Crabmeat Mornay...laissez les bons temps rouler!

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Joe Guilbeau
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Crabmeat Mornay...laissez les bons temps rouler!

Post by Joe Guilbeau »

1 bar of unsalted butter (real butter)
1 small bunch green onions (heads) finely chopped
(reserve tender green stems, add at end of dish if desired, finely minced)
1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tbs flour
1 pint heavy cream
8 ounces Swiss Emmenthaler cheese, grated
1 dash of dry sherry
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
dash of salt
1 pound lump crabmeat

Melt the butter in a pan, add the onions and parsley cook over medium heat until the green onions are translucent.

Add a bit of the heavy creme to the flour and mix until smooth then add the rest of the creme and put mixture into the pan. Cook a bit until the flour starchiness comes out of the pan and the roux taste begins to form.

Now add the Swiss Emmenthaler cheese (no substitutes here, please!) and stir until melted, be careful not to overheat and separate the cheese, just until it melts is fine here.

Toss in the sherry, cayenne and salt to taste and fold in the crabmeat, be careful not to overmix, as the crabmeat does not necessarily need to be totally mixed in. You have a better taste distinction between the cheese sauce and the crabmeat this way...

Dig in!

Now, a little bit aout Cajun's and Creoles...


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The Creoles are generally artisocratic in heritage having immigrated directly from France and arriving wealthy, educated and having their cooking hertiage strongly balanced with French Culinary roots.

The Cajun's came from Acadie (ie: Acadiana) up in Nova Scotia (1755 or thereabouts), and the name Cajun was derived from Acadians...shortened from A-cadians...to cadains...to Cajun's.

They made their living by farming the drained salt marshes and building dykes to prevent flooding.

On Friday, September 5, 1755 Colonel John Winslow ordered that all males aged 10 years and up in the area were to gather in the Grand-Pré Church for an important message from His Excellency, Charles Lawrence, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. The decree that was read to the assembled Acadians stated in part:

"...Gentlemen I have received from His Excellency Governor Lawrence the King's commission which I have in my hand and by who's orders you are conveyed together to manifest to you His Majesty's final resolution to the French inhabitants of this his province of Nova Scotia who for almost half a century have had more indulgence granted them then any of his subjects in any part of his Dominions. What you have made of them you yourself best know..."
(quoted by John Winslow in : Acadie; Esquisse d'un parcours; Sketches of a Journey. p.52)

...and were dispersed by the British forces and some were forced into imprisonment. Some escaped and many of the women and children were carted off to the carribean. Others were deported to the colony states of Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, others were sent back to Britian.

In 1763 however, following the Treaty of Paris, Acadians were given the permission to leave these settlements and settle in a colony of their choice. Those who chose to leave New York went to Santo Domingo (today the Dominican Republic), to the Lesser Antilles (Martinique), and to Louisiana.

Those that escaped made their way down to the delta swamps and mixed culture with the Native Indians (Natchez Speakers, Atakapa, Opelousa, Caddo, Tunica, Koroa, Yazoo, Houma, Bayougoula, Acolapissa, Mugulasha, Okelousa, Quinapisa, Tangipahoa, Chitimacha , Washa and Chawasha) and their cooking styles reflect these minglings of French, Canadian, Spanish, Latin American, Anglo, German, and African descents.

After getting somewhat established, they sent for their women folk and offspring who brought indigenous styles with them also, and all intermingled.

The name Louisana was derived from France's King Louis XIV...In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, reached the river's mouth and proclaimed possession of the river and all the lands drained by it for France, naming this vast expanse "Louisiane," or "Louis' land."

Between 1820 and 1850 almost 54,000 Germans entered the port of New Orleans, by 1860 Louisiana was home to the largest Jewish population in the South, numbering about 8,000 residents.

The major influx of Irish, most of whom were peasants, came after 1830, especially following potato blights of the 1840s. By 1860 Irish numbered over 24,000 in New Orleans.

By 1860 New Orleans was home to over 10,000 French-born residents, some of whom were lawyers, merchants, physicians, or artists.

In 1809 and 1810 over 10,000 French Saint-Domingue refugees came to New Orleans, doubling the city's population. These immigrants originally fled war-torn Saint-Domingue in 1803, as black slaves emerged victorious in the Haitian Revolution, the only successful long-term slave revolt in the Americas.

By 1850 New Orleans was the South's largest slave-trading center. At that time there were twenty-five major slave depots within a half mile from the St. Charles Hotel where African-American slaves could be bought and sold, including hotels and the Masonic Temple.
john cc
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Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2004 12:49 pm
Location: Austin, Texas & Rockport on weekends
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Post by john cc »

That looks great, only problem is I gained 2 pounds just reading it :lol:
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