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Pain Patate
(Sweet potato pudding)
One of the most famous New Orleans sweets is Pain Patate.
Ingredients: 4 or 5 baked or boiled sweet potatoes, 3 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter, 1/2 a pint or a little over of milk, a pinch of salt, 1/2 a teaspoon of black pepper.
Method: Peel the sweet potatoes and rub them through a sieve into a basin. Add the yolks of eggs and mix well, then add the sugar, the butter, the milk, and finally the whites beaten to a froth. Season with a pinch of salt and the pepper, stir all the ingredients together thoroughly to a smooth paste—the paste should be light and almost liquid—pour it into a pie dish and bake in a moderate oven for 1 hour, till well browned.
Pralines
The word “praline” is used in quite a different sense by the Creoles from the accepted significance in the French culinary vocabulary. The “pralin” or “praliné” in France means a mixture of almonds cooked in sugar, and is much used for cakes, various sweets, ices or souffles. The name “pralin” is derived from the name of the famous French Marshal, the Due de Choiseul-Praslin (1602-1675) who, in spite of his military exploits, was also a gourmet with a sweet tooth.
The first pralines, consisting of almonds cooked and coated with sugar, were the invention of his butler. We find a recipe for these in many old French cookery books, but the Creole pralines are special to New Orleans and are a delightful elaboration of the original French ones. The women who sold pralines in the streets of New Orleans—the “marchandes de pralines”—were one of the most attractive touches of local colour of the “vieux carré” or French part of the city. They carried to their various pitches large trays of their delicious confections, covered with spotless white cloths, and their musical street cry was one of the most familiar in New Orleans.
The following are among the most famous of New Orleans pralines:
Pralines Blanches de Coco
(White coconut pralines)
Ingredients: 1 lb. of castor sugar, 1 freshly-ground small coconut, 4 tablespoons of water (and sometimes a flavouring of vanilla).
Method: Put the sugar in an enamelled saucepan with the water and, when it begins to form a syrup, add the finely grated coconut, and stir continuously, until the sugar can be drawn to a thread between finger and thumb. Remove from the fire and put a tablespoon at a time of the mixture on a well buttered marble slab or a large dish, shaping it into a neat round cake of about 1/4 of an inch thick and 4 or 5 inches in diameter. When dry, remove from the slab or dish with a knife. They should be light, crisp and flaky. The “Pralines Roses de Coco,” or Pink Pralines, are made in the same manner, but a tablespoon of cochineal is added just before the saucepan is removed from the fire.
Pralines Aux Pacanes
(Pecan Nut Pralines)
Ingredients: 1 lb. of brown sugar, 1/2 lb. of freshly shelled, chopped and sliced pecan nuts, 4 tablespoons of water.
Method: 1 lb. of unshelled pecan nuts will make a 1/2 lb. when shelled. Chop some of the nuts, cut others in half and in quarters and add to the sugar and water as soon as it boils. Bring to the boil once more, and proceed as in the preceding recipe for Pralines.
Pralines Aux Pistaches
(Peanut or Monkey Nut Pralines)
The “pistache” here referred to is not the pistachio, but “pistache de terre” or ground nut, the popular names for it being peanut and monkey nut.
Ingredients: 1 lb. of brown sugar, 1 lb. of peanuts, 4 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon of butter.
Method: Shell the peanuts, chop them coarsely and add, with the butter, to the boiling sugar and water. Stir till it bubbles up again, remove from the fire and proceed as in the previous recipes.
“La Colle”
This is one of the most delicious of all praline cakes and is particularly delicious when made with real New Orleans molasses syrup. They are made with 1 pint of molasses syrup and two cupsful of shelled and chopped peanuts, in the same manner as other pralines, but no water is added to the syrup. The mixture, in this instance, is poured into little white paper cases, about 2 inches wide and 4 inches long, and the pralines are about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch thick. When thoroughly dry they are ready for use.
Mais “Tac-Tac”
(Creole pop corn)
Ingredients: 1 pint of Louisiana molasses syrup, 1 lb. of Indian parched corn.
Method: As soon as the molasses syrup comes to the boil, add the corn, stir, and when the mixture begins to bubble, pour it into paper cases about 5 or 6 inches long, 3 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches in depth. Use when cold.
“Estomac Mulatre”
(“Mulatto Stomach” or Creole Gingerbread)
Ingredients: 1 cup of molasses syrup, 1 cup of sour milk, 1 tablespoon of ground ginger, 1 gill of lard, 3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
Method: Put the molasses, the sour milk, the lard and the ginger in a saucepan, and stir till melted. Beat the mixture for 10 minutes, dissolve the soda in a little boiling water and mix in. Then add the flour gradually, beating into a stiff batter, and pour into several well-greased shallow pans. Bake in a quick oven for about 10 minutes, till lightly browned.
“Calas”
(Breakfast rice fritters)
These delicious breakfast fritters or cakes were sold, like the Pralines, by the old Creole women, and their familiar and harmonious street cry of “Bel calas, bel calas, tout chauds!” was heard in all the streets of the French quarter at breakfast time. They went their daily round carrying on their heads a covered wooden bowl containing the hot Calas—picturesque figures they must have been, with their brightly coloured bandana tignons or head-dress, their blue check dresses and their spotless white aprons. The cooks would dash out to secure the freshly made, hot Calas, which were eaten with the morning cup of coffee. The following is the traditional recipe for Calas:
Ingredients: 1/2 a cup of rice, 3 cups of water, 3 eggs, 3 tablespoons of flour, 1/2 a cup of sugar, about 1 oz., or a little under, of yeast, lard, or oil.
Method: Put the water in a saucepan, bring to the boil and add the rice. Boil till the rice is very soft and “mushy.” Remove from the saucepan and, when quite cold, mix with the yeast, dissolved in warm water. Set the rice to rise overnight. In the morning, beat the eggs thoroughly, add them to the rice, with the sugar and flour. Beat all well and make into a thick batter. Set aside to rise for another 15 minutes. Have ready a deep frying pan with hot oil or lard, drop into it 1 tablespoon of the mixture at a time, and cook till a light golden colour. When done, remove them from the fat, drain well by placing them on a sieve or in a colander, sprinkle with sugar and serve very hot.
Le Brulo
(Brandy punch)
The Brulo or Brulé was a great institution of the old days in New Orleans, and no festive dinner was complete without it. After coffee had been served, the Brulo was brought in, all the lights were extinguished and it was set alight.
The two most popular Brulo are the following: Pour 2 wineglasses of good brandy in a silver bowl, 1/2 a wineglass of kirsch, the same of maraschino, and add a pinch of cinnamon and allspice. Put in about 10 lumps of sugar, and when they have absorbed the liqueurs, put them in a ladle, cover with brandy and set alight. Burn for a few minutes, and serve in wineglasses.
The other Brulo is made by cutting a large, thick-skinned orange in half, removing all the pulp, and putting 2 lumps of sugar in each half orange. Fill each with brandy and set alight. After a few minutes, pour the brandy into glasses. Burning it in the orange gives it a very pleasant flavour.
Morphy, Countess. Recipes of All Nations. H. Joseph. 1946.
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