Acadian Plantation Country Cookbook - Tapa dura

"Anne Butler strikes again! Just when you think she can't get any better, she publishes another outstanding book! Her stories, her anecdotes, and her recipes are as inspiring as ever. What a tasty literary legacy this gentlewoman has given our state."
--Chef John Folse

Acadians have fought to preserve their culturally rich heritage now recognized and loved across the country. In tribute to those who struggled through hard times, Anne Butler has searched archives, attics, diaries, and journals for this companion to her Audubon Plantation Country Cookbook and Bayou Plantation Country Cookbook.
Exiled from their homes in Nova Scotia, early settlers were attracted to Louisiana's bayou banks for their rich soil and accessible transport, while the state's western prairie lands were ideal as cattle pastures and rice fields. Lined with one plantation after another, Bayou Teche was once known as "the main street of Acadiana," and the waterway eased the shipping of sugar and molasses to New Orleans markets. The bayous and the adjacent dry prairies, once the top cattle-producing area in the country, gave rise to a people who live their lives with a joie de vivre that belies the difficulties they have faced.
Numerous state governors, several United States senators, and a chief justice of the state supreme court emerged from this area. And it is from these parts that a former governor surprised his wife with the keys to a grand plantation home. Of course, some of the best-loved chefs and food products in the world originated in Acadiana. From Tabasco sauce and Konriko rice to the beloved Mr. Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning, the Acadian culinary heritage has spread throughout the nation.
While you sample the fare from Bayou Teche to St. Martinville to Breaux Bridge, the "Crawfish Capital of the World," this tour of Acadiana will tempt your taste buds and teach you plenty of Acadian history along the way.