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Real Cajun: Rustic Home Cooking from Donald Link’s Louisiana
by Donald Link, Paula Disbrowe
ISBN-10: 0307395812
ISBN-13: 9780307395818
ISBN-13: 9780307395818
Region: USA
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Publication Date: April, 2009
Recipe Index
Publishers Information
About Real Cajun: Rustic Home Cooking from Donald Link’s Louisiana
Publisher Web Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/clarksonpotter/index.php
An untamed region teeming with snakes, alligators, and snapping turtles, with sausage and cracklins sold at every gas station, Cajun Country is a world unto itself. The heart of this area—the Acadiana region of Louisiana—is a tough land that funnels its spirit into the local cuisine. You can’t find more delicious, rustic, and satisfying country cooking than the dirty rice, spicy sausage, and fresh crawfish that this area is known for. It takes a homegrown guide to show us around the back roads of this particularly unique region, and in Real Cajun, James Beard Award–winning chef Donald Link shares his own rough-and-tumble stories of living, cooking, and eating in Cajun Country.
Link takes us on an expedition to the swamps and smokehouses and the music festivals, funerals, and holiday celebrations, but, more important, reveals the fish fries, étouffées, and pots of Granny’s seafood gumbo that always accompany them. The food now famous at Link’s New Orleans–based restaurants, Cochon and Herbsaint, has roots in the family dishes and traditions that he shares in this book. You’ll find recipes for Seafood Gumbo, Smothered Pork Roast over Rice, Baked Oysters with Herbsaint Hollandaise, Louisiana Crawfish Boudin, quick and easy Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits with Fig-Ginger Preserves, Bourbon-Soaked Bread Pudding with White and Dark Chocolate, and Blueberry Ice Cream made with fresh summer berries. Link throws in a few lagniappes to give you an idea of life in the bayou, such as strategies for a great trip to Jazz Fest, a what-not-to-do instructional on catching turtles, and all you ever (or never) wanted to know about boudin sausage. Colorful personal essays enrich every recipe and introduce his grandfather and friends as they fish, shrimp, hunt, and dance.
From the backyards where crawfish boils reign as the greatest of outdoor events to the white tablecloths of Link’s famed restaurants, Real Cajun takes you on a rollicking and inspiring tour of this wild part of America and shares the soulful recipes that capture its irrepressible spirit.
Author Information
About Donald Link
Author Web Link: http://www.cochonrestaurant.com/
Inspired by his Grandfather, Donald Link began cooking at a very young age. He was working in the kitchen at age 15 washing dishes and soon began cooking After years of experience working in Louisiana restaurants, Donald moved to San Francisco in 1993. After working one year at the wildly popular Cha Cha Cha, Link attended the California Culinary Academy. During this time Donald cooked at many San Francisco restaurants, including the eccentric Flying Saucer, the newly opened Scala’s Bistro, Cole Valley’s Zazie, and at the Elite Café.
In 1995, Chef Link pursued his externship at Susan Spicer’s Bayona in New Orleans and continued on to become sous chef. In 1997, he returned to San Francisco to work with Loretta Keller at Bizou and to open Jardinière with Traci Des Jardin. On the West coast he again refined his style with a more acute appreciation of raw ingredients and a more delicate approach to technique with an emphasis on lightening sauces. This led to an Executive Chef opportunity at the Elite Café in San Francisco’s Fillmore District where he received rave reviews - being hailed as “the premiere chef doing Creole food in the Bay area;” appearing on local cooking shows and participating in many charity events around Northern California.
Chef Link returned to New Orleans in 2000 to open Herbsaint Restaurant in the Warehouse District - where his non-compromising eye for quality ingredients and local produce underscore his stylish dishes – rich with flavor, while remaining light. Out of these basic principles, innovative yet simple preparations have led to some of the most original and favored dishes in the city at Herbsaint - whose menu is peppered with house-made staples such as pastas and cured meats from its’ small kitchen. Chef Link learned about acute attention to detail of preparation from his childhood and expanded these ideas with a tireless energy for sourcing and producing ingredients. These ideas and a lot of sweat have converged at Herbsaint to what he can now consider a personal style of cooking. Also reflected on the menu at Herbsaint is the bounty of near and far with rabbits and suckling pigs from nearby southern Mississippi, locally caught wild shrimp and regular shipments of fresh seafood from the West and East coasts.
In the Spring of 2006, following six months of delays due to Hurricane Katrina, Chef Link opened Cochon. Opening Cochon has been a lifelong dream for Chef Link, who grew up in Louisiana’s Cajun Country beside his grandparents in their home. Keeping true to these roots, Link will keep Cochon an authentic Cajun and Southern style restaurant featuring the foods and cooking techniques he grew up preparing and eating. This commitment is evident in the dishes on the restaurant’s menu such as Spoon Bread with Okra and Tomatoes; Smoked Duck Breast with Marinated Green Beans andentrées from the wood burning oven like Rabbit and Dumplings; Louisiana Cochon du Lait with Turnips and Cracklings; and his signature Catfish Sauce Piquant. In addition to the genuine Louisiana menu at Cochon, Chef Link and co-owner Chef Stephen Stryjewski will oversee an in-house “Boucherie,” including house-made Boudin, Andouille, and Smoked Bacon.
This year (2007) the world-renowned culinary organization The James Beard Foundation named Chef Link the: Best Chef: South (Link’s second nomination for Best Chef: South) and Cochon was nominated as Best New Restaurant: Cochon - co/owned by Stephen Stryjewski. The James Beard Foundation award and nomination culminates a string of awards and accolades Chef Link has received since opening Herbsaint Restaurant in 2000 including but not limited to being listed as one of the “top ten” restaurants in New Orleans by the Times-Picayune; featured in the “America’s Top 50 Restaurants” Gourmet Magazine in 2006; numerous accolades from the New York Times; and bestowed the honor by New Orleans Magazine for “Best Chef of 2002.”
(http://www.cochonrestaurant.com/)
Cookbooks by Donald Link
About Paula Disbrowe
Paula Disbrowe was the former Cowgirl Chef at Hart & Hind Fitness Ranch in Rio Frio, Texas. Prior to that, she spent ten years working as a food and travel writer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times,Food & Wine, and Saveur, among other major publications. (http://www.randomhouse.com/)
