Food
Maque Choux tasty tradition
By Beverly Mills, with Alicia Ross, United Feature Syndicate
Posted:
11/04/2009 1:29 AM
It's hard to believe it has taken so long for this Cajun classic to arrive in the Desperation Dinners test kitchen because one of our favorite challenges is to take traditional recipes and "desperize" them for busy cooks. But since this savory vegetable stew, called Maque Choux, stretches five minutes longer than our usual 20-minute limit, we kept putting it off.
Finally, we came to our senses and realized that Maque Choux (pronounced "mock shoe") is so delicious and complex that we shouldn't get hung up over five minutes.
The origins of Maque Choux trace back to the Acadian French and Native American roots of southern Louisiana. And like a lot of country cooking, Maque Choux combines the best flavors of several culinary traditions.
Maque Choux is usually made with fresh corn and tomatoes, flavored with tasso or bacon, but you can enjoy it anytime of the year by "faking" the fresh corn milk obtained from scraping the fresh cobs with a combination of broth and pureed frozen white corn kernels.
© All copyright 2009 the Evening Post Publishing Co.
