Best of Cajun and Creole Cooking [Hardcover]

Alex Barker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

This spectacularly color illustrated cookbook features over 100 easy-to-prepare recipes with Cajun and Creole flavors. Cajun and Creole cooking, which combines influences from French and Spanish settlers, Native Americans, and African-Americans, has become one of the most exciting cuisines in the world today. Try your hand at making Jambalya, Swinging' Louisiana Gumbo, Shellfish Etouffee, Muffuletta sandwiches, and other tasty dishes from the cosmopolitan river port city of New Orleans and the surrounding area. With The Best of Cajun & Creole Cooking, you can prepare masterpieces in your very own home.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

This spectacularly color illustrated cookbook features over 100 easy-to-prepare recipes with Cajun and Creole flavors. Cajun and Creole cooking, which combines influences from French and Spanish settlers, Native Americans, and African-Americans, has become one of the most exciting cuisines in the world today. Try your hand at making Jambalya, Swinging' Louisiana Gumbo, Shellfish Etouffee, Muffuletta sandwiches, and other tasty dishes from the cosmopolitan river port city of New Orleans and the surrounding area. With The Best of Cajun & Creole Cooking, you can prepare masterpieces in your very own home.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Gramercy (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517218429
• ISBN-13: 978-0517218426
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,343,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Old stand-by recipes from New Orleans, July 3, 2008

By 

Patrick W. Crabtree "The Old Grottomaster" (Lucasville, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best of Cajun and Creole Cooking (Hardcover)

This 2003 cookbook by Alex Barker (Alex is a SHE) comes to us from Gramercy Books (Random House) and Regency House Publishing Limited. The work was printed and bound in hardcover in Italy and the numerous beautiful photographs of the dishes were supplied by Food Features. The nice dust jacket sort of hides the actuality of a budget binding, much like what we used to see on the old Whitman Classics, "shiny cardboard".

The book is pretty brief at 80 pages in length and the dimensions are 8 1/4" x 10 1/4" x 3/8". The one-page index will get you where you need to go in regard to the recipes, which are just over 100 in number.

The layout of the recipes is not very convenient. Each one might commence anywhere on a page, the beginning of each recipe is difficult to spot as it blends in with the surrounding text, and there are typically a couple of recipes per page. Sometimes you only get a segment of a recipe without turning the page which is bothersome if you display your recipes in a cookbook shield while you cook. The fonts are fairly small and thin, tough to read easily while you're cooking. The actual recipe directions are pretty good with adequate detail.

In "The Best of Cajun and Creole Cooking" you will find most of the signature recipes of New Orleans and of Cajun Country in general. Some examples include "Muffuletta" (sandwich); (chicken and shrimp) "Jambalaya"; and, "Shellfish Étouffée". The ingredient lists for all recipes are pretty long and I did not detect many dishes which one could prepare "on a tight budget," "Banana Bread" serving as an exception to this caveat.

Here is the Table of Contents:
1. Appetizers
2. Brunches & sandwiches
3. Meat & poultry entrées
4. Fish entrées
5. Vegetables & sides
6. Desserts
7. Index

Honestly, a comparable and superior cookbook choice for these specialty dishes would be this one:

The Best of New Orleans (The Best of ...)

If you are really into collecting each and every available Cajun/Creole recipe, you might find a few in here to expand your collection but, as I said, there are better cookbooks available for this interesting realm of cooking.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly is the Best!, February 7, 2009

By 

Mark Webb (Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of Cajun and Creole Cooking (Hardcover)

If you are going to have only one cookbook on your shelf to help you navigate the wonderful world of Cajun and Creole cooking, this is the one to have. The book is both economically laid out and lavishly illustrated. As you leaf through the pages, you begin to appreciate the differences between these two styles of cooking and the rich cultural amalgam that produces both. The recipes can be either simple, such as the andouille and lima bean supper, which as the name suggests is sautéed sausage and lima beans; or more elaborate, such as duck breasts with orange and rum, a Creole version of duck l'orange.

Alex Barker's book takes you from start to finish with tantalizing soups and appetizers to sweet and unusual desserts. Each stop along the way demonstrates the African, South American, and European influences that found their way to Louisiana and surrounding areas centuries ago. As you consider these recipes, you can easily gain insight into the basics of Cajun and Creole cooking, allowing fairly easy substitutions depending on your access to the ingredients in the recipe. After all, Cajun and Creole cooking is based upon availability, so why stop that tradition now?

And no, there isn't Tabasco in every recipe. You should, however, always have a bottle close by.