Restaurant critics recently selected some of the famous dishes that define seafood cookery in New Orleans. Here are some of them:
1) Gumbo
Gumbo is a Creole classic: It’s a stew often made with okra (as a thickener, though a roux or filé powder can also be used), chicken, cured pork products or seafood, and (usually) rice. The only common denominator between the various versions is its savory seasoning—balanced to achieve the perfect kick, according to the cook’s taste. Contrast gumbo with its famous New Orleans counterparts: jambalaya (a relative of paella where the rice, stock, seasonings, vegetables, and meat are cooked together) and étouffée (a roux-based thick stew often made with crawfish and served with rice).
2) Charbroiled Oysters
Oysters either broiled or grilled in seasoned butter and grated hard cheese. The seasonings and type of cheese very slightly from restaurant to restaurant.
3) Barbecue Shrimp
Shrimp cooked, usually with shell and head still intact, in a rich butter sauce seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and black pepper. Copious amounts of bread are required to sop up the sauce.
4) Blackened Redfish
Blackened redfish was popularized by one of the nation’s first celebrity chefs, Paul Prudhomme, who helped introduce Creole and Cajun cuisine to the rest of America. The chef takes filets of redfish (though other fish and proteins can be substituted), dips them in melted butter, dredges them in a spice mixture, and pan-fries them in a hot skillet—the result is a dark, blackened crust.
5) Po’ Boys
Po’ Boys were invented to feed striking streetcar workers in 1929 (provided to the unpaid, picketing laborers free of charge—hence the name). Popular fillings for these sandwiches served on crusty French bread, include roast beef and fried seafood (typically shrimp); make sure to order yours ‘dressed’ with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayonnaise (onions are optional).
6) Crawfish Etouffee
An aromatic stew common in both Cajun and New Orleans Creole cuisine served with rice. The most common étouffées are made by smothering either shrimp or crawfish down with the Holy Trinity. Many restaurants use étouffée as a sauce to ladle over finfish.
7) Oysters Rockefeller
Oysters baked under a thick paste of spinach and other greens blended with, among other things, onion, garlic, Parmesan, and Herbsaint or another anisette liqueur.
8) Shrimp Remoulade
Cold shrimp coated in a spicy, mustard-based dressing. It is commonly served as a salad with lettuce or atop fried green tomatoes.
