"Nunsensations!" (Westwego)
March 2, 2010
Woman found dead, TPSO awaiting cause
March 4, 2010“Listen to your elder cooks. And to whomever you find that cooks the best, don’t be afraid to ask questions,” suggests Larose cook James Bouvier Sr.
This sound advice is directed at anyone who wishes to become a culinary connoisseur of Cajun cooking. Just as stories are often verbally passed down from one generation to the next, great Cajun recipes are learned through, as Bouvier puts it, “word of mouth cooking.”
Bouvier, who still considers himself a novice chef even with over a quarter of a century experience, ascribes much of his cooking ability to one man.
“I would figure that I’m a junior cook ’cause I might only have 25 years of cooking,” he said. “I’m still learning. Every day, I’m learning and the one individual that taught me the most is Magnus Arceneaux.”
Bouvier’s mother was married to Arceneaux’s first cousin, who was killed in a rigging accident. Later, she married Bouvier’s father, but the two families stayed in touch.
“I guess I’ve been knowing him (Bouvier) all his life,” Arceneaux said. “I’m a little older than he is, but I’ve been knowing him for a long, long while, since he was a kid. … It’s not blood related, but we are kind of like family.”
Arceneaux, who says he is “Cajun through and through,” also learned to cook from a senior chef.
“My father-in-law, Nolan Vinet, he’s the one that got me started. He was an excellent cook,” Arceneaux explained. “He told me, ‘Plain Jane,’ he said, ‘one day, I won’t be here anymore and somebody has to take my place.’ So he helped me to learn.”
Though Arceneaux’s teacher passed away at the young age of 59, Vinet’s cooking recipes and techniques survive still today.
Just as stories get altered over time, so does a recipe. Bouvier now has his own take on Cajun-style cooking.
“If you use onions, it’s hard to mess something up,” he said. “Also, if you cook it a Cajun way, it’s hard to mess anything up. … I always like to almost burn [whatever’s in the pot]. It’s gotta stick. If it doesn’t stick you won’t have a good gravy.”
Bouvier, who frequently shares these slightly altered, hand-me-down dishes with his community, often incorporates the help of a few of his cooking colleagues.
“We usually go as a team and usually it’s Johnny Guidry, John Picciola and, we have a volunteer that helps us a lot, Chad Callais. That’s how we normally cook,” he said. “We cook for different organizations – if somebody needs the help. We try to help out our community as much as we can.”
Bouvier’s next community function will be the Larose Civic Center’s Wild Game Supper on March 25th. His team plans to cook a white shrimp soup and a crab fricassee (see recipes).
While chefs willingly share their recipes and cooking styles, they cannot share their sense of taste, especially when it comes to one meat: nutria.
Bouvier calls his first attempt at nutria a “3-hour waste.”
“I also cook nutria,” Arceneaux said. “It’s pretty good. It’s a good, clean meat. Nutria is excellent.”
Although tastes and techniques vary, help is close by, Bouvier contends.
“A lot of senior cooks are there,” he said. “You can walk by any pot and if you ask a question, they are gonna answer you.”
Bouvier’s Shrimp Soup
Ingredients:
2 stalks of celery
4 bunches of green onions
3 pounds of egg noodles
6 – 26 oz. cans of cream of mushroom soup
4 gallons of water
10 pounds of onions
20 pounds of shrimp
4 cans of mushroom
1 shoulder of salt meat
Directions:
Boil salt meat in separate pot to remove some of the salt.
Sauté onions, green onions, celery, and mushrooms in olive oil till soften. Add salt meat and water. Cook for about 1 hour. Add cream of mushroom soup. Cook 30 to 40 minutes. Add egg noodles and shrimp. Cook until noodles are tender.
Yield 80 to 100 people.
Helpful hint: Salt and season to taste. Use your judgment when adding water.
Bouvier’s Smothered Crabs & Onions
Ingredients:
6 Vidalia onions
16 oz. sliced fresh baby portabella mushrooms
2 bars of butter
2 cooking spoons of cooking oil
4 – 10 oz. cans cream of mushroom soup
3 dozen raw crabs cut in half
Fat and eggs from crab shells
Directions:
Sauté onions and mushrooms in butter and cooking oil. Once onions are sautéed add cream of mushrooms soup, crab fat and eggs and cup of water. Heat until melted. Add crabs and cover with water to top of crabs. Once boiling cook 15 minutes.
Season to taste.
Yield 12 servings. Serve over rice.
Bouvier and Guidry Crab Stew
Ingredients:
4 pounds of flour
7 pounds of potatoes
10 pounds of onions
3 bell peppers
4 pks onion tops
1/2-gallon cooking oil
2 whole garlics, chopped
20 pounds of crabmeat
2 dozen raw whole crabs
1 bunch parsley
1-1/2 or more gallons water
Directions:
Use flour and cooking oil to make roux. Cook roux to the color of a dull penny. Add all vegetables except parsley and potatoes. Brown vegetables then add water. Cook for about 45 minutes. Add potatoes. When potatoes tender add parsley and crab meat. Turn off fire.
Serve over rice. Yield 80 to 100 people.
Helpful hint: After roux is the color you want, throw in your onions to cool the roux. It will start the process of browning your onions. Don’t cook roux too dark because it may have a bitter or burnt taste.
