Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou

An up-and-coming Cajun culinary master infuses local culinary customs and evocative stories into a collection of recipes from her rapidly disappearing homeland that utilize such regional staples as blackberries, shrimp, oysters and sugarcane. 30,000 first printing. Illustrations. Tour. Index.
"Every hour of the day, Louisiana loses a football field's worth of land to the Gulf. And so before her hometown disappears entirely, chef Melissa Martin wants to document the recipes, ingredients, and customs of the Cajun people. Cocoderie, Louisiana, may soon no longer be listed on maps, but the incredible traditions of the region should remain. In the same way Zora Neale Hurston documented and shared oral histories of the South before its keepers passed on, Martin will tell the stories of her people. She has organized the book into 12 chapters highlighting the key ingredients of this cuisine-from shrimp and oysters to poultry and sugarcane-and the recipe and customs that surround each. The recipes are for accessible home-cooked meals that readers can make on a weeknight or for a celebration-with stories to be savored along with the food. Each chapter is punctuated with an essay explaining the context for the ingredient, whether it's picking and putting up blackberries each February to shrimping every August or celebrating Fat Tuesday with a king cake. This is a cookbook, but the underlying messages of heeding environmental warnings and highlighting the Cajun woman's authority in the kitchen showcase the book's compelling media hooks. Martin also documents the region's traditions, from the Blessing of the Boats at the beginning of every fishing season to Mardi Gras and the many dozens of ways to make a Cajun gumbo"--
Winner, IACP Book of the YearWinner, IACP Best American CookbookAn NPR Best Book of the Year A Saveur, Washington Post, and Garden & Gun Best Cookbook of the Year A Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Eater, Epicurious, and The Splendid Table Best New CookbookA Forbes Best New Cookbook for Travelers: Holiday Gift Guide 2021Long-Listed for The Art of Eating Prize for Best Food Book of 2021“Sometimes you find a restaurant cookbook that pulls you out of your cooking rut without frustrating you with miles long ingredient lists and tricky techniques. Mosquito Supper Club is one such book. . . . In a quarantine pinch, boxed broth, frozen shrimp, rice, beans, and spices will go far when cooking from this book.” —Epicurious, The 10 Restaurant Cookbooks to Buy Now “Martin shares the history, traditions, and customs surrounding Cajun cuisine and offers a tantalizing slew of classic dishes.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review For anyone who loves Cajun food or is interested in American cooking or wants to discover a distinct and engaging new female voice—or just wants to make the very best duck gumbo, shrimp jambalaya, she-crab soup, crawfish étouffée, smothered chicken, fried okra, oyster bisque, and sweet potato pie—comes Mosquito Supper Club. Named after her restaurant in New Orleans, chef Melissa M. Martin’s debut cookbook shares her inspired and reverent interpretations of the traditional Cajun recipes she grew up eating on the Louisiana bayou, with a generous helping of stories about her community and its cooking. Every hour, Louisiana loses a football field’s worth of land to the Gulf of Mexico. Too soon, Martin’s hometown of Chauvin will be gone, along with the way of life it sustained. Before it disappears, Martin wants to document and share the recipes, ingredients, and customs of the Cajun people. Illustrated throughout with dazzling color photographs of food and place, the book is divided into chapters by ingredient—from shrimp and oysters to poultry, rice, and sugarcane. Each begins with an essay explaining the ingredient and its context, including traditions like putting up blackberries each February, shrimping every August, and the many ways to make an authentic Cajun gumbo. Martin is a gifted cook who brings a female perspective to a world we’ve only heard about from men. The stories she tells come straight from her own life, and yet in this age of climate change and erasure of local cultures, they feel universal, moving, and urgent.
A female Cajun chef and a fresh voice in the culinary world shares the unique and compelling recipes, customs, and stories of her homeland'a disappearing land in the Louisiana bayou'to capture this way of life and its food before it is lost to the gulf forever.