This cookbook has a poignant dedication :
"This book is dedicated to the citizens of the Gulf Coast, whose lives were changed forever by the events of August 29, 2005, and whose determination to keep on cooking the foods of their culture inspired this project."
The "event" is, of course, Hurricane Katrina which virtually wiped out New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast. I sometimes wonder if one of the things that historians will point to in the continuing evolution of America's foodways is the diaspora of New Orlineans throughout the country. While they might have been forced to leave home, natives of NOLA were determined to keep cooking their food. The Times-Picayune played a critical role in helping this effort by publishing requests for recipes that folks had lost in the storm and then publishing the replies. This cookbook is the collection of the results of those searches for lost recipes.
"Cooking Up a Storm is a compendium of the very best of New Orleans cuisine, from seafood and meat to cocktails and desserts. But it also tells the story, recipe by recipe, of one of the great food cities in the world, and the determination of its citizens, in the face of adversity, to preserve and safeguard their culinary legacy."
The recipes make for good reading as well as good cooking. Here is one for a shrimp salad which is excellent and quite unlike any shrimp salad I have ever made before.
SHRIMP AND ORZO SALAD
(4 to 6 servings)
- 6 cups water
- 2 teaspoons salt, or more to taste
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
- 2 pounds large shrimp
- 1/2 cup orzo pasta
- 2 cups mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup Creole mustard
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh dill
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
- fresh ground black pepper
- Hot sauce to taste
Combine the water, salt and cayenne in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the shrimp, allow water to return to a boil, and cook until they turn pink, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the shrimp from the pot with a slotted spoon and spread them out on a large platter to cool.
Add the orzo to the water in the pot and bring a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and cool.
Cut the shelled and deveined shrimp into bite-size pieces. Combine the mayonnaise, mustard, dill, parsley, and lemon juice in a large bowl and whisk to blend. Fold in the shrimp, orzo and the cherry tomatoes. Season with more salt if needed, the black pepper and the hot sauce. Cover and chill well before serving.
(Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker, eds. Cooking Up a Storm. Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008.)
