Culinary Historians of Southern California Members Party: Celebrating the Lousiana Bicentennial

I recently attended the annual members party for the Culinary Historian of Southern California. The group sponsors monthly lectures at the Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles pertaining to culinary history. I've been attending the lectures for about a year. Topics have included the history of Mexican cooking the United States, Moroccon cooking, cooking in Jane Austen's novels, history of the cookbook, Jewish cooking in France, the histories of gin and rum, the rise of California's tuna industry, Native American cooking in Southern California, and cooking in The Arabian Nights. There's a lectures this Saturday titled Los Angeles' Classic Desserts. The quality is usually very high.

The theme for this year's members party was New Orleans cooking in order to celebrate the Louisiana bicentennial. Cajun cooking is an interesting mix of French (meaning lots of butter and cream) and the spicier cuisines endemic to the area. Attendees were each responsible for supplying an assigned dish. Below is some of what we had.

First the appetizers:

Alligator Nuggets

Spiced Pecans

Andouille Sausage

Andouille Sausage

Spices Pecans

Each of the spiced pecan dishes used a unique spice blend and were very interesting. The alligator nuggets tasted basically like chicken.


Entrees:

Jambalaya

Jambalaya

Jambalaya

Chicken Creole

Marque Choux

Marque Choux

Minted Green beans

Minted Green beans

Pepper Salad

Looks like the dish we prepared was left out of the pictures. It was a casserole of eggplant, shrimp garlic, and bread. Turned out better than expected. Another guest equated it to stuffing. Definitely a strange dish. There were many versions of jambalaya. Others dishes including a sweet potato salad and a shrimp and tomato salad.

A couple plates of the offerings:

Finally dessert:

Apple Pie

Monkey Pudding

Fig and Pecan pie

Spiced Orange Cake

Applie Pie

Apple Pie

Cheese Cake

Far more sweets than needed. Another I didn't get a picture of was bread pudding with bourbon sauce. There were three versions presented, all using a different bourbon. All quite powerful. My favorite dessert was the fig and pecan pie. 

The party was a good time with a lot of good food. Now I really want to visit New Orleans at some point and try authentic Cajun and Creole cooking. I suggest the Culinary Historians' lecture series to anyone interested in learning a bit more about the food we eat.