Having a chat with our new mate Chef Will “Dubs” Staten made us wise to a lot of things about his favorite Cajun cuisine. For starters, did you know the classic “blackened” fish is supposed to be black from the pepper, not charred black? Or that Cajun is not the same as creole? While creole cooking is emblematic of the city of New Orleans (shout out to you NOLA!), true Cajun cooking hails from the rural areas of southwest Louisiana, and is “poor man’s food.” Cajuns were descendants of French-Canadian settlers, living off the land without access to fancy ingredients or kitchens, so there are a lot of one-pot meals, and proteins from duck to pigeon or lamb. Aside from the ducks and pigeons part, that sounds like rural Australia to us, mate! They’d use oil or lard, not butter, and always the “trinity” of onion, celery and green pepper.
As Chef Staten attests, the flavor profiles of classic dishes like jambalaya and gumbo are fantastic with lamb. The classic Cajun spice mix (Will recommends Slap Ya Mama) of paprika, a little bit of cayenne with heavy doses of black and white pepper does Aussie lamb up right. A quick squizz* at Chef Staten’s Instagram and you’ll see what we mean: Cajun marinated and seared Aussie grassfed steak, Cajun seared lamb chops with four-cheese grits and a honey-Sriracha pan sauce. More on those lamb chops here, including the recipe…
*Aussie slang for “a look”