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Thursday, September 20, 2012
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Welcome to Louisiana Recipes
Back in 1992 or so I was dispatched by The Times-Picayune, for which I then served as a community news editor, to cover an event in New Orleans' Carrollton neighborhood. This was the day I met Richard McCarthy, a community visionary who has become a lifelong friend. After years of frustration, Richard, working in partnership with New Orleans' Parkway Partners Commission, had finally succeeded in convincing the city to allow him to turn a vacant lot filled with rotting mattresses, empty beer cans, and discarded hypodermic needles in his Uptown neighborhood into a thriving community garden and gathering space, the first of many that would follow in the city. Civic and entrepreneurially-minded and socially progressive, Richard went on to co-found the Crescent City Farmers Market in 1995. As executive director, he led the organization to grow from a weekly farmers market into marketumbrella.org, an internationally recognized mentor for markets, community-building, and sustainable economic development with an annual operating budget of $750K and a staff of seven. The mission of marketunbrella.org is to promote ecologically sound economic development in the Greater New Orleans area, particularly among family farmers, seafood purveyors, and other local agricultural enterprises. On September 29th, the Crescent City Farmers Market will celebrate its 17th birthday with free French Market Coffee, live music from the Delta Drifters, cake from Bittersweet Confections and market-inspired gelato from La Divina Gelateria. As always, the Saturday market will run from 8 a.m. to noon at the corner of Magazine and Girod streets, where it all started. In celebration of their anniversary, I offer recipes below from "Crescent City Farmers Market Cookbook" by Poppy Tooker, the newly-minted associate editor of Louisiana Kitchen & Culture magazine. (Here is a list of farmers markets around Louisiana.)
And finally, putting this newsletter together each week takes both time and resources, neither of which is free. We are able to give this newsletter to you at no charge because of the advertisers you see here and in our magazine, and we ask that you support them. Our paying subscribers to the print magazine support this effort as well, and we thank you all. Enjoy this week's recipes, and as always, let us know what's on your mind. Best-
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PS: We will do a supplemental mailing of the Sept/Oct issue later this month. Subscribe Today or call 504.208.9959 to place your phone order. There is still time to get your copy. Don't miss out. Louisiana Kitchen is now on sale at Rouses; Hastings; Books a Million; select Barnes and Noble stores around the country. Pick up a copy and let us know what you think. You can also order back issues via our website, or by calling 504-208-9959. |
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Jyl Benson (right) writes this week; she and Susan now alternate writing the newsletter.
The cover pictured here came off press last week. If you've not done so already, 
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| Jim Core's Kale Jambalaya |
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While it is difficult to let go of summer's annual tomato, peach, corn and cucumber bounty, the importance of incorporating fresh, leafy, seasonal, inexpensive greens into our diets should be embraced with the turning of the season. Crescent City Farmers Market grower, Jim Core, incorporates the nutritional powerhouse kale into a Louisiana crowd-pleasing favorite with his namesake jambalaya. Kale offers an excellent source of vitamins K, A and C. |
| Wild Mushroom Grillades |
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The season for wild mushrooms is upon us and chanterelles, hen of the woods, morels, or king totems can easily be substituted for the shiitakes and portobellos called for here. This hearty variety pairs particularly well with hearty grains. |
| Bananas Foster Bread Pudding |
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Bananas imported from Latin America made fortunes in New Orleans and contributed substantially to the establishment of trade between the northern and southern hemispheres. By mid-twentieth century, twenty to twenty-five per cent of all the bananas imported into the United States came across the docks at New Orleans. From the turn of the 20th century, when banana imports first began to flow through the port of New Orleans, until the late 1960s, when Standard Fruit moved its operations to Gulfport, the banana trade provided one of New Orleans' strongest commercial ties to Latin America. Bananas Foster was invented at Brennan’s Restaurant as a flaming tableside dessert. At the popular French Quarter steak house owned by Dickie Brennan, a member of the second generation of Brennan family restaurateurs, two of the most classic New Orleans desserts create a marriage made in heaven. |
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