I think I’ve discovered the secret to Cajun cooking – cook it slow and let it brown. Here’s an example – during our visit my grandmother was making a batch of cornbread dressing. Let me give you the recipe before I continue. This is my great-great grandmother’s recipe, on the other side of my family. They called her “Madame Queen” – in explanation, her name was Regina, she was infamously stubborn, yet very loved.

Madame Queen’s Cornbread Dressing

1 baked cornbread crumbled
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large bell pepper, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 chicken bouillon cube, dissolved in 1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons onion tops
3 tablespoons parsley
seasoning to taste
milk to moisten

Saute onion, garlic, bell pepper, and celery in sauce pan with the oil. Add the meat and bouillon cube that has been dissolved. Cook meat until light brown. Mix with crumbled cornbread, onion tops and parsley. Add more milk to moisten if necessary. Season to taste. Bake at 350 degrees until brown.

This dressing can be prepared the day before and baked the next day which is a good to know for holidays.

My living grandmother was following just about the same recipe, except the browning the meat part. Once the vegetables became transparent, the meat was added but cooked for quite some time after it had turned light brown. She would let it stick to the bottom of the pot just a little, then from a cup of water perpetually at the side of the stovetop, pour in like 1/8 cup of water. It was just enough to allow her to scrape the browned bits off the bottom with her spatula and allow it to keep browning without burning. And that’s the cycle – brown, water, scrape. I really believe it gives a greater flavour to the meat in a recipe like this.

But it’s also the basis for any good gravy making. Recently, I attempted a pork roast in my dutch oven on the stovetop. My neighbour couldn’t believe I wasn’t doing it in the oven, but I remember my father doing it this way and wanted to try. I seared every side first, then added the remaining vegetables of the marinade I had stuffed into little holes all over the roast. No, I’m not talking potatoes and carrots, but the three veggies Cajuns won’t do without – onions, bellpepper and celery. In this case, I added in garlic. There was never too much garlic for pork, according to my Dad.

Again, once the vegetables were withered and mostly transparent, I began the brown, water, and scrape. I let it do that all afternoon. Half way through I put a good amount of water – a cup or two – in the bottom to turn all the delicious brown stuff into the gravy. But I still had to be watchful and careful it did not burn. The roast did fall apart in the end, but I just forked it into serving size pieces. It and the gravy was the best I’d ever done. I was so proud!

I experimented with this technique last week when I made chili. A pound of beef and a pound of pork after the vegetables, and browned them until at least half of the meat was just kissed with that dark brown color. From there, I followed the instructions on the back of the chili seasoning packet – yum, yum! OH, only belatedly did I realize the seasoning was only sufficient for one pound of meat, so I scrounged out this homemade version to get the double seasoning I needed and it worked. It was my first chili that I really liked. For bean lovers, just add the beans with the tomato sauce.

2 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
dissolved in a little cup of water

I’ll post more recipes to use this browning technique with as I find them.

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