Chasing the Gator: Isaac Toups and the New Cajun Cooking
Things get a little salty down in the bayou...
Cajun country is the last bastion of true American regional cooking, and no one knows it better than Isaac Toups. Now the chef of the acclaimed Toups' Meatery and Toups South in New Orleans, he grew up deep in the Atchafalaya Basin of Louisiana, where his ancestors settled 300 years ago. There, hunting and fishing trips provide the ingredients for communal gatherings, and these shrimp and crawfish boils, whole-hog boucheries, fish frys, and backyard cookouts -- form the backbone of this book.
Taking readers from the backcountry to the bayou, Toups shows how to make:
A damn fine gumbo, boudin, dirty rice, crabcakes, and cochon de lait His signature double-cut pork chop and the Toups Burger And more authentic Cajun specialties like Hopper Stew and Louisiana Ditch Chicken.
Along the way, he tells you how to engineer an on-the-fly barbecue pit, stir up a dark roux in only 15 minutes, and apply Cajun ingenuity to just about everything.
Full of salty stories, a few tall tales, and more than 100 recipes that double down on flavor, Chasing the Gator shows how -- and what it means -- to cook Cajun food today.
Reviews (66)
No 'gators were harmed in the making of this book. Quite a few other delicious beasties were though!
Chasing the Gator is an uproarious and irreverent romp through Cajun country. THIS is the Modern Cajun book you need! Isaac Toups boasts both prairie and coastal Cajun DNA so the chapters cover a whole lot of delicious territory. I have visited NOLO a few times and fell in love with what was (to me) a whole new mind bending world of flavors and techniques. Naturally, I came home with a cookbook. Alas it wasn’t the best book, so I have relied on internet recipes ever since. I humbly admit to making a pretty darn fine roux, and a pretty awesome shrimp, chicken, andouille gumbo. I thought I had a deft hand with dirty rice and collard greens, until I looked at Isaacs recipes and quickly realized that this book is really going to ramp up my repertoire to a whole other level! Chapters headings and a selection of some of the recipes that caught my eye are as follows: CAJUN Covers roux from white to brick to dark. With photos. You need photos cause if you have never made a roux before you are never gonna let it get dark enough unless you have pictures telling you everything is gonna be ok, just keep on stirring! Covers stocks. More than you thought you needed. Chicken, duck, veal, seafood, crawfish. All of the stocks. Gives recipes for spice mixes, mayonnaises, aioli, mustard (yes, making mustard from scratch), vinaigrette. All the necessities in one great chapter. THE BOUCHERIE In addition to lots of sausages, Terrine, Stew, Trotters, Rillons (Pork Belly Meat Candy) Cracklins…. Some other treasures are: The Boucherie Ham (uncured ham injected with apricot beer, garlic, cayenne, vinegar brine) Double Cut Pork Chops with Cane Vinegar Gastrique. Of course they are brined, but then they are grilled. So dinner happens fast on the night, with some forethought. Trotters and White Beans. My husband would be all over this recipe. Pigs Trotters AND Beans AND cayenne AND beer? Hell yeah! Whole Roasted Leg of Lamb brined in red wine and herbs and a whole lotta garlic (50 cloves. Yes, 50! 30 for the brine, 20 to squish into the lamb before roasting. This is not a leg of lamb for the faint hearted. But, in all honesty, if you are faint of heart and delicate of stomach, then don’t buy this book. Which brings me to a couple of recipes I admit, even I might not attempt. Hogs Head Cheese (yes you need a whole pigs head, jowls, ears, eyes, tongue, brain and snout intact) I have no idea where to get this, and don’t really want to. But if someone else made it for me, I would eat it. Chaudin (stuffed pigs stomach) In the forward to this recipe, even Isaac sounds amazed that you would actually manage to score a pigs stomach, so yeah. I applaud the fact that this recipe is included in case you are canny enough and brave enough to track down a stomach. But for me, maybe the stuffing could be made into sausage instead? Kinda wish he had provided a variation in case you are able to make something with the stuffing recipe, apart from putting it in a stomach? Braised Lamb Neck with Black Eyed Peas? Now that, I can do! THE COMMUNITY TABLE Boiled Crawfish Boiled Crabs Peel and Eat Shrimp (hell yeah) Maw Maw Toups Gulf Seafood Couvillion (Isaacs grandmothers recipe, and it sounds amazing) Crawfish Cornbread Dressing Dirty Rice (my old recipe just got thrown in the trash) Tata Bouille (a sweet custard pie, omg) There is no dessert chapter in this book. But this chapter has two desserts. This one and Cane Syrup Hand Pies. Just the two, but maybe with that custard pie one would have even been enough. Can’t wait to make this. THE HOMESTEAD Gumbo Chicken and Sausage (guess I am about to see how mine stands up) SEE PHOTO Toups Burger – a burger to die for. Or one that will kill you. As a burger should. SEE PHOTO Confit Chicken Thighs – with herbs. I have never confited anything. But would like to try. SEE PHOTO Parmesan Braised Tripe – um, ok I am not a fan of tripe. But my Italian husband would dive face first into a vat of this. Annnnndddd finally we come to the vegetables. I am always all about the vegetables. There aren’t many. They aren’t healthy but that’s not what we are here for are we? Here we have Roasted Vegetables in a Bacon, Sherry, and Mayonnaise Vinagrette. Grilled Garden Vegetables with Bacon Vinaigrette. Braised Multi Greens with Andouille. Lacquered Collards (yes, also with bacon and brisket, and beer, and cayenne….) Sweet and Sour Roasted Brussels Sprouts (what? No bacon?) Roux Peas? (yes please) Then there is cornbread and a heap of pickle recipes. THE FISH CAMP Blue Crab Camp Stew Cajun Queso (crab fondue) Seafood Gumbo (oysters, crab and shrimp) Crab Fat Rice (made with crab fat butter – recipe given and green onions) Drunken Shrimp (with fennel seeds, white wine, cherry tomatoes served with rice) SEE PHOTO Oysters (recipes for raw, fried and roasted) Fish Fry THE HUNT CAMP Smoked Duck Gumbo Brown Sugar and Soy Roast Duck Rabbit (bacon tomato braised, or black pepper with sherry lentils) Smoked Turkey Legs (in the oven or in a smoker) Frogs Legs (two ways) Venison (or beef) with Onion Barley Horseradish Cream and Jam Pasta in Purgatory a simple pasta with smoked sausage. Also three variations on the theme – eggs in purgatory, evil chicken thighs in purgatory, purgatory Chili. To sum up, you might not have a smoker but Isaac is sensitive to this, providing oven instructions. You might not have the cojones (or should I say Boudin Balls) to track down a pigs head, pigs stomach or ditch chicken (frog) or have a great butcher who can supply rabbit or venison, BUT, never fear, this will only exclude a small handful of recipes. There are lots of chicken or turkey recipes, seafood recipes, a couple of beef recipes and a heap of pork recipes. You might not want to eat like this every day (my cholesterol levels shot up just looking at the photos) but trust me, you sure do want to eat like this SOME days! You only live once. If you love food you will love Cajun food and you want to cook from a book written by someone who lives and breathes Cajun food then Isaac Toups is that person. As for the photos. In general, I am not a fan at all of completely non-essential page filler non-dish photos in a recipe book. I am talking about those books with those full page photos of a bunch of carrots on crumpled paper - but no actual photo of the carrot dish on the opposite page! What did that add to the value of the book for me? Zilch. If it's in addition to the carrot dish, then ok. But please, not instead of. That said, this book includes a smattering of glorious non-essential wonderful photos. In addition, most every recipe has a full page photo of the actual finished dish, sometimes 1.5pages, sometimes a two page spread with no less than 12 instructional photos PLUS a photo of the finished dish. So I would excuse a number of non essential ingredient photos (that fennel pic firmly falls into that category – but Isaac, I forgive you) because the ambiance photos are brilliant! I have included some of these pics for your perusal too, 'cause if they don’t make you smile then you do not deserve this book. This is a man who loves what he does and loves where he lives and loves cooking and I haven’t had as much fun reading a recipe book for, well, ever! UPDATE -Pasta in Purgatory - Now my husband is Italian/Sicilian and he thinks chili with pasta is sacrilege but being the rabble rousing woman that I am, I had to make this first. It contains Isaacs Pickled Pepper Paste of Pain, although I found that the 2 tsps it called for just wasn't anywhere near enough so I added a heap more 'cause I'm just that kind of girl. This dish was spicy, garlicky, fatty and delicious and even my husband thought it was good! Adding this update to my review reminded me of how much I like this book. Will try some more recipes and report back soon!
ISAAC TOUPS IS THE REAL THING!
Isaac Toups is the REAL thing, 100% pure de Cajun. Myself, being a pseudo-Cajun (French ancestry- not Acadian and from Baton Rouge) with ancestors from Pointe Coupee Parish {not prairie or coastal}, BUT I do know the real thing when I see it. I've played Boure (Cajun card game) and lost my money (don't get the idea from Isaac that it's a friendly game - he's trying to set you up) and have had boudin from the Best Stop, Billy's and Don's. I've been to, through and eaten in Rayne, LA. (Isaac's hometown) many times, mostly on the way to Pecan Island to go duck hunting. A Cajun (well at least most) make a loyal friend and terrible enemy. Cajun's are a sincere people but sometimes are prone to exaggeration and maybe stretching the truth a little and are some of the best story tellers alive. Isaac has prepared a real great Cajun cookbook with ingredients that were available to Cajun's in the past when they were mostly isolated and absolutely self reliant. All recipes are authentic and all ingredients are pretty easy to find. The most important thing that I can pass along is to PAY STRICT ATTENTION TO HIS COMMENTS ON ROUX. Do what he says with regard to ROUX or you will not be pleased with the results. In my opinion, there is a very real difference between Cajun and Creole and this is real CAJUN.
Bravo Isaac Toups and thank you for the fun.
This book breaks the mold for cookbooks with both reverence and irreverence for life and food. After living in Louisiana 60 years and cooking every style of Louisiana food, I still found revelations in some of these recipes. One recipe alone is worth the price--the Quick Poached Shrimp. I thought I'd made shrimp every possible way, but this and the accompanying cocktail sauce are my go-to recipes now. The secrets include tequila and lemon zest and garlic or course! The perfect gift.
Brings me back home.
As someone who grew up around Cajun cooking but didn’t get interested until later in life, these recipes remind me of home. I made the gumbo from one of chefs YouTube videos and after being hooked with that recipe, I wanted to not only support the chef, but also try even more of his recipes. Have tried quite a few and wouldn’t change a thing... except to make them more often. I do also like that it isn’t super clinical like other cookbooks I have. There is some joking around and free range to some of the ingredients... just like a Cajun. While I think everyone should have a family gumbo recipe, if you aren’t lucky enough to have a Cajun family, buy this book.
Fun book to READ and learn about Cajan cooking !!!
I liked the fact that some history was added to the "stew" too!! I am always trying to find "quick and dirty " ways of working recipes that I can use without pulling my hair out!! Early family Cajan cooks would never stand for all the "drama" that our modern day chefs try to imply is involved....Grandmere was just trying to put hardy food on the table!! This author does that!! PAY ATTENTION.sil-vous-plait!! Buy it, cook it , rous it!! Ken
Hometown Cajun favorites in a book.
I originally came across Chef Isaac on YouTube when I first viewed his Cajun Jambalaya video. Being from Southwest, LA, I was instantly drawn in. When I learned that he had written a cookbook, it was an instant buy for me. The photography is so clear and beautiful...makes you hungry just looking at the pictures! Not to mention, Isaac’s commentary and stories throughout the book. I’ve never met him (yet) but I felt like I could read him talking directly (if that makes sense). My favorite recipes are the Boudin and Boudin Balls. If you know anything about Cajun food, you know that those dishes can be a meal in itself! Buy this book! I promise you won’t be disappointed. It’s fun to read and you’ll enjoy making, sharing and eating the loving recipes that Chef Isaac has constructed into a book. Whether you’re from Louisiana or not, you’ll delight in becoming familiar with our heritage and the foods that we’re well known for. C’est bon!
Great
With a quick look this is going to be a great book. Many stories,pictures and recipes. He's been one of my new Chefs to learn from and get inspired to make my own new dishes. One I will try first is Bone Marrow with Con fit Chicken Hearts. Gonna be rich an good. Did wish the ones that pre ordered at least would of gotten it signed
Modern refresh staying true to Cajun traditions
Beautifully written - it’s like Chef Isaac is talking you through the recipes. Innovative updates on classic recipes, all true to the culture but written for our generation. Gorgeous photos, and getting to hear anecdotes from Chef’s family had us laughing the whole way through.
Fantastic Louisiana Cookbook
One of the best cookbooks about Louisiana low-country cooking out there. You can tell Toups loves food and that’s all I’m looking for when it comes to a cookbook, especially one about a region of the country famous for their food.
Game changer for classics
I watched Toups on Binging with Babbish - hands down his methods of roux were a game changer. LOVED LOVED LOVED dirty rice with some grilled chicken & sausage.
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