Bayou: Feasting Through the Seasons of a Cajun Life

In Martin’s moving follow-up to Mosquito Supper Club, the Bayou Petit Caillou, La., native strikes an impressive balance between fun and function while painting a vivid portrait of a place and its people. Chapters are organized thematically: “Abundance” features a crawfish boil to serve a couple dozen and étouffée for a crowd; “Simplicity” includes a salad of strawberries and pickled beets and hush puppies drizzled with honey. The “Grace” chapter highlights frugal options, such as biscuits that incorporate 7Up soda and corn and tomato maque choux (“one of the oldest dishes in Louisiana’s culinary history”), while “Tradition” offers venison tamales and a sidebar on boucherie, or hog butchering. Among the plentiful seafood options are buttermilk-soaked fried fish collars, boiled shrimp with garlicky tomato mayonnaise, and softshell crabs cooked with “no marinating or fussy stuff.” Martin’s recipes are expressive and easy to comprehend: for a yeasted cardamom-spiced coffee cake, readers are advised to “smudge” the butter into the flour, and corn bread batter should be the consistency of Marshmallow Fluff. Throughout, Martin weaves in facts and family stories, as when she describes her mother’s tattered recipe for king cake taped up inside a cupboard, followed by a sidebar on the meaning of king cake, how to decorate it, and when to consume it. Complete with stunning photography, this nostalgic ode to living and eating on the bayou is a winner. (Sept.)