Down South in New Orleans
Hello! I’m back and I am very excited about this edition of the mailer. We are leaning in hard on this theme because I have had a lifelong infatuation with New Orleans. It could be because of the music I grew up with - artists like Dr. John regularly playing in our house - or maybe the thrill of eating alligator gumbo, fed to me as a child by a family friend. Whatever it may be, I think of my next visit to New Orleans often and have a running note in my phone of places to try and sites to see. My husband’s family is from New Orleans - this is just a happy coincidence to my love for the city but it makes it all the sweeter. We are fully vaccinated and we decided it was high time we introduced our 1 year old daughter to her grandparents, so we hit the road for a good old fashioned road trip. We headed straight south from Nashville to The Big Easy, Crescent City, The Birthplace of Jazz (and many other thrills) - New Orleans.
As a city it has earned a lot of nicknames over the years. It leaves a lasting impression of familiarity even when much of it is unique. Its culture is dripping from every balcony, colorful shutter and rooftop. It is a mix of French, Spanish, Afro-Caribbean, Acadian, Latino, African, Portuguese and Chinese all whipped up into its own unique heritages of Cajun and Creole. New Orleans is a spectacle to behold.
The roots of New Orleans are some that run so deep they are sometimes muddied like the water that surrounds it. The history is incredibly tangled and at times very dark but its people are some of the most resilient and, in turn, proudest on the planet. They love their city and they celebrate its history. In fact they celebrate it nearly every day of the year with parades, costumes, feasts and lots of music.
My husband Aaron, although mostly raised in Chicago, carries a lot of New Orleans culture with him and when he has a few beers you can hear it in his accent. The drawl is slow and lazy like most Southern drawls, but its inflections are nothing like that of its surrounding states. It is as unique as the languages that helped create it. Our last name is Thebault pronounced THEHB-OW. Being from Chicago I would have said it exactly like it’s spelled The-Bault. In New Orleans if you have a French name (many people do) then you pronounce it like a French name. Their local names and dialect are anything but typical American. You drop letters, add vowels and add loads of character. Don’t even ask me to repeat my pronunciation of Tchoupitoulas Street (A Native American name meaning “to live by the river”). It was bad and I recommend you try, you’ll laugh. All that being said I decided I should include a brief but important history lesson to help us familiarize with where this month's dinner is coming from. If you’d like to pause and shake up one of the cocktail recipes from below, in true New Orleans fashion, you can wet your whistle while you brush up on some knowledge.
A brief but important history lesson:
Disclaimer – I am not a historian but I did get my information from legitimate sources
New Orleans sits next to the Mississippi River, south of Lake Pontchartrain and just north of the Gulf of Mexico. It is an incredibly unique landscape that was integral in shaping its history and continues to do so today. Originally settled by Native Americans, then claimed by The French, traded to the Spanish, and ultimately sold to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase - New Orleans is a perfect location for trade from all over the world, hence making it a lucrative city to control. New Orleans had a very strong hand in the slave and spice trade. The slave trade in this city is an astoundingly important factor in the culture that lives on today. Under Spanish rule the city adopted an existing Spanish decree allowing people of color to live freely within the city limits. This was entirely unique in the Southern United States at that time. This built the foundation for communities of color to share and solidify their culture in a southern region. It also made it a safe haven for people fleeing the slave trade and working to free others. Thus, a deeply rooted community culture grew.
Until around 1830, French was the main language of New Orleans and is still often heard locally today. The city has seen many changes in its population demographic and an ebb and flow of dominant racial hierarchies throughout its history. Each group has left a strong imprint of their culture and heritage. Through all the hardships, recent and of old, New Orleans has always come roaring back with music, soul and celebration.
All of this ties back to a digital mailer about food because New Orleans cuisine is unlike anywhere else in this country. It is heavily influenced by French and Spanish cuisine, with spices from Africa, the Caribbean and South America always in heavy rotation. Many of the cooking practices from the 1700’s and 1800’s are still widely used today. Some of the produce and much of the seafood found here are unique to its landscape. The low-laying swampland in and around Orleans Parish (what the rest of the country calls county) offers ingredients like oysters, shrimp, crab, turtle, frog and not to be forgotten, crawfish. Now I am unfortunately and aggressively allergic to crustacean so much of what I want to eat, I can’t. The amount of times Aaron has said “I cannot believe you can’t eat crawfish!” (while he has elbows on the table eating pounds of them) is uncountable. This allergy has led me to branch out and enjoy frog legs, turtle soup and amazing oyster and catfish po’boys. I’ll always crave the red bugs but I know all too well what happens if I eat them.
Truth be told, this menu was hard. I couldn’t make up my mind! There are far too many delicious options and much of the cooking practices are not common in the American kitchen. This food is always homestyle and never stuffy so the list of dishes to share was a whopper. With the help of my “local en residence” (he is also a talented professional chef) and some ancient cookbooks from Aunt Rita for reference, we’ve narrowed it down to a few favorites that create a wonderful meal and even better leftovers for the week ahead. I hope you enjoy and as they say in Nola - laissez les bon temps rouler – let the good times roll!
A quote from Gourmets Guide to New Orleans first published 1933
“To properly prepare these gifts of the gods for human consumption there has slowly evolved through the past two hundred years a school of cooking that is part inspiration and sheer genius, and part a happy adaptation of the dishes of many races and lands. Founded originally on French cuisine, it was pepped up, so to speak, by the Spanish, given body and strength by New England influence, a bit of warmth by the hot breads of Virginia, and finally glorified by the touch of the old [black women] who boasted that they had only to pass their hands over a pot to give it a flavor that would make your mouth water.” – Dorothy Dix
As always there is a complete shopping list for the whole meal and a prep list in the pictures below. You don’t need to make the entire menu to enjoy some New Orleans flare, you can definitely mix and match. The gumbo only gets better as the week goes on so you can make it a few days ahead if you’d like to break up the cooking process. Most of the cuisine from the South as a whole is very meat heavy and vegetarian unfriendly. If you’re looking to make something veg friendly try a Gumbo z'Herbes! I’m happy to walk you through if you want to connect!
If you ever have questions, reach out on Instagram or via email and if you make any of the dishes please tag them on Instagram at @WeLoveSharedPlates – it brings me more joy than I can express to see people cooking good food!
The Menu :
Full Send Cocktail Option – The Sazerac *The Sazerac is made of less common bar ingredients like absinthe so make it if you're up for the task, save it for another day if you’re not feelin’ it. It will however go perfectly with dessert...
Low Country Seafood – Creole Shrimp and Baked Oysters
Aaron’s Chicken and Sausage Gumbo with White Rice and Buttered White Bread
Bananas Foster meets Baba au Rhum
Pairing Option : Ameztoi Txakolina Blanca - It’s bright, tart, slightly effervescent and absolutely perfect for rich spicy food.
The Playlist! - shuffle it up to enjoy while cooking and listen to it straight through for dinner time