INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

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The cuisine of the Cajuns is a mirror image of their unique history.
It is a cooking style which reflects their ingenuity, creativity,
adaptability and survival.  When the exiled French refugees began
arriving in South Louisiana from  Acadia in Nova Scotia, Canada, in
1755, they were already well versed  in the art of survival. Their
forefathers had made a home in the  wilderness of southeast Canada in
the land of "Acadie". Following  their exile, these French Catholics
found a new home compatible with  their customs and religion in South
Louisiana.  The story of "Le Grand Derangement" is memorialized in the
epic poem  EVANGELINE by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This love story
tells of  Gabriel and Evangeline, tragically torn apart when ten
thousand  Acadians were gathered and driven from their homeland. It
took six  days to burn the village of Grand Pre, and families were
divided and  put aboard twenty-four British vessels anchored in the Bay
of Fundy.  The Acadians were forcibly dispersed, nearly half of them
dying  before a year had passed. Survivors landed in Massachusetts,
Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia (where some were sold into slavery),
the French West Indies, Santo Domingo, Uruguay, Nicaragua, Honduras
and the Falkland Islands. The main tragedy lay in the fact that the
men were exiled first, to destinations unknown, with the women and
children following later. As time passed, the struggle to reunite
these families, in most cases, proved futile.  A large contingency of
Acadians returned to the coastal seaports of  France, their initial
homeland, and eventually came to South  Louisiana. Some were sent to
England while others made their way back  to "Acadie" to Sainte-Marie
and settled on the French shore. Word  rang out across Europe, Canada
and South America that reunion with  their husbands and fathers could
be possible in the bayous of South  Louisiana.  As wave after wave of
the bedraggled refugees found their way to yet  another land, the
Acadians were reborn. They were free to speak their  language, believe
as they pleased, and make a life for themselves in  the swamps and
bayous of the French Triangle of South Louisiana. They  were among
friends, friends who enjoyed the same "joie de vivre" or  joy of
living.  Just as they had become such close friends with the Micmac
Indians  when they were isolated in the woodlands of Canada, so they
befriended the native Indians here in South Louisiana. Friends were
quickly made with the Spanish and Germans as well.  The original
Acadian immigrants had come to Nova Scotia from France  beginning in
1620. They were primarily from Brittany, Normandy,  Picardy and Poitou.
These fishermen and farmers had learned how to  adjust, survive and
make a life for themselves in Acadie. Once again,  they were faced with
the task of survival. Rugged as they were, the  Acadians learned to
adapt to their new surroundings. Armed with their  black iron pots, the
Cajuns, as they had come to be known, utilized  what was indigenous to
the area. No attempt was made to recreate the  classical cuisine of
Europe. None of the exotic spices and  ingredients available to the
Creoles were to be found by the Cajuns  in Bayou country. They were
happy to live off the land, a land  abundant with fish, shellfish and
wild game.  Chef John D. Folse CEC, AAC; shared by Fred Towner; MM by
Dorothy  Flatman 1997  Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V4 #15 by
maintech@ne.infi.net on May 31,

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