Maque Choux

[Gonna Smoke]

Loaded up with my freshly made Andouille, I was looking for a dish to make with it. Talking to Sheila about it and wouldn't you know it, she had torn a page out of a Southern Living magazine with a recipe she wanted to try. Well on the "B" side of that page was this recipe...

Maque Choux with Sausage

A classic dish in Louisiana, Maque Choux (pronounced "mock-shoe") has Native American and Creole-French roots. This maque choux comes together in minutes once you have all of the ingredients prepped and ready to go.

www.southernliving.com

Never heard of it so off to the search feature here with no luck. Next up was the interweb to figure it all out. Seems this is a traditional Louisiana dish that's a mix of Creole and native American cultures. Typically it is not served with meat or milk and tomatoes are sometimes used, but bacon grease is used to braise the veggies. Well I just had to try this, but a double recipe so here we go...

The cast of characters...

All chopped up with only one place to go...

Melt some bacon grease and brown the Andouille...

Add in all the veggies and saute them...

After a few minutes, add in the heavy cream...

Bring to a simmer and reduce until thick...

Time to eat...

Traditionally, according to what I've read, this is served as a soup and maybe some cornbread on the side. My wife wanted rice so I made that, but I ate it without.

This was a BIG hit and everyone here, including Sheila, said to keep this recipe. Sheila does not typically like milk or cream based soups so this must be good...

 

[jcam222]

That looks and sounds amazing Charles. I may have to do a spin on this minus corn.

 

[indaswamp]

Very interesting take on Maque Choux.... I'd eat that version, looks good. I have an original version I can share, as well as history of the dish. I have made just about every version of Maque Choux you can think of....from rabbit to alligator, shrimp to snapper.....and everything in between. One of my favorites....

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

WOW Charles that looks great! How was the Okra done like this? I not a fan when it gets slimy.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Very interesting take on Maque Choux.... I'd eat that version, looks good. I have an original version I can share, as well as history of the dish. I have made just about every version of Maque Choux you can think of....from rabbit to alligator, shrimp to snapper.....and everything in between. One of my favorites....

Before this, I'd never even heard of this dish and some of your additions sound great. I like to see an original recipe...

 

[Gonna Smoke]

WOW Charles that looks great! How was the Okra done like this? I not a fan when it gets slimy.

Thanks Brian. Since all the veggies are sautéed, you don't get slimy okra in this dish. Biggest problem I had was finding fresh okra because the season is over around here...

 

[Gonna Smoke]

That looks and sounds amazing Charles. I may have to do a spin on this minus corn.

The fresh corm does add a sweetness to this dish. According to what I've read, traditionally no milk or cream is added, only the corn milk when fresh corn is cut off the cob and then the cobs are scraped down...

 

[normanaj]

That looks so awesome but with the heavy cream in the recipe I'll never know.

 

[Brokenhandle]

That looks really good Charles! Don't even know if I like okra but love cream based soups!

Ryan

 

[SmokinEdge]

Man, that looks great Charles. My wife would really enjoy that she likes cream based soup and loves okra. Now if I only had some sausage, hmmm.

 

[uncle eddie]

When I saw the final pic...I just thought "Yum!"

 

[indaswamp]

Here ya go Gonna Smoke...
http://www.jfolse.com/recipes/vegetables/sidedish10.htm

 

[indaswamp]

WOW Charles that looks great! How was the Okra done like this? I not a fan when it gets slimy.

Cooking okra with tomato cuts the slime.....

 

[Hijack73]

Looks good. I'm not a corn fan so I've always avoided it and gone for etouffee, but it definitely looks good.

A lot of folks use andouille in etouffee. If you like the choux and gumbo, give etouffee a whirl. I'm particularly fond of shrimp etouffee.

 

[Hijack73]

Cooking okra with tomato cuts the slime.....

Big time. On the rare occasions I'd add okra to my gumbo I liked to fine dice up a fresh tomato and toss it in the pot. I typically use neither, but if I use okra I will sneak in a tomato. That was how I did it for the church.