Flavorful Tips for Outdoor Cajun Cooking

Spicy hot, bursting with flavor and very adventurous. Cajun cooking is a reflection of the unique, European style sub-culture found in New Orleans. Thanks to French and Spanish colonists who brought their culture and delicious cuisine with them, Cajun cooking is now recognized as one of the best cuisines from the United States. It has also become a favorite cuisine used for outdoors cooking.

The basics of Cajun If Cajun for you is jambalaya and gumbo, you're extremely limited. As mentioned earlier, Cajun cooking is very adventurous and flavorful. It is characterized by the marriage of pungent spices, appetizing colors, fluffy rice, fresh vegetables, sausages, juicy meats, seafood and game.

Unlike Creole, Cajun cooking is much simpler and very often involves cooking using only one pot. To make things more interesting, flavors from the West Indies and Africa are added to spice things up.

Outdoor cooking with Cajun To succeed in outdoor fireplace cooking Cajun-style, preparation is key. Make sure you understand the dish you're about to prepare before cooking it outdoors. The flavors of Cajun cuisine rests on the right blend of spices, so if you're trying out everything for the first time, bring a recipe for reference.

Before heading out to your grill, bring what you need. This includes Cajun cookware such as cast iron pans and skillets, deep fryers and patio cookers and of course, the ingredients. Choose fresh varieties for seafood, game and meats and if available, homemade sauces and stocks are preferable to canned ones. Meats should have had sufficient time to soak in their marinade before being grilled.

Grilling and roasting are the perfect outdoor cooking methods for Cajun recipes, whether you're preparing the main dish or cooking meat and vegetables for sandwiches. Oftentimes, steaks and fish are coated liberally with hot spices, pepper and flavorings before being blackened over the grill.

Seafood such as crab, oysters, lobster and shrimp are prepared based on a mother sauce or seasoning. This is the foundation of your dish. Cajun cooks often prepare their outdoors recipe this way, by building on an essential flavor and adding as they go along. This gives birth to the most popular Cajun dishes such as gumbo, jambalaya and red beans and rice.

Bring out the salads and appetizers only after your main dish (the meats, game and seafood) are done. Serving soup? Bring it out with the salads or cook them outside, along with the other food.

What about the fat? Cajun cooking is known as hearty fare, not healthy fare. If eating light is a concern, simply cut down on the fattening ingredients, substitute healthier ingredients or eat smaller portions, an impossibility considering that Cajun is too tempting to pass up.