The Petticoat Rebellion
Page 4
Father Raphael and his fellows in the regular clergy have made good headway into the conversion of our heathen, savage neighbors. We have regular, if not overlarge, attendance at our Masses. None of this is my doing though, for I am just a simple lay brother in service to our brotherhood of friars and priests. Like Blessed Pascal before me, my parish is the kitchen and the potager, my congregation are the vegetables, fruits, and herbs, as well as the game, fish, and meat we manage to acquire to feed our little order of Capuchin friars. It is hot! I have little traffic with the grandees and the ladies of the town. Sieur Bienville, Monsieur De LaChase, and Mme. de Villemont-Rivard have little to do with the scullery of our little presbytere. And that is fine with me. As long as I please Pere Raphael and my brothers, I am happy.
But, mon Dieu, it is hot this morning! As a lay brother – promised to serve but not to study - I am normally allowed outside of the convent to do the marketing, and gather what news there is to be had in Nouvelle Orleans (not much, this time of year). This morning I
left the house early to get the marketing done before the sun bakes us all into dust this afternoon. Today the market is full of Indian maize, there is so much we sometimes err grammatically and call it corn. It has been a good year for the maize, and I procure several bushels to take home. Since I still have some good salt pork sealed in barrels in my storeroom, I will make a good corn stew this day. But before I head back home, I want to check and see what herbs and spices have made it to market. Learning quickly after my arrival here some short seasons ago, in this marketplace of river and wilderness, one does not ask too many questions about how the wonderful spices and sweet smelling herbs had been brought to our riverside market. I set about replenishing my supplies of rice and sugar as well as two varieties of those wonderful spicy “peppers” that sometimes even grow wild in our lush climate. The small green peppers are sweet to the taste with just a hint of fire, while the tiny red finger shaped ones will set the mouth afire, make a grown man cry, and clear one's nose all in a few heartbeats. Lastly, before leaving the market, I saw some of the Indians from the coast, and bought a few pouches of salt from them. At home, my potager will yield up some onions, a head of celery, and a garlic to add to the stew. Yes, this is going to be one good stew.
A Corn & Pork Stew
Colonials would have used salt pork in this recipe,
especially in summer
½ lb crisply cooked bacon
6 ears corn, silk removed and washed
1 lb. cubed pork
1 small finely chopped onions (sweet if possible)
1 small bell (green) pepper, diced
2 or 3 stalks of diced celery
1 toe garlic, minced
1 or 2 handfuls wheat flour ( if available)
rice flour is the next choice, cornmeal the last resort
1 cup water
Bacon drippings
2 small spoons of butter
TECHNIQUE:
Cook and crumble bacon. In same pan, brown the onion and pork cubes.
Melt butter or fat in a large stew pot, add the bacon drippings. Finely chop the onions, bell pepper, celery and garlic; add to the pot and sauté over medium heat for 8 minutes. Cut the corn kernals off the cob. Fold in corn and cook an additional 15 minutes. While the corn is cooking, cut your pork into bite size pieces. Do NOT discard the fatty bits, (remember, fat = flavor). Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for approximately 30 minutes. If you feel you need a more “soupy” stew than cooking down the juicy corn provides, add some cream at the end and heat through. Serve over hot cooked rice.
AN HISTORICAL ASIDE:
Frere Gerard would have prepared this dish when he returned from the market and let it sit in the coolest place he had available until suppertime, OR he would have waited until the sun began to set to cook the stew. After all, mon Dieu, it was hot!
During the last years of Frére Gerard’s life in the colony, another group of Frenchman arrived in Louisiana. They had come from Acadia, forced out by the British during the Seven Years War, they eventually settled in the bayous to the west and south of the capital city. The corn stew described above was adapted by these Acadians, or Cajuns, into a one dish meal still popular all across south Louisiana.
A MODERN RECIPE FOR MACQUE CHOUX:
If freshly shucked corn is unavailable, frozen is an acceptable substitute, and canned will work. If using canned, use 2 cans (14.75 ounces each) of whole and 1 can cream-style (14.75 ounces).
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium bell pepper, diced
¼ cup diced celery
1 clove garlic, minced
8 ears of corn, shucked (about 4 to 5 cups)
¼ of a 10 ounce can of diced spiced tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon cayenne
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon granulated garlic
¾ teaspoon sugar
½ cup heavy cream
12 ounces crawfish tails, cooked and peeled
¾ ounce pimentos
Cooked rice
TECHNIQUE:
Melt butter in a medium sized pot. Add onions, bell pepper, celery and garlic and sauté over medium heat for 8 minutes. Fold in corn and cook an additional 15 minutes. Remove about 1/4 of the corn mixture from the pot and puree it in a food processor. Return the pureed corn to the pot. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for approximately 8 minutes. Serve over hot cooked rice.
Six
Beans and Rice
Father Raphael sent me upriver to the Tunica nation one day to help Brother Paul set up the kitchen and garden at the mission we had recently established there. The Tunica had been French allies since Iberville’s days. They were generally peaceful and prosperous, occupying a large range of territory where the St. Louis (i.e. the Mississippi) makes a long and graceful turn to the north.
The nation consisted of the Tunica people, the Houmas, and the Biloxi, as well as a scattering of people whose clans had died off during the past 30 years from disease and war. Before we Europeans had arrived, the Tunica and the Houma were competitors for the same rich lands of forest and prairie that were teeming with game, as well as the native abundance of fruits and nuts. As such they had marked their respective “hunting grounds” with a large post planted on some high ground at the river’s edge. The Houmas had painted the post red, after their totem animal, the red crawfish. When our first intrepid explorers encountered this boundary marker, we naturally called the region around it “red stick”, in French, Baton Rouge.
As I have mentioned before, one of my great joys in this new world is learning about all the new foods and where to find them and how to produce them in our gardens for our little company. Our native brethren have devised a wonderful method of getting a triple crop yield from the same plot of earth at the same time. I was hoping to learn more about this method on my trip today. When our hosts realized how excited I was about learning about this triple farming method they were happy to show me all I needed to know. After preparing the ground, the women plant the Indian maize in mounded rows much like any farm plot in France or America. Next to the corn seedlings they then plant their beans. Finally along side of both they plant pumpkin, or squash, or gourd seeds. What happens next is truly one of God’s great miracles. As the maize grows tall, the beans stalks cling to the maize and grow upward with them spreading their tendrils around the corn stalk. The squash grows several inches high along the rows shading the earth from our Louisiana summer heat. The leaves of the corn and beans in turn shade the pumpkins, squash, and gourds from the heat as well. All through the growing season, both men and women tend the garden. This ingenuous method allows all the various plants to help each other flourish and with enough rain from the heavens produces a bounty of food for the tribes.
Obviously, using the beans, corn and squash together makes the wo
nderful Succotash dish which my Tchoupitoulas neighbors had taught me. This time, however, I was planning to try out a new recipe. A close friend of mine in the city, Tante Suzanne, had often exhorted me to combine the Indian beans with German Coast rice to make a filling and nutritious meal for very little money. She had been amazed that I had never heard of this, as she had literally grown up eating beans and rice. These victuals were part of her mother’s African heritage and had become an everyday dish among her family. After returning from up north, and using simple cooking methods, it was easy to prepare Suzanne’s dish for my presbytere with even enough left to share with our servants and neighbors.
Classic Red Beans & Rice
INGREDIENTS
1 to 2 lbs dry Red Kidney Beans
1 lb of Sausage (beef. pork, what have you)
½ lb of Pickled Pork
½ of a Large Onion
½ fresh Cayenne Pepper
1 large clove of Garlic
1 small Green Bell Pepper
5 or 6 stalks of celery
¼ tsp of File’ Powder
½ tbl of Salt, Ground Black Pepper to taste
1 tbl Dark Brown Sugar
4 tbl oil
2 Bay Leaves
1 cup of Flour
Soak the dry beans over night in plain cool water in a large pot.
Chop up finely the Creole Trinity, (bell peppers, onions, celery), and about four or five toes of garlic Add the oil, salt, pepper, sugar, bay leaves, and file’. Sauté lightly for about 45 minutes on low to medium heat.
Slice the sausage or meat of your choice into ¼ to ½ thick slices and add to seasoning mix, stir frequently. Add some pickled pork, cook on low to medium heat for about 90 minutes, stirring frequently
Cooking the Beans:
Add about a half gallon of water to the beans (soaked earlier) place over medium heat. Cook for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Remove about one cup of beans add the flour, and smash the mixture into a paste. Add the paste to the meat mix, cook for about 30 minutes. Add the meat mix to the beans, cook for 1 hour. Serve over boiled white rice.
Now considered gourmet fare, this classic is the universal meal of New Orleanians when there is no money for anything else.
A Modernized Method:
Preparation:
In a large soup or gumbo pot soak dry beans over night in plain cool water. (Make sure there is enough water to let the beans expand and re-hydrate, top off if need be.)
Chop up finely the Creole Trinity, (bell peppers, onions, celery). Set aside in a large frying pan over low heat.
Mince about four or five toes of garlic and add to the pan.
Add the oil, salt, pepper, sugar, bay leaves, and file’,and sauté lightly for about 45 minutes on low to medium heat.
Slice some smoked sausage, andouille, or meat of your choice into ¼ to ½ thick slices and add to seasoning mix, stir frequently.
· Rinse off and add some pickled pork, cook on low to medium heat for about 90 minutes, stirring frequently
Cooking the Beans:
Add about a half gallon of water to the beans (soaked earlier) place over medium heat. Cook for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Remove about one cup of beans add the flour, and smash the mixture into a paste. Add the paste to the meat mix, cook for about 30 minutes. Add the meat mix to the beans, cook for 1 hour. Serve over boiled white rice.
Suggestions:
Serve with homemade cornbread crumbled on top and Fresh thin sliced Buttered French Bread Baguettes to use as a spoon!
Seven
FRERE GERARD DISCOVERS THE PACCAN
It was a fine September day. Autumn had showed herself early this year, and it was a pleasant change. Instead of waking up in a pool of sweat, I even had to cover myself with my robe this morning, as I tumbled awake before Matins. On this day the air felt drier and cooler, it would be a good day for the market.
After Prime, I prepared the breakfast for the brothers of our little community. It was a simple affair of maize porridge and some of my - now regular - French and Indian Bread. On market day, I was relieved of clean-up duty by one of the novices so as to take advantage of the early morning coolness to walk down to the levee to secure provisions for the next few weeks. Our little community had been here in the capital now for just over a year. Speaking as “Brother Kitchen”, it had been a tough year. Food supplies were constantly low, and we often lived on a diet of maize, thin soup, and bear fat, sometimes an egg or two would be generously donated. But as the year progressed, things slowly got better. The small temporary potager I had hastily planted eventually began producing some small onions, garlic, and shallots as well as some herbs to flavor our simple fare. Other gardens around the city also began to produce. The German communities upriver were also able to ship some rice, milk, eggs, and produce to the capital on occasion. Our native brethren even occasionally offered some of the game and fish they had secured from God’s bounty of forest and river in trade. And now, it was harvest time once again, and I looked forward to reaping
the bounty of our labors and lining the pantry and larder for the winter months. Personally, one of the greatest joys I discovered in opening up this new land, apart from the opportunity to spread the Word of God, was the discovery of all the different plants and animals which provided food and healing herbs to us.
In many ways they were much different from the victuals of our homeland. America abounded in grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, and spices. A wide variety of previously unknown game and fish were also to be found here; to be examined, cooked, tasted, and shared. I didn’t know it that morning, as I prepared to go to the Levee Market, but I would find a new one today. Now much of the land in and around the new capital, New Orleans, is flat and swampy. Near to the river, the lakes, and the innumerable streams (bayous), the land actually rises several feet higher. This rise allows for long strips of good forest, wherein the game, the birds, and some productive trees are able to thrive. The first explorers to this land, led by M. de Bienville and his brother, God rest his soul, M. d’Iberville found and noted many of these trees producing goodly fruit, berries, and several types of nuts. Today, being a day in early fall, many of Indian women and even children had been gathering what looked to our French eyes like, baskets of walnuts. I thought they would be a good addition to the presbytere pantry, so I asked one of the children if I might try his wares. I broke away the outer shell to find a pretty brown nut with a much thinner skin than our walnuts at home. Breaking away that shell I popped the nut into my mouth. Dieu soit félicité !!! The nut melted like butter in mouth. I say like butter, because the taste was nutty and buttery at the same time! What is this! I exclaimed, it not a walnut ! The boy informed me, that in his tongue it was called a paccan. Needless to say, I bought up several bushels of these toothsome morsels, and began to formulate great plans for them. The next day, between Terce and Sext, when I would normally be busy in the potager, I left the presbytere and traveled upriver along the natural levee, as I moved farther away from the town, I encountered a wide variety of trees growing along the bank.
A bit away from the bank itself, past the willows and cottonwoods, I began to see the oaks, the gums, and to my great pleasure, some paccan trees, their nuts scattered among the undergrowth. Hopefully anticipating such a find, I had brought along a large basket, I spent the rest of the morning happily gathering the bounty which Pater Noster had graced this beautiful new world. Returning home with my treasure, I was already planning the wonderful meals these gifts from the Almighty would provide.
Pecan Fritters (en Francais: Paccan Beignets)
These Pecan Beignets are Perfect for your Réveillon or
Christmas Brunch
Make a batter using flour, sugar, milk, eggs, leavening and a about a half pound of pecan halves, smashed into chucks
The following proportions should serve as the liquid:
½ a wine glass of brandy
1 egg
2 spoons butter
thin with water to taste
Blend all ingredients together. Cover the bottom of a large skillet with cooking oil (or bear fat), fry the fritters, turning once. Use syrup or powdered sugar to coat the hot fritters (en Francais, beignets) Enjoy a nice Christmas brunch.
A HISTORICAL ADDENDUM:
It can be said that we owe our modern obsession with the clock to medieval monasteries. A prevailing monastic rule provided that certain prayers and duties must be performed at certain times of the day. To that end, the Church fathers created a system of time keeping that became universal throughout Europe. The day was marked by six periods, all based on the position of the sun in the sky. As the centuries went by some of the names were slightly changed depending on the geography of the monastery. Eventually, the waterclock was reinvented in a monastery and timekeeping became more regular. With the advent of mechanical clocks, even though the prayer names remained the same, timekeeping became more ordered and regular throughout Europe. The table below gives approximate times for 12th-century London (according to the seasons), Gerard’s monastery in Charleville is about 2° of latitude below London, and our timeframe is some 600 years later, but for all intents and purposes these times would only be several minutes different. Of course, in New Orleans, the hours listed below would have been meaningless. But it is really the names of the offices and prayers listed that are important to Gerard’s timekeeping.
Table 1: Canonical bells in 12th Century London
Times vary with seasons, summer, fall, winter.
Matins 5:00 a.m. 6:40 a.m. 2:30 a.m.
Prime 6:00 a.m. 8:00 a.m. 3:40 a.m.
Terce 8:30 a.m. 9:40 a.m. 7:00 a.m.
Sext 12:30 p.m. 12:20 p.m. 12:20 p.m.