contest December Throwdown Discussion

Status
Not open for further replies.
One thing to consider about Cajun food, is that the majority of is was born of "in the kettle" type "recipes". Honestly, you can throw a lot of different things in a Gumbo or Jambalaya, and it works. I've eaten tomato based, chicken broth based, crab and fish roux based...it's all Cajun, and it's all good. Personally, I prefer a mix of tomato and broth...and the ingredients are available at any store. Even uncooked frozen shrimp is good...saute it with garlic, lemon juice, thyme, cayenne...or anything out there. Cajun is NOT what I would consider a "gotta-hava-recipe" type food. Look at a few recipes online, get an idea of the ingredients you might want to use, and personalize it.
 
Simple country food born out of necessity kicked up with spices to make it interesting. That's how it was born. Everyone here can do that!
 
I've been to N'Awleens once, and I have a couple ideas knocking around my head (what's that echo? :lol: ), so I'd like to give this TD a whirl... This is outta my culinary comfort zone, but i'm always up for challenge. :)
 
We'll do some variant of the Bayou Battle, but the example I posted is not final. I need to work on that a bit and will post it when I can.
 
paulky_2000 said:
Wally World has frozen whole crawfish, crawfish tail meat, and catfish fillets....

I'd bet money on it, sweetie.

;)

P.S. I'd love to help you design a menu! :dance:
Click to expand...

Haven't been to WallyWorld in months, it's not convenient to where we live (it's 40 miles away,,,YAY!) But I would make a special trip for some ingredients!

and I'll take you up on that offer to help design a menu.


I'm cooking up some andouille and vegetables with tomatoes right now and can't decide if it's jambalaya and I should add rice or if it's gumbo and I should not add rice. :confused:
 
I don't want to derail the Bayou Battle idea, as it seems to have a lot of potential for a TD.

But, perhaps in future Throwdowns, instead of limiting the TDs to a specific style of cooking or cuisine, maybe you could pick three or four specific ingredients that must be used in the dish (similar to the mystery ingredient - mango throwdown). Participators can then cook in any style or cuisine they prefer, but must use the specific ingredients to qualify. I must confess I hijacked this idea from the Food Network's show "Chopped" which is based on the same premise.

I think this way you wouldn't have to redo old TDs because you would effectively have an infinite number of combinations of ingredients to choose from. How you go about choosing the ingredients ... :think: ... I don't know. Previous champion(s) choose? Hall of famers choose? Admins choose? You could make a poll with 15 ingredients and the top 4 vote getters win ... ?
 
Phadrus On Fire said:
I don't want to derail the Bayou Battle idea, as it seems to have a lot of potential for a TD.

But, perhaps in future Throwdowns, instead of limiting the TDs to a specific style of cooking or cuisine, maybe you could pick three or four specific ingredients that must be used in the dish
Click to expand...


I have mentioned that at least three times with little to no feedback.

I think it's an awesome idea!
 
Well that's kind of what the idea was in this one, you have to select from the sections. For those that don't know Cajun they end up with a Cajun dish after they select. Will be interesting to see the creations, I think.

Chopped style sounds good for a future one.
 
yea, where we live is pretty special in that the pass to western WA shuts down in the winter and the valley becomes a "deadend" road. WallyWorld is 40 miles away...over a different 4020' pass! Our elevation is about 1200'....It's definitely not some place we "stop at on the way home".


Back on topic-
I love the idea of "pick 4 ingredients" for a future TD! Any cooking style or flavor would be fair game.

The one mentioned for December is sort of like that except THP was indicating he wanted the Pick-you-own-ingredients to be used in a Cajun influenced dish. I could see the same ingredients and cooking styles listed being used and coming up with something totally not Cajun.
 
I'm still thimking about what I can do with some fresh Armadillo Pauly. Hey I'd even be willing to freeze some for you and send it if you want to try some.
 
I've been silly enough to try things twice ;)

If I enter this throwdown whatever I cook will be a rough guess at Cajun. But if I cook with Frenchy techniques and keep it farmstyle with the ingredients listed then I can't go far wrong I suppose. Australia is a loooong way from the Bayou :)
 
Deathtosnails said:
I've been silly enough to try things twice ;)

If I enter this throwdown whatever I cook will be a rough guess at Cajun. But if I cook with Frenchy techniques and keep it farmstyle with the ingredients listed then I can't go far wrong I suppose. Australia is a loooong way from the Bayou :)
Click to expand...


Dude.....it's not the technique....it's the attitude!

:dance:

You will have no trouble with this one.
 
You know it really doesn't matter if what you come up with is Cajun per se, as long as you pick from the ingredients creatively and add some love you'll have a slammin' bayou dish inspired by Cajun cooking. And DTS I know yours will rock.
 
This will be very interesting I have absolutely no idea about cajun cooking but looking forward to giving it a crack.
 
DTS and JK- I'm treading water on this one also. Never been there or tasted 'authentic" cajun/creole food.

Hubby's been there and he tasted the andouille soup (jamba-gumbo Huh?) that I made for lunch today. It was really good! but like he said, it just missed that "something".

More reading, gotta love the internet!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top