|
MARDI GRAS FOOD RECIPES
New Orleans is famous for Cajun and Creole foods, so it's no wonder that those who celebrate Mardi Gras concentrate on these foods for their Fat Tuesday parties. What's the difference between Cajun and Creole foods? This is a question that is hotly debated. The two cuisines are confusingly intertwined and defy definition. Famous chef, restauranteur, and author Paul Prudhomme, father of the blackening technique, makes an attempt to differentiate the two. He describes Cajun food as country cooking, whereas Creole food is more elegant and sophisticated, city cooking so to speak.
A Guide to Traditional Mardi Gras Foods
Much of the spirit of Mardi Gras is tied to the food. If you can't make it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras this year, celebrate it at home with family and friends. Here are some ideas on how to serve traditional Mardi Gras food without spending days in the kitchen or a fortune. Because Mardi Gras, the last day of Carnival is celebrated around the world in Central America, Europe, South America, the U.S., the Caribbean Islands among others, recipes and food are varied.
In New Orleans the main cultural influences are French, Cajun and Creole. Some of the most popular Mardi Gras foods include Louisiana deviled crab cakes, crawfish pie and Louisiana bayou fish fry. Magazines like Bon Appetit, Every Day with Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart Living often feature these and other Mardi Gras recipes in their February issues.
Another popular New Orleans dish is gumbo, a thick, spicy and hearty stew that may include several types of meat, bell peppers, celery and onions and is typically served over rice. And because New Orleans is on the Gulf, seafood is a vital part of main course for Mardi Gras foods. Popular seafood main dishes are Crab Creole Shrimp, Creole crawfish boil and a fried catfish po boy sandwich. Find recipes for these Mardi Gras main dishes in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit and Cooking Light.
Desserts are also an essential part of the Mardi Gras feast. Bananas Foster is a popular traditional Mardi Gras dessert that features bananas cooked in a sauce made from butter, brown sugar and alcohol. Other popular traditional desserts are the beignet, a French-style deep-fried doughnut sprinkled with powdered sugar and the paczki, a fried-doughnut dish from Poland. During Lent, ingredients like flour and lard were forbidden, so the pastry was created to use up these substances on Fat Tuesday.
Above all the most popular traditional Mardi Gras food is the King Cake, similar to brioche, a sweetened yeast bread, decorated with a sprinkling of colored sugar. Find recipes for bananas foster, beignets, packzkis and King Cake in food magazines like Cooks' Illustrated, Cooking Light and Bon Appetit.
A Brief History of New Orleans Mardi Gras Celebrations
Mardi Gras, which is French for Fat Tuesday, is the final day of Carnival, a festival that involves public celebrations such as parades and masquerade balls. Carnival began on Jan. 6 and Mardi Gras is February this year. Also known as Kings' Day or Twelfth Night, Jan. 6 celebrates the arrival of the three kings at Jesus' birthplace.
This is traditionally the end of the Christmas season and the start of Carnival. This festival of fun finds its roots in various pagan celebrations of spring, dating back 5,000 years. Read more about the religious vestiges of Mardi Gras in religious magazines like Catholic Digest, Catholic Answer and Biblical Archaelogy Review.
It was Pope Gregory XIII who made Mardi Gras a Christian holiday in 1582, when he put it on his Gregorian calendar on the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. The idea was for all the debauchery to be finished when it came time to fast and pray.
The LeMoyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville brought the first Mardi Gras to North America in the late 17th century, when King Louis XIV sent the pair to defend France's claim on the territory of Louisiana.
It wasn't until after the Civil War that the second Carnival krewe made its debut in 1870. The new group named themselves the Twelfth Night Revelers and put on a parade on January 6. Although they no longer parade, the Revelers' ball marks the official start of the season.
Much of the first part of Carnival festivities is invitation-only coronation balls and supper dances hosted by private clubs known as krewes, which are organizations or societies that put on parades and balls during Mardi Gras. Many Americans take vacations to New Orleans during the Carnival festival. For more on New Orleans culture and a guide to the activities read magazines Lousiana Homes & Gardens and Lousiana Literature.
The oldest parading African-American krewe is the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, which first took to the streets in 1909. Over the years, Zulu has become a perennial favorite and the krewe's gilded coconuts are one of the season's most prized throws. For more on the krewes of New Orleans and parades and balls they put on, read travel magazines Budget Travel, Conde Nast Traveler and Travel+Leisure.
The most famous part of the Mardi Gras celebrations are the more than 70 public parades, which come to life a couple of weeks before Mardi Gras. People dress in masquerade costumes, beads, and the traditional Mardi Gras colors purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jessica Vandelay is a freelance writer in New York City. For more Mardi Gras food recipes, visit http://www.magazines.com/category/cooking-food.
Celebrate Mardi Gras! Ideas To Create A Mardi Gras Party
Celebrate Mardi Gras! This history rich festival makes for the perfect mid-winter party! With the dead of winter upon all of us, it's time to gather friends and family and get everyone out of their winter doldrums. Mardi Gras provides a fun and festive reason for a celebration! Mardi Gras season in the early centuries of Europe, ran from the end of Christmas to the beginning of Lent on the Christian calendar. It always began with the Feast of the Epiphany, the twelfth day after Christmas and ended with the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday.
Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. It provided a last chance to eat, drink and be merry before the austerity of the Lenten season. Here in the United States Mardi Gras was introduced by the French and first celebrated along the Mississippi River, near what is now New Orleans. This origin is what has established the strong connection between New Orleans and Mardi Gras.
In 2009 the official Mardi Gras festivities occur on Tuesday, February 24th so you have plenty of time to plan your Mardi Gras celebration for this year!
So you've got some history.. now here are some tips to help you plan your our own celebration. A Mardi Gras party is fun for all ages. It can be as much fun for the kids as it as for the adults. Adapt your fun and games according to the age of your guests! Our family has done this party for kids from 6 to 16 in addition to adults.
The official Mardi Gras colors are purple, green and gold representing justice, faith and power, as this was a festival rooted in both religion and monarchy. There has always been a King and Queen of Mardi Gras celebrations.. so let your party include a way to choose ones from among your guests. This can be done by seeing who collects the most Mardi Gras beads; gold coins, has the best costume or finds the Baby King, which is baked into the King cake. A King cake is a traditional Mardi Gras dessert.
Invitations are abundant both online and in the stores. Party stores have all kinds of Mardi Gras decorations.. so brighten your home with these traditional colors on tablecloths, paper goods and banners or wall décor. Buy a fun jazz CD or put together an I pod play list and let the music add to the ambiance. Don't forget to have tons of Mardi Gras beads on hand so that you can bedeck all the guests.
Food for a Mardi Gras party can be gumbo or jambalaya. Both of these are easy to make and always crowd pleasers. Any kind of shrimp or crab dip with some baguettes or French bread are welcomed appetizers. If this is an adult party you could make a Hurricane punch. Dessert should be the King Cake. This is a lengthy recipe, so my advice.. buy or order one! Just make sure if the Baby King doll is baked into it, you alert your guests. You don't need someone breaking a tooth as they take their first bite. Tradition says who ever finds the Baby King in their cake will receive a year of good luck! You could also make your own desserts and decorate with frostings and sugars of the Mardi Gras colors.
What can really add to your Mardi Gras celebration are fun games and activities. Check out Celebration Ideas Online for some great games and activities that work for all ages! You will also find recipe recommendations and a creative idea for Mardi Gras invitations you can make yourself. So get going and plan your own Mardi Gras revelry!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Carol Eiseman is married with four grown children whose family loves to celebrate everything! Their family celebration experiences and traditions can be further viewed at Celebration Ideas Online at http://www.celebrationideasonline.com/index.html. Ideas for birthday, graduation, theme, anniversary parties abound here. Her site also includes some unique sections on planning a wedding, college care packages, team spirit fun, gifts and party favors.
A CULINARY MYSTERY TOUR: www.brianalanburhoe.com
Bon Appetit!
|
|
