Real Cajun

January 19, 2009
If bacon does not immediately come to mind as an essential ingredient of Cajun cooking, then clearly you have been missing Link, the chef-owner of two New Orleans restaurants, Herbsaint and Cochon. He not only begins his premiere cookbook with instructions on making four pounds of homemade bacon, he includes such tempting items as a fried oyster and bacon sandwich, tomato and bacon pie, and catfish fried in bacon fat. Even in his vegetarian twice-baked potatoes, he cannot help mentioning, “Normally I like crisp bits of bacon in stuffed potatoes.” And where bacon leads, the rest of the pig is sure to follow. A classic boudin recipe is rich in pork liver and shoulder; deer sausage combines venison with pork butt; and a hearty/scary breakfast dish, oreilles de cochon
(pig ears), is boudin-stuffed beignets. There is also plenty of crawfish, be it in a crawfish pie, a traditional boil or in a boulette
(deep fried balls of crawfish meat and stuffing). A bourbon cherry lemonade or a plate of fresh peach buckle would cleanse the palate nicely, Eighty color photos enhance Link's efforts, as do his brief meditations on crawfish farming, family gatherings and the joys of making a perfect roux.

March 15, 2009
Link, who grew up in Acadia, or "Cajun Country," is the chef of two acclaimed New Orleans restaurants, Herbsaint, which serves what he calls "modern Creole" cuisine with some French and Italian influences, and Cochon, a more rustic spot serving down-home Cajun food. His first cookbook includes recipes from Cochon and other family favorites, plus stories and photos of people enjoying great Cajun food, sidebars on topics like the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, and lots of photos of people enjoying great Cajun food. For most collections.

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