. An authentic Cajun dish will usually have a bit of a "kick" but will not be eye-wateringly hot. The Cajun cook does not seek to overpower the dish with simple heat ? this is done by the diner at the table if they so wish. Rather, a balance of different pepper flavors is strived for, usually involving a mixture of black, white and cayenne pepper in various ratios. The sensation of these three peppers along the palate is what makes Cajun seasoning unique.

Cajun dishes prepared outside of Louisiana, are often hotter than their Louisiana counterparts, and lack the flavor of the original dishes. Even andouille sausage, mild and smoky in Louisiana, gets the pepper treatment elsewhere. This is partially a result of the "Cajun" foods craze of the 1980s, when Cajun-style seasoning was popularized by chef Paul Prudhomme's creation of the very spicy dish called Blackened Redfish at his New Orleans restaurant "K-Paul's". It is also a result of recent "extreme" food fads, where many items are hotter than the originals.

Outside of southern Louisiana, foods prepared using Cajun-style seasoning are called Cajun, including some decidedly non-Cajun dishes such as red beans and rice, and blackened redfish. Sometimes the label is applied incorrectly to any dish including traditional Cajun ingredients such as cayenne pepper, or merely as a slogan, as in McDonalds's "Spicy Cajun McChicken".

Cajun cuisine is sometimes confused with Creole cuisine, and many outside of Louisiana don't make the distinction. Creole is more city ? urban, cosmopolitan, and French-inspired ? while Cajun is more country, with simpler recipes and more common ingredients. This matter is complicated by the sharing of several dishes between the cuisines, including gumbo, gumbo z'herbes (a vegetarian gumbo), seafood ? l'?touff?e, and jambalaya, although New Orleans jambalaya and gumbo are prepared differently than its Cajun counterpart.

Further complicating this is that the term Creole is used to designate several somewhat distinct New Orleans food cultures. So-called 'haute-creole' cuisine was influenced in the past few decades by Cajun food as Creole restaurants such as Commander's Palace and K-Paul's created a distinct "Cajun-Creole fusion" cuisine combining Cajun flavors with Creole ingredients and preparation. Dishes rooted primarily in the New Orleans metropolitan area such as po'-boys, barbecued shrimp, or red beans and rice are in general Creole, not Cajun, as are most dishes involving a cream sauce or the French mother sauces.

Non-Cajun dishes

This is a listing of dishes sometimes mistakenly called or thought to be Cajun but having origins elsewhere, usually in New Orleans or in northern Louisiana, and sometimes are relatively unadopted in Acadiana:

* Bananas Foster
* Blackened anything
* Bread pudding
* Cajun fries
* Cajun sausage (other than andouille, etc.)
* Calas
* Chicken and Dumplings
* Deep fried turkey - deep frying of whole turkeys outdoors in a large pot.
* Oysters Rockefeller or Casino
* Popeye's Fried Chicken (a US chain founded in New Orleans, was intentionally "Cajunified".)
* Red beans and rice
* Spicy Cajun McChicken

Posted By: Dave in France, Jul 14, 16:25:13