Kids Creole Cooking
Kids Creole Cooking - Let's Make Creole Food!
Creole cuisine, born in Louisiana, blends African, French, Spanish, American Indian, German, and Italian flavors. While loved by adults worldwide, it’s also a fun way to sneak some extra veggies into kids' meals!
At Prep Kitchen Essentials, we offer exciting cooking classes where kids learn how to make healthy, flavorful Creole dishes. Creole food is all about using simple, fresh ingredients to create amazing meals. From popcorn shrimp to spicy red beans and rice, kids will have a blast cooking up Louisiana favorites while exploring a new culture!
What Is Creole Food?
Creole cooking is a unique blend of French, West African, Spanish, and Indian influences, with a dash of Southwestern U.S. flavors. Unlike Cajun food, which focuses on simpler ingredients, Creole dishes often feature rich flavors with cream, butter, eggs, and a variety of spices, making them a deliciously hearty option.
Creole vs. Cajun Food: What’s the Difference?
While both cuisines come from Louisiana, Creole food is richer and uses more cream and butter, making it slightly higher in fat. It also includes more vegetables like bell peppers, onions, and carrots, while Cajun cooking tends to be simpler and spicier with fewer creamy ingredients.
Creole food is perfect for introducing kids to new flavors and cultures – and they’ll love it too!
Red Beans and Rice
From saveur.com
Ingredients:
1⁄4 cup canola oil
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 ribs celery, finely chopped
2 large yellow onions, finely chopped
2 green bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
Kosher salt, to taste
1 tbsp. ground white pepper
1 tbsp. dried thyme
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 1⁄2 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 lb. dried kidney beans, soaked overnight
4 bay leaves
2 smoked ham hocks
1 tbsp. hot sauce, such as Tabasco
Cooked white rice, for serving
Thinly sliced scallions, to garnish
Instructions:
Heat oil in an 8-qt. Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add garlic, celery, onions, and peppers, season with salt, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 12 minutes. Add white pepper, thyme, oregano, cayenne, and black pepper, and stir until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add beans, bay leaves, ham hocks, and 6 cups water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, covered, until beans and ham hock are tender, about 2 hours. Remove hocks from pot, remove and discard bones and skin, and finely chop meat; return to pot along with hot sauce, and stir until combined. Serve over rice in bowls and sprinkle with scallions.
Buttermilk Beignets
via epicurious.com
YIELD Makes about 4 dozen beignets
Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 cups bread flour plus extra for flouring work surface
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Peanut oil for frying
Confectioners' sugar for serving, as much as you think you'll need—then double that!
Preparation:
Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until small bubbles form at the surface. Remove from the heat, add the buttermilk, and then pour into a stand mixer bowl. Whisk in the yeast and the sugar and set aside for 5 minutes. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed, using a dough hook, until the dry ingredients are moistened, 3 to 4 minutes. Increase the mixer speed to medium and continue mixing until the dough forms a loose ball and is still quite wet and tacky, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the dough aside in a draft-free spot for 1 hour.
Pour enough peanut oil into a large pot to fill it to a depth of 3 inches and bring to a temperature of 375°F over medium heat (this will take about 20 minutes). Line a plate with paper towels and set aside.
Lightly flour your work surface and turn the dough out on it. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour, gently press to flatten, fold it in half, and gently tuck the ends under to create a rough-shaped round. Dust again and roll the dough out into a ½-inch- to ¹/³ -inch-thick circle. Let the dough rest for 1 minute before using a chef's knife, a bench knife, or a pizza wheel to cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares (you should get about 48).
Gently stretch a beignet lengthwise and carefully drop it into the oil. Add a few beignets (don't overcrowd them, otherwise the oil will cool down and the beignets will soak up oil and be greasy) and fry until puffed and golden brown, turning them often with a slotted spoon, for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to the prepared plate to drain while you cook the rest. Serve while still warm, buried under a mound of confectioners' sugar, with hot coffee on the side.
Make ahead:
The beignet dough can be made up to 8 hours in advance of frying. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking spray. After cutting the dough, place the beignets on the paper and place another greased sheet of parchment paper, sprayed-side down, on top. Wrap the entire baking sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate. The beignets can be fried straight from the refrigerator.
The "Holy Trinity": A Creole Version Of A French Mirepoix
via louisianatravel.com
Ingredients:
approximately 2-3 tbsp. pan drippings, butter or vegetable cooking oil (adjust amount as needed to ensure veggies do not stick)
green bell pepper
onion
celery
Method of Preparation:
Using the same pan drippings from the meat you may have just browned for your dish — or starting with a healthy splash of oil, butter or (gasp!) bacon grease, if you don’t have pan drippings — heat the fat in a skillet over medium heat.
Add finely chopped green bell pepper, celery and onion to your pan in a 1:1:1 ratio, or use the amounts favored by many local chefs of 2 cups onion to 1 ½ cup celery to 1 ¼ cup green pepper.
Sauté the mixture, stirring just enough to prevent burning, until the vegetables start to soften and release their moisture, forming a glaze-like liquid in the pan. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking slowly, stirring often, until the vegetables are fully caramelized and darker in color.
PREP Cooking Classes is the premier choice for fun cooking activities that the whole family can enjoy. Contact us today!