History Cooks Demonstration: Chicken and Sausage Etouffee July 14th, 2023

 Friday, I had the opportunity to go to Lincoln's Home in Springfield IL and attend their History Cooks demonstration, which is part of the History Comes Alive program. The chef was Chef Howard Seidel and he made a chicken and sausage etouffee. 

The program started with a National Park Service employee talking a bit about New Orleans and what it would have been like in the early 1800's and how Abraham Lincoln connected with New Orleans. An interesting historical fact...New Orleans was the only southern city that Abraham Lincoln ever visited. Another interesting fact was that Lincoln could cook and when he worked on the flat boat was the designated cook according to one historian. 

They then turned it over to Chef Howard Seidel and he talked about cooking in that day a bit, he talked about the difference between creole and cajun cooking.  The bottom line is cajun is more rustic and found in parts outside New Orleans more, creole is more refined and found mostly in New Orleans. Creole also uses tomatoes and tomato based sauces while cajun does not. Creole food uses more seafood and cajun uses more smoked meats. 

He also was demonstrating how to make a popular New Orleans dish as he talked. Normally etouffee is made with shrimp or crawfish but due to the heat and possible allergies to shellfish he instead made it with chicken and sausage. Etouffee means 'smothered' and in this dish everything is cooked together in the juices of the vegetables and meat with a bit of oil or butter. 

One of the tips he provided had to do with seasoning. He said if you only remember one thing, I want you to remember this... season everything! If you are making a dish like this and you make rice to go with the dish season the rice as well as the dish. Even if it is just with salt and pepper. 

His mantra was seasoning + bland = bland. 

This dish used paprika, black pepper, thyme, and minced garlic.

His other tip had to do with dried seasonings like thyme for instance. He said anytime you use a dried herb it needs to be rehydrated. If you don't rehydrate the herbs, then the herb just tastes bland or bitter. To get the really good taste you have to add it to liquid to get it to rehydrate. This recipe used oil, tomato juice, and chicken broth as liquid. 

He also talked about the trinity of creole and cajun dishes which are: onion, celery, and bell peppers. These three things are the base for many dishes in the region. 

He mentioned things like when cooking with chicken if he can he likes to use boneless chicken thighs because they do not dry out like a chicken breast. He said chicken breasts are difficult to cook without drying them out. I personally prefer chicken thighs as well due to this fact. He also talked about tomatoes and that he likes to use canned tomatoes in juice from a good brand. He talked about cooking with parsley and how it adds a depth of flavor to dishes. In this dish as well, he added some red wine which was not on the recipe, he indicated if you do cook with wine to never use a cooking wine. He indicated cooking wine is just short of vinegar. 

Overall, it was a great way to spend an hour and to learn some cooking tips and techniques from a professional. Chef Howard is an instructor with the LLCC Culinary Arts program and has worked in restaurants all over, spending some time in New Orleans. At the end, we all got to try a bowl of the chicken and sausage etouffee. I was really excited about this dish because I had always wanted to try it. One thing he did say about creole and cajun cooking is that a lot of people think it should be really spicy but really it does not need to be spicy it just needs to be seasoned well. 

The finished produce smelled amazing and was so tasty. I really liked the parsley he added to the rice. Like he said I was expecting it to be spicy and it really was not overly spicy. Most of the spice probably came from the Andouille sausage more than the spices that were used. If you like spicier food, you could always add seasoning to kick it up like instead of smoked paprika use a hot paprika. 

At each demonstration they pass out a souvenir recipe card with the recipe that was used. It's a nice souvenir and a great way to recreate the recipe at home. 

I would encourage you, if you are able to, to check out one of the remaining sessions for the season. They are every Friday from 12-1pm at Lincoln's Home at the picnic tables outside the visitor's center.  The session next week with talk about some of the excavation of the site and how they learned some of the things that the Lincoln's would have eaten at the time. The last session is on August 4th so there is limited time left to attend a demonstration this summer.