A badass modern Cajun cookbook from Top Chef fan favorite Isaac
Toups and acclaimed journalist Jennifer V. Cole, featuring 100
full-flavor stories and recipes.
Things get a little salty down in the bayou...
Cajun country is the last bastion of true American regional cooking, and
no one knows it better than Isaac Toups. Now the chef of the acclaimed
Toups' Meatery and Toups South in New Orleans, he grew up deep in the
Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana, where his ancestors settled 300 years
ago. There, hunting and fishing trips provide the ingredients for
communal gatherings, and these shrimp and crawfish boils, whole-hog
boucheries, fish frys, and backyard cookouts -- form the backbone of
this book.
Taking readers from the backcountry to the bayou, Toups shows how to
make:
A damn fine gumbo, boudin, dirty rice, crabcakes, and cochon de lait His
signature double-cut pork chop and the Toups Burger And more authentic
Cajun specialties like Hopper Stew and Louisiana Ditch Chicken.
Along the way, he tells you how to engineer an on-the-fly barbecue pit,
stir up a dark roux in only 15 minutes, and apply Cajun ingenuity to
just about everything.
Full of salty stories, a few tall tales, and more than 100 recipes that
double down on flavor, Chasing the Gator shows how -- and what it
means -- to cook Cajun food today.
