Travel to New Orleans in your kitchen
The COVID-19 outbreak has tossed summer travel plans into a whirring blender for many people. So this week we’re kicking off a series that’s a foodie’s tour of America’s great gustatory destinations.
Our kickoff stop in the Crescent City includes six recipes for the classic flavors you’d kick yourself for skipping if you did have a chance to actually travel there. In the coming weeks, we’ll travel from our kitchens to Miami, California’s Napa Valley and New England, with recipes from their iconic restaurants and bars.
Now when in New Orleans, it’s entirely appropriate to start the adventure with an adult libation. We’ve skipped over the saccharine Bourbon Street hurricanes to find a more dignified libation at the famed rotating Carousel Bar inside the Hotel Monteleone, deep in the heart of the city’s French Quarter.
The Vieux Carré cocktail is an elegant mixture of the herbaceous liqueur Bénédictine, rye whiskey, cognac and sweet vermouth that then-head bartender Walter Bergeron debuted in 1938. More than eight decades later, this drink remains a classy reminder of New Orleans’ outsize impact on American cocktail culture.
Charbroiled oysters are a recent newcomer to the New Orleans culinary canon, invented at Drago’s Seafood Restaurant in response to a health scare surrounding raw oysters in the early ’90s. The irresistible mélange of butter, garlic and briny bivalves has become such a staple that Drago’s now shucks and grills more than 900 dozen per day.
To re-create them at home, look for large Gulf oysters at seafood counters in area grocery stores. You’ll likely want to invest in a sturdy shucking knife as well. There are plenty of YouTube videos to teach you what to do.
Gulf shrimp season is well underway, and New Orleans has a multitude of legendary recipes to make the most of that catch.
Shrimp remoulade, a dish of cold shrimp in a zippy sauce served over a bed of lettuce, is the most popular dish at Galatoire’s, a French Quarter classic that’s been in business since 1905. This refreshing preparation alongside a Sazerac cocktail at this longstanding lunch destination marks the early end of the workweek for much of the city’s business community on Fridays.
New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp is a bit of a misnomer, having nothing to do with open flames or barbecue sauce, but it has become a must-have dish regardless of its misleading nomenclature. The restaurant Pascal’s Manale, which invented the dish in the 1950s, will probably never cough up its secret recipe, but that hasn’t stopped the dish from spreading across the city. Our version comes from the vaunted Commander’s Palace, which has kept hungry patrons well fed in the city’s Garden District since 1893.
Of course, there’s more than seafood to celebrate in New Orleans. Soul food has reigned at the Tremé-neighborhood staple Willie Mae’s Scotch House since the family-owned business opened in 1957. Though you’re unlikely ever to get the exact recipe for late founder Willie Mae Seaton’s famous fried chicken, the restaurant did recently share the recipe for its famous cayennelaced mac and cheese to help sate the appetites of diners locked out during the pandemic.
New Orleans’ most famous dessert is a flash in the pan — literally.
The Brennan family of New Orleans launched a restaurant empire in 1946 with the eponymous Brennan’s. The bananas Foster, a sticky flambéed concoction of bananas and rum, was developed in 1951 to showcase bananas, which came through the city’s ports in large volume as America developed a taste for the tropical fruit.
It’s since become the mostordered dish at Brennan’s — a can’t-miss classic perfect to end any Crescent City feast, whether you’re there or cooking from the comfort and COVID-19-free safety of your home kitchen.