Maggie Heyn Richardson – Hungry for Louisiana

Hungry for Louisiana, Louisiana, The Writing Life

Hungry for Louisiana the book has been released!

So excited! My book, Hungry for Louisiana, An Omnivore’s Journey (LSU Press) is out this month. You can find it on Amazon or in regional book stores, including large chains and local independents. It’s also in some gift shops and culinary stores, like Red Stick Spice Co. in Baton Rouge.

This was so much fun to work on. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. The book includes an intro that explores how Louisiana’s food culture was local before local was cool and how there are few places in the world with such intact culinary traditions. Each subsequent chapter peers into a different food or ingredient from the state’s culinary tableau. Discover the quirks and traditions behind crawfish, jambalaya, Creole cream cheese, snoballs, filé, blood boudin, Zwolle tamales and oysters. Meet some of the people who produce these famed eats. This is breezy food writing with a few recipes at the end of each chapter.

Find out:

What Ashley Hansen of Hansen’s Sno-Bliz did when her grandfather’s famed snoball machine was on the fritz…

Why the northeast Louisiana town of Zwolle has a deep and meaningful tradition of tamale-making that is nothing like the Mississippi Delta’s…

Exactly what makes a pot of jambalaya achieve blue ribbon excellence at the annual Jambalaya Festival in Gonzales, Jambalaya Capital of the World…

And lots more.

Please keep coming back to this site for updates, additional material, photos and more recipes.

Thanks for your interest!

Lent, Louisiana, Shrimp

Lent: Restraint tastes good in Louisiana

Lent may be the season of restraint, but in Louisiana, it’s become 40 days of seafood-centric culinary creativity. From backyard boiled crawfish to indulgent chef’s specials on Fridays, there’s no shortage of good eats wrapped up in all that contemplation and sober self-sacrifice.

Last Friday — the first Friday of Lent this year, I dropped by Tony’s Seafood in Baton Rouge to check out the action. Even though it was mid-afternoon, the hot food line at Tony’s was still 25 deep. Bummer. I didn’t have time to wait for the fried catfish snack and trio of boudin balls I’d been fantasizing about driving up I-110. “Man. Look at that line,” I said to the guy bagging up my fresh shrimp. And as if it required no other explanation (even at 3:30 in the afternoon) he said, “Well, it is Lent.”

Breakfast, Eggs, Farmers Markets, Louisiana

Editing the Egg McMuffin

It wasn’t that long ago that fresh eggs – the kind with deep golden yolks from happy chickens – were hard to come by. Our farmers market here in Baton Rouge would routinely sell out, especially if you were a sleepy straggler (like me) who liked to get there late. Now it’s much easier. More vendors are selling them at our farmers markets – and probably yours, too. And in many cities, urban poultry is commonplace. I’m usually not without locally raised eggs, and one of my favorite uses for them is in a….

homemade egg McMuffin.

Latin American Cuisine, Local, Vegetables

5 great finds….in a Latin American market

I’m always blown away by the number and variety of affordably priced gems at Latin American supermarkets. These spots are perfect for browsing, learning, getting inspired and grabbing lunch on the go. Here are 5 of my favorite items from La Morenita Meat Market in Baton Rouge, one of my go-to spots. Scroll through, and if you’re a fan of the mercado, tell me what inspires you.

Fresh from the Gulf, Oysters, Southern, Super Bowl

Super Bowl Sunday: River Road Recipes’ Oysters Fitzpatrick Gets Saucy

Oysters are the perfect addition to the 2015 Super Bowl party menu, both as a nod to two seafood-centric coastal locales, New England and Seattle, and to our own Gulf oyster season still underway here in South Louisiana. For parties, I like to serve them baked or grilled on the half-shell, and for the Super Bowl in particular, adding bacon and barbecue sauce makes them festive and football-y. Pretty sure that’s a word this week.

One of my all-time favorite oyster recipes is Oysters Fitzpatrick from the Junior League of Baton Rouge’s 1959 food bible, River Road Recipes, but here I’ve reworked it with a locally made barbecue sauce, Jay D’s, made by my friend and fellow food writer/blogger Jay Ducote (BiteandBooze.com).

Farmers Markets, Healthy, Southern, Vegetables

Roasting fresh turnips brings out sweetness

Fresh turnips are in full supply right now at Southern farmers markets and they’re one of the easiest and most satisfying winter veggies to prepare. I picked some up last week from the Red Stick Farmers Market in Baton Rouge. If you’re not yet in the habit of cooking turnips, give them try. And if their reputation for bitterness scares you or your kids, fear not. Roasting brings out their natural sweetness. Another secret is how you peel them. Continue Reading…

Older Posts

Newer Posts