The Cajuns are strange people, a blend of Portuguese, Indian and heaven only knows what else. They fish, shrimp, trap fur in the maze of bayous and marshes of the big Delta. Priests wade into the water and bless their shrimp boats at start of season. They know how to cook turtles. Our only recommended addition is a small can of chopped button mushrooms.
Trim 2 lbs turtle steak into 1 1/2" squares, season well with salt and hand ground black pepper, squeeze on some lemon or sour orange juice and stand a while. Add plenty of chopped onion, a sweet pepper chopped well, 3 or 4 tomatoes cut into eights, 3 bayleaves, a crushed garlic clove, and mushrooms... Moisten well with stock made by boiling salted turtle trimmings, and smother very slowly in tightly covered skillet until turtle is tender. Serve with big mounds of rice.
This will noursh 4 hungry folk
- Charles N. Baker Jr. - The Gentlemen's Companion Vol. 1: Exotic Cookery Book, 1946
I found the above in one of two volumes I bought at a yard sale two weeks ago. The second volume is: The Gentlemen's Companion Vol. 2: Exotic Drink Book. The titles intrigued me, myself being a Gentleman and all. This guy wrote them on the eve of WWII after traveling the world for a food and travel magazine. The recipes are amazing and very different. The most amazing thing, though is
what these two books are worth, apparently. We packed a box of twenty books for $2.
I think I'll go back this weekend and buy the rest.
