Louisiana Coastal Cooking

-Funding for "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation, Inc. And by the Plaquemines Parish Tourism Commission.

A short drive from New Orleans, Plaquemines Parish offers a diverse variety of fishing, fresh seafood, rich history, and environmental activities in Louisiana's Delta Country.

Learn more at visitplaqueminesparish.com.

[ Birds chirping ] -This time on "Louisiana Coastal Cooking," we're buzzing with excitement.

Today we'll find out how pollinators are connected to our daily lives, from the food we eat to the ecosystems of the urban forest habitats of our cities.

We'll discover ways to help protect these tiny, yet mighty creatures and sample two dishes that reflect how plants sustain our cultural heritage.

In Houma, Louisiana, we meet up with Natalie Waters, wildlife conservation coordinator for the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, for a pollinator primer at Houma's main library.

-We're out here today with a variety of different volunteers planting vegetable plants today, and it's in connection with our pollinator gardens that we established in 2021.

We installed the Pollinator Garden to kick off our new program within the Estuary Program to highlight pollinator conservation.

It started out to where we started growing the plants from seed, and now we've installed four different gardens within Thibodaux and Houma.

We're surrounded by a plethora of different native bee species, and what people don't really know is how many different bee species we have.

So in Louisiana alone, we have over 200 native different species of bees, from leafcutter bees to bumble bees to mason bees.

We want to create more awareness about our native bees.

We also want to tie in how it's connected to not only our vegetables that we eat, but also the basis of all of our ecosystems as well.

So for our pollinator conservation program, we've done a variety of different things, including installing these pollinator gardens in partnership with the food bank.

-I am Daisy Cheramie.

I'm the executive director of the Saint Francis Vegetable Garden.

Our mission is to grow fresh produce for people in need.

So we partnered with the library.

They let us use this property absolutely for free.

We've also just updated our beds to grow the produce.

So we have all new beds.

We're out here planting them.

Right now, they're kind of empty, but that will not last long.

And all the produce is donated to different charities throughout the Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish that feed people in need.

So later this summer, we'll have a harvest that will go to people in need.

We will have bell peppers and tomatoes.

And frankly, there's a lot of people that come through the food bank line that our produce is a lot of times the only fresh produce that they get.

The garden supplies roughly, I would average maybe 1500 pounds a month.

Some months, you know, during harvest, we reach as high as 3,000 to 5,000 pounds.

We give each family about five pounds, so I would say somewhere around 300 families that we're able to help in our community.

They're overjoyed.

They're excited.

I've seen a couple of people almost in tears over open a bag of onions because, you know, in South Louisiana, we cook with onions.

-I have been a master gardener here in Houma in Terrebonne Parish for the last eight plus years.

And what we do is basically volunteer within the community doing varied projects that can impact our community.

We just help with the planting, maintaining, making certain that they're watered.

[laughs] That is a big plus when you need many hands with all of the boxes that you have here.

So weeding comes into play as well.

Knowing that we are providing fresh vegetables to those who are less fortunate, that in itself is satisfaction for me, and I think that any time we can help and provide fresh vegetables to families that that's a real plus.

-We use native species because they promote the best habitat for our pollinators.

So we have lemon beebalm, which is a favorite of the pollinators.

We also have for the monarch butterfly.

We have butterfly weed.

And we also have some other plants such as blanket flower and Mexican hat that are blooming right now.

The garden is buzzing with our native bees.

You can see 'em flying all across the garden.

It is important because pollinators and native plants are the basis of our ecosystems.

And as far as food goes, one out of every three bites of food is because of a pollinator.

So pollinators are connected to us in our everyday lives without us really even knowing it.

If we didn't have pollinators, we wouldn't have hardly any of our colorful food, fruits and veggies that we have.

And there's also certain specialist bees called our squash bee.

It actually specializes on collecting pollen from squash.

And so we also have other specialist bees, like our southeastern blueberry bees, which collect pollen from our blueberries.

So there's a lot of these intricate relationships that many people don't know about.

And it's right in our own backyard.

we have butterflies as well, including the monarch butterfly, which is actually a threatened species.

So we have two different native milkweeds out here.

We have the butterfly weed and we have the aquatic milkweed.

And we had some monarch caterpillars earlier this spring that were utilizing them as well.

So we are really excited about that.

So when we plant plants, we want to plant native species of plants because those pollinators and other insects have co-evolved with those plants so they can actually utilize those plants, unlike other non-native plants.

we're losing land the fastest in the nation.

Pollinators are connected to that because they're also losing habitat, but in a different form.

So they're losing habitat to urban and suburban development.

But the good news is, each one of us can make a difference when it comes to pollinator conservation by planting these native plants in our backyards.

Our native plants are really important on our restoration efforts because they help hold the land in.

Those deep roots will help hold the land in.

Native plants that are not only good for pollinator conservation, the deep roots will help keep the land from eroding.

-We now head to Covington, Louisiana, the home of Gregg Avila, where the lead cook for Team Mudda Roux prepares a dish that won crowd favorite at the 2023 Cook-Off for the Coast.

Here's his all star curried pumpkin and corn bisque with crawfish and andouille.

-Alright, so we're going to start off frying off our andouille.

-While the spicy Cajun smoked pork sausage browns, the outdoorsman talks about the coastal marshes.

-My father had me hunting with him when I was six years old.

Marshes of St. Bernard Parish, Plaquemines Parish.

The changes that I see just in my lifetime are amazing.

-The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, known as MR GO, was a shipping channel between New Orleans and the Gulf that was constructed in the 1960s.

During Hurricane Katrina, a 26 foot storm surge barreled up the waterway, devastating St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans' ninth ward.

-Some years back, they finally closed the MR GO off, down below Hopedale.

They put a rock dam across it.

That has helped.

They're opening up all of the freshwater diversions.

I've seen marsh grow where there was none before.

Especially in St. Bernard, where I grew up.

Most of the marinas and the bayous by Bayou Avenue is freshwater.

You can catch bass there now, where you never, ever caught bass before.

So I think that's a good thing.

Maybe it's working.

Fished out in the Gulf lots and lots of times.

The barrier islands, Breton Island, Gosier Island, Curlew Island.

Breton Island was just about gone.

They have rebuilt Breton Island.

And I was out there three weeks ago and I couldn't believe what they did, you know, and how they did it.

Things like the Cook-Off for the Coast help raise money and funds for that, and research to do it.

We're going in the right direction.

All right, so my andouille has finished frying off.

I'm happy with the way it looks.

I'm gonna turn my fire down so I don't burn anything.

I'm going to scoop my andouille out.

Pour more olive oil.

I'm going to start sauteing our vegetables.

I've got one bell pepper.

One cup of celery, chopped.

Two cups of onions, chopped.

And a half a cup of garlic.

Turn up some heat -- and cook these down for a couple of minutes.

Get all those bits scraped up off the bottom of the pan.

All right, so I'm wanting them to cook down and get translucent and the onions to clear up a little bit so they're nice and soft and tender when we start putting the rest of the ingredients in.

We're almost there.

Just added the rest of my olive oil.

Now we're adding in one cup of flour.

Whisk it as we go.

You don't have to cook this flour to make a roux.

You just want to blend it with all your Trinity and your oil.

You can see we're not really looking to -- looking to make a roux.

We just want a little blond roux, if you would, just to give it a little thickener when you add your stock.

I'm gonna cook this for about two minutes.

Trying to cook the flour out a little bit.

So now we're gonna add two quarts chicken stock.

Whisk that together.

I add my andouille back in there.

Get all that goodness off that plate.

All right, so now I'm adding in one cup of cane syrup, two cups of sweet corn, one can of unsweetened pureed pumpkin.

One quarter cup of curry powder.

I've got everything incorporated into this.

It's time to add the Louisiana crawfish tails.

So now -- turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

At the end of the 30 minutes, we can add the cream, then it'll be done.

-Dubbed New Orleans most historic neighbor, St. Bernard Parish is located from southeast of the city to the coast of Louisiana.

The parish was settled in the 1700s by the Isleos, Spanish colonists from the Canary Islands.

These Spanish-speaking newcomers added their language and food to the cultural mix of the parish, and descendants of the original settlers still maintain a community today.

About seven miles downriver from the French Quarter is a notable St. Bernard historic site, the Chalmette Battlefield, where a small American force defeated the British during the Battle of New Orleans.

Of all the state's parishes, St. Bernard has the largest percentage of water -- over 1700 square miles from Lake Borgne to the Mississippi River to the Gulf, where the parish's many small barrier islands are located.

For multiple generations, residents of its coastal communities have played a significant role in Louisiana's seafood industry.

On August 29th, 2005, St. Bernard was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

The storm surge from the eye of Katrina destroyed levees, flooding nearly the entire parish.

Most areas were left with 5 to 15 feet of standing water, and homes were declared unlivable.

The destruction of St. Bernard Parish from Katrina led to a large-scale relocation of its population.

Following the storm, an estimated 6,500 residents of St. Bernard sought refuge in St. Tammany Parish on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, making it the most popular landing spot for evacuees.

Pulling up stakes was an emotional decision for St. Bernard families.

Gregg and his wife Dayna relocated to the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain following Hurricane Katrina, settling in Covington, a community with a rich history nestled among three rivers.

-Not just me.

My entire family, my sisters, my mother, my mother-in-law.

And we had to make the decision to move on.

And it was hard, you know, 'cause St. Bernard was home.

Met my wife there, got married, bought a house there, lived there, and along comes Katrina.

It just tore everything that we ever thought we had apart.

I had water into my attic, which was probably, I don't know, nine feet.

My mother had water over her rooftop.

Looked at my house, and I said, "Well, the house is still standing.

You know, maybe I can go in it and just clean it out."

But once I broke the door down with an ax and got inside, it looked like somebody had picked my house up and shook it and put it back down.

I've got two Magnalite pots that we were able to salvage, clean out, and still use to this day.

Several things that we were able to get out and bring home, but for the most part, it was total loss.

My thought was that I don't ever want to have to go through a flood like that again.

I know we live in southeast Louisiana.

I know we're susceptible to hurricanes.

And that's Mother Nature, and you can't do anything about Mother Nature.

But when you put man into the equation, building levees to try and control Mother Nature, sooner or later Mother Nature is gonna win.

The soup is finished cooking.

I'm adding one cup of heavy whipping cream.

Stir that in.

-For extra texture and flavor, the soup is served over chunks of cornbread layered on the bottom of the bowl.

-And there you have curried pumpkin and corn bisque crawfish and andouille which was the 2023 winner of the Cook-Off for the Coast in Meraux, Louisiana, with Team Mudda Roux.

-The citrus harvest of southeast Louisiana is a delicious part of the state's food culture.

The bulk of the citrus industry is located in the coastal parishes, where satsumas, Meyer lemons, and oranges are grown.

Satsumas ripen when temperatures begin to cool and continue through December, making it a popular holiday fruit sold in roadside stands and farmers' markets.

A variety of mandarin orange, satsumas were brought to Louisiana in the 1800s and have become a heritage crop, used enthusiastically in sweet and savory dishes during the season.

Our final stop is Thibodaux, where a backyard garden provides the bounty of the bayou for Allyse Ferrara, a Nicholls State University biological sciences professor.

Homegrown citrus is the inspiration for her satsuma and rosemary olive oil cake.

-I'm gonna make a Louisiana satsuma olive oil and rosemary cake that I adapted from a recipe that I found in the newspaper.

And so to start, I'm going to whisk together some flour, baking powder, and baking soda, just to get them mixed.

Just regular old all-purpose flour.

And this combines the ingredients, and it'll break up any lumps.

-This simple Mediterranean-style cake is made with a handful of pantry staples.

-And a teaspoon of salt.

Okay, and then I'm gonna start on the eggs and sugar.

And they're gonna get beaten together.

You have to whip the eggs and sugar, and then you drizzle in the olive oil.

[ Blender whirring ] Okay, and this looks like where we want it to be, where it's gotten a lot lighter, it's a lot thicker, so we're ready to move on to the next stage of adding the olive oil.

As this is mixing, you want to slowly drizzle the olive oil into the egg and sugar mixture so that you don't get, you know, clumpy oil, so that it all gets mixed in evenly.

-The olive oil adds moisture and a subtle fruity flavor that complements the citrus in the cake.

-And then I want to scrape down the sides.

And then I'm gonna add a little bit of the satsuma juice, but I'm gonna zest it first.

I don't like to zest it with this attachment on because the zest always sticks to the whisk.

We have satsuma tree in our backyard, and we can use the juice, but I want to use the peel, too, because it's so good.

And I love orange and rosemary, and we've got a big rosemary bush in the front yard.

So I read the recipe and thought, "Well, we can make it our own and change it a little bit."

We want about two tablespoons.

If you don't have a satsuma available, you can use another orange-flavored citrus.

And then I'm gonna chop up a little bit of the rosemary to put in the cake.

And then we'll put some on top before it goes in the oven.

-Aromatic rosemary is a versatile herb with earthy, slightly minty notes and a touch of sweetness.

The addition of fresh rosemary gives the olive oil cake a sweet and savory twist.

-So, we'll add the buttermilk now.

[ Blender whirring ] Okay.

We'll put satsuma juice and satsuma zest in and then top it with flaky salt.

I'm gonna add some of the satsuma juice.

Okay.

And then add the zest.

And the chopped rosemary.

I'm gonna give it a little bit of a stir and then add the dry ingredients.

And again, I don't like doing this with the whisk attachment because the zest gets tangled on the tines.

And you don't want to lose any of that.

Try to make sure that all of the dry ingredients are wet, but you don't have to over-mix.

And so I'm gonna pour this into a 9-inch baking pan that's been prepared.

It has been buttered.

I added the parchment to it and then buttered this surface of the parchment and then added flour and tapped out the rest of the flour so we don't have any clumps.

Most recipes don't call for the parchment on the sides, but I like to do that just 'cause it helps to release the cake.

And then we're gonna take some of the whole rosemary leaves and sprinkle them on top.

And these will get nice and crispy.

And then sprinkle this with a flaky salt.

This is a kosher salt.

-Allyse is an avid gardener who enjoys cooking with a bounty of fresh ingredients.

In addition to rosemary and satsumas, she uses an abundance of basil, tomatoes, peppers, and lemons.

-And now I'm gonna put this in the oven that's been preheated to 375 degrees, and it'll bake for around 40 to 45 minutes.

Just check the center with a toothpick or a skewer to make sure that nothing sticks.

So, our cake is done, and we're gonna let it cool.

And how we know it's done is you can stick a toothpick or a skewer in, it'll come out clean.

You can press on the top, and it springs back.

It doesn't sink in.

And so now we're gonna let it cool before we take it out of the pan.

-The parchment paper is removed from the sides of the pan.

And the cake is turned onto a plate so the parchment paper can be peeled from the bottom.

Before serving, the cake is carefully flipped onto a plate.

-There we go.

-Pollinators are unsung heroes in the ecological and economic health of Louisiana.

They are vital to keeping food on the table, benefit other wildlife species, and nurture the wetlands.

By becoming pollinator-friendly, we can help protect wild habitats for generations to come.

-You can find recipes for all of the dishes in this series, chef profiles, and more information about "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" by visiting wyes.org.

Funding for "Louisiana Coastal Cooking" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation, Inc. And by the Plaquemines Parish Tourism Commission -- nature, tradition, and culture come together in Plaquemines Parish, where the Mississippi River and the Gulf meet in Louisiana's Delta Country.

Learn more at visitplaqueminesparish.com.

[ Birds chirping ]