We Sell Louisiana Gifts!

Looking for the perfect gift? Look no further! NolaCajun sells lots of gift items including cookbooks, gift baskets, coasters, aprons, trivets, shirts, and more!

Our gift baskets make perfect gifts for family and friends who favor that New Orleans flavor! We offer a variety of gift baskets including:

Hot Sauce Gift Basket
Muffuletta Gift Basket
Sweet Tooth Gift Basket
Breakfast Gift Basket
Lagniappe Gift Basket
Tabasco Gift Basket
Everything Pickled Gift Basket
Coffee Gift Basket

Our lagniappe gift basket allows you to customize your very own gift basket! All you have to do is let us know what you would like in your own special basket and we will create it for you! Choose from our inventory of over 1000 New Orleans and Cajun food products.

We also offer a great selection of local cookbooks too! Find your favorite recipes from restaurants such as Arnaud’s, Commander’s Palace, Broussard’s, Galatoire’s, Brennan’s, and more!  These cookbooks are sure to please anyone that loves New Orleans and Cajun foods.

It’s Mardi Gras Time!

It’s that time of year here in New Orleans! It’s Carnival Time and the first parade rolled on  Saturday, February 15^th! This year, Mardi Gras falls on March 4^th, which is a little late compared to last year (February 12). That’s okay because that means king cake season lasts longer!

Speaking of king cakes, NolaCajun offers delicious, fresh baked king cakes that are delivered straight to your door. Our king cakes are made from gourmet Danish pastry dough which are then iced and decorated in the Mardi Gras colors (purple, green, and gold). We offer The Traditional King Cake and Filled King Cake. Our filled king cake comes in a variety of 14 different flavors to choose from:

Apple
Apple Cream Cheese
Bavarian Cheese
Blueberry
Blueberry Cream Cheese
Caramel
Cherry
Chocolate
Cream Cheese
Lemon
Praline
Pineapple
Strawberry
Strawberry Cream Cheese

            For our New Orleans Saints fans, you can purchase our Saints King Cake that is decorated with the Saints black and gold colors. You can also get the Saints King Cake traditional or filled. What a great way to show your team spirit this Mardi Gras season!

We also have Baby King Cakes! These mini king cakes are perfect for a school class or an office Mardi Gras party. They are approximately 5 inches in diameter and feed one person. You get 18 mini cakes for $50.00 which is less than $3.00 a piece!

If you are looking for the perfect Mardi Gras shirt, come take a look at our Mardi Gras Heart and Crown shirt. This shirt is available in purple or white! Perfect for the parade route!

Here at NolaCajun, we cannot wait for the parades to start! And for those that cannot be here in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, we offer these king cakes to you to share a little piece of New Orleans with you this Mardi Gras season!

Jambalaya Girl Plans a Mardi Gras Style Super Bowl Party

NolaCajun is so excited to welcome a guest blogger today!  We would love for you to meet our friend Jambalaya Girl!

Jambalaya Girl is the owner of Cook Me Somethin’ Mister, a new brand of New Orleans food items, made in New Orleans. The first in the line is a Jambalaya Rice Mix that was created from Jambalaya Girl’s Dad’s recipe. She will be cooking her signature dish at the Super Bowl this Sunday for the NFL VIP Tailgate – a role she earned by cooking her rice mix for a taste test among over 200 other restaurants and caterers. Read her story here: http://www.nola.com/superbowl/index.ssf/2013/01/super_bowl_2013_reverberating.html. 

We are very excited to carry her products on NolaCajun.com.

It’s Carnival Time and almost Super Bowl Sunday in New Orleans. Celebrate with us and learn how to throw your own Mardi Gras themed Super Bowl party at home! Here are the recipe and party tips from New Orleans’ own Jambalaya Girl of Cook Me Somethin’ Mister.

Fried Jambalaya “Footballs”

Recipe Makes 30 “footballs”

Rice Ball Mixture:

1 bag Cook Me Somethin’ Mister Jambalaya Rice Mix (8oz Lil’ Party Size)

1 lb. Ground Pork Sausage (breakfast sausage)

1 pkg Cream Cheese (8oz)

½ cup Parmesan Cheese, Grated

¾ cups Italian Bread Crumbs

2 Eggs

1 tsp Hot Sauce

Breading:

4 cups Italian Bread Crumbs or Panko

2 Eggs

1 tbsp Water

Topping:

1 pkg Cream Cheese (8oz)

¼ cup Creole Mustard

1 tsp Hot Sauce

1 tbsp Ketchup

1. Cook jambalaya rice and sausage as directed on package. Cool to room temperature then refrigerate.

2. In a bowl, combine chilled rice mix, cream cheese, parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, whisked eggs and hot sauce. Mix thoroughly. Form 1 ½ in. diameter balls, and elongate for “football” shape.

3. To bread, whisk eggs and water in small bowl. Roll jambalaya balls in egg wash then roll in bread crumbs.

4. Deep fry at 350 F for 30-60 seconds or until browned on all sides. Let stand to drain and cool.

5. To make topping, mix all topping ingredients in bowl. To decorate, use icing piper filled with cream cheese mixture and decorate top of jambalaya balls like football stitches.

6. Shout “Yum Yum, Come Get You Some!” and serve.

Make your own Shoe Box Float

Display your Fried Jambalaya Footballs atop your own shoe box Mardi Gras float. Decorating a shoe box to look like a float rolling down St. Charles Ave is a tradition among elementary school students in New Orleans. It’s a cute and easy way to tie in a Mardi Gras tradition at home. And your Fried Jambalaya Footballs will be ready for kickoff!

Summer Solstice New Orleans Style

New Orleanian’s will find any reason to throw a party and Summer Solstice is no exception! Tonight, June 20^th at precisely 7:09 pm marks the first official day of summer and what better way to celebrate than with your friends, family, and a refreshing beverage to take the sting out of the heat!

The rest of the country is finally catching on to Summer Solstice parties, but to pull off your get-together it in true southern style try these delicious daiquiri and mixed beverage recipes that will be sure to impress!

Solace Strawberry Daiquiri:

A new twist on a local favorite!

3 oz. Pat O’Brien’s Strawberry Daiquiri Mix

2 packets Crystal Light Cherry Pomegranate Flavor

1.5 oz Rum

1 cup ice

Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix well. Pour into a chilled glass and garnish with a fresh strawberry!

 

Magnetic Margaritas:

Jose’ wont be the only one coming back for more!

3 oz. Pat O’Brien’s Margarita Mix

2 packets Crystal Light Raspberry Ice Flavor

1/2 oz. Triple Sec

1.5 oz. Tequila

1 cup of ice

Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix well. Adjust to taste. Pour into salt-rimmed chilled glass and garnish with fresh limes!

Add an additional kick with just a splash of St. Germain liquor to the top & stir in

 

Boastful Bloody Bull:

For those who have a few too many of the Magnetic Margaritas, heal your hang-over with our twist on a classic, mouthwatering Bloody Mary. A perfect blend of spice and flavor like only the Creole’s know how!

2 oz. Tabasco Bloody Mary Mix

1.5 oz canned condensed beef bouillon

1.5 oz Vodka

Freshly ground black pepper

4 Cajun Chef Spicy Green Beans

Combine Tabasco Mix, bouillon, vodka, and pepper and mix well. Pour over ice in a tall glass and garnish with spicy green beans.

Do you use our drink mixes in any new and interesting ways?  Share your recipes with us!  We would love to feature it on our blog, Facebook page, Twitter, and Pinterest!  This goes for all of our products!  We are always looking for great ideas from our loyal customers!

Jacques-Imo’s Restaurant Review

Good morning readers! We felt that it was about time to share another one of our favorite restaurants in New Orleans to give guidance to upcoming visitors and encourage locals to give a little jump-start to grassroots businesses. Jacques-Imo’s is located on the far end of Oak Street, a quaint Uptown road occupied by an old family pharmacy, eclectic coffee shops and wine bars, and a variety charming boutiques to browse on a slow day. At night however, the one place you want to be is in line, waiting for a table at one of the best Creole restaurants in New Orleans. If not for the lavishly painted swamp scene on the truck permanently parked outside the front door, Jacques-Imo’s might be easily overlooked by passerbys not lucky enough to have spent an evening inside the magical restaurant!

  Once inside the petite entrance, you are overtaken by the enormous mural spanning the entire length of the restaurant, framed paintings acting as a ceiling and the most sensational Cajun aroma filling every inch. Be sure to arrive at least thirty minutes before you would like to be seated, they dont take reservations for parties of five or more and there is always a line! While you wait, enjoy a beverage from the bar served in the famous Crabby Jacks plastic cups and prepare yourself for a little taste of heaven on Earth. The kitchen is located in the middle of the restaurant, so it is impossible to be seated without passing through where all the magic happens, sure to rev up your taste buds! Once seated, take a few minutes to take in your surrounding, theres something eclectic and surprising in every nook and cranny.

  Now its time for the food- from personal experience, I have never been to Jacques-Imo’s and not ordered the Shrimp and Alligator Sausage Cheesecake appetizer. The name may seem a bit off-putting but trust a local- it is INCREDIBLE! A generous slice is served with a Cajun tomato cream sauce drizzled on top, perfect for soaking with the never ending supply of garlic and green-onion butter cornbread! If alligator seems a bit ambitious for your taste, you cant go wrong with the Steamed Mussels in a tomato- basil broth or the Eggplant Jacques-Imo’s topped with an oyster dressing and wild mushroom sauce that would make your taste-buds sing!

Searching for an entrée on the menu can be a daunting task, but rest assure you can not go wrong. The portions are enough to share but I guarantee after your first bite, you will be hard pressed to let go of anything on your plate. This past Saturday, after examining the menu for the perfect dish, I finally decided on the Pan-fried Drum finished with a menieure brown sauce and topped off with candied pecans. The drum was cooked to perfection with just enough sauce to compliment to the fish but not overpowering its freshness while the pecans added that special sweetness pairing perfectly with the savory sauce! My friend who joined me was feeling especially adventurous that evening and the moment our waiter described the Godzilla Meets FGT special, he was done for. His dish consisted of an enormous soft shell crab served with hefty layers of fried green tomatoes and eggplant stacked underneath, finished with house-made remoulade sauce and a steak knife jostled through the top to keep all in their place. After getting over the impact of the grand presentation, he took his first bite and that is where any and all conversation ceased for the next ten minutes. It was almost impossible for him to focus on anything except the Creole masterpiece in front and relishing in all its glory! Understandable, neither one of us finished our meals which only meant the wonderful experience would live on for another day under the title of leftovers.

Leaving room for dessert at Jacques-Imo’s is a daunting task but one that must be conquered! His New Orleans-style bread pudding is one of a kind with the coconut sprinkled inside which adds a whole other level of flavor and goodness but if your running low on space in the stomach, I would recommend their Watermelon Mojito as delightful night-cap to end your Jacques-Imo’s Journey!

             

  Truly a local gem in New Orleans that might be hard to find for out-of-towners, but one meal in his kitchen will ensure a place in your heart, and stomach, forever. Great food, reasonable prices for the large portions, and a fantastic environment sure to make any night spent at Jacques-Imo’s an eventful one!

Jacque-Imo’s Cafe

8324 Oak St
New Orleans, LA 70118

(504) 861-0886

http://jacques-imos.com

If you have a favorite New Orleans or Louisiana restaurant that you would like us to feature or would like to submit a review, please feel free to reach out to us!  We are always happy to hear about our customer’s experiences down in Cajun country!

What is a Po-boy?

There is nothing better than sitting outside in the warm, humid, fall weather of New Orleans, eating a good, old-fashioned po-boy.  It is a family tradition of ours to buy a couple of po-boys from Parkway Bakery (fried oyster for me and roast beef for my husband) and then drive to City Park and sit under the trees to enjoy them.  The perfect crispiness of the Leidenheimer French Bread, paired with the fried perfection of an oyster or the sloppy, rich roast beef and gravy…soooo tasty.

There are several stories of how the po-boy originated. However, one story is told more than others. In 1929, Benjamin and Clovis Martin were the owners of a French Quarter restaurant. At the time, there was a transit strike and the two brothers felt bad for these “poor boys”. So at the end of the day these “poor boys” could go to the back of the Martin restaurant and buy a sandwich made of leftover bits of roast beef and gravy or sliced potatoes and gravy on French bread for a nickel. Before long, the sandwich became known as the “po-boy”, and the fillings have evolved into anything imaginable.

You must be craving a po-boy by now…well guess what…you can make your very own authentic New Orleans po-boy at home!  We are excited to announce that NolaCajun.com is the exclusive online provider of Leidenheimer French Bread!  We provide their retail brand called Reising.  Leidenheimer is New Orleans’ most well known bakery of French bread and is the supplier to all major restaurants in the city, like Commander’s Palace.

So buy up some loaves of bread, load up on your toppings and check out our video on how to make a Roast Beef Po-boy!  You will be a po-boy connoisseur in no time!

If you would like to send us the recipe with a picture of the finished product, we would love to feature it on our blog, Facebook page, Twitter, and Pinterest! This goes for all of our products…we are always looking for great ideas from our loyal customers!

It’s Springtime in NOLA!

We have had a three month hiatus from the blogosphere. It’s been quite busy at NolaCajun since our last blog back in January. We promise, from now on, we will be more attentive to the blog section of the site. So what’s been going on…well, Mardi Gras was late this year so there was an extended king cake season.  Lots and lots of king cakes were shipped all across the country and two even found their way to the United Kingdom.  We do plan on growing internationally as we only regularly ship to Canada, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands outside of the 50 states.  But if you really want to send an order to Uncle Leo who retired to Belize, then send us an email at sales@nolacajun.com.  We will try to accommodate your shipping request as best we can.

After Mardi Gras, the season of Lent starts which means Easter candy around here and specifically Elmer’s Easter Candy.  Louisiana’s finest chocolate candies include Gold Brick Eggs, Heavenly Hash, Pecan Eggs, and a variety of other flavors.  Easter is still over a week away so there is plenty of time to get your order in to have for the baskets on Easter morning.

Lastly, it seems like spring was forgotten and we have jumped right into summer as the temperatures around New Orleans are nearing the 90 degree mark already.  This weather is perfect for sitting outside with friends enjoying a beverage or two and boiling some crawfish.  It seems the crawfish are falling in line with Mardi Gras and Easter as they are coming out late this year.  The prices are starting to come down and the mudbugs are getting bigger.   NolaCajun has all the boil products that you need.  If you ask nice, we might even be able to ship live crawfish to you, but you will have to contact us at sales@nolacajun.com for a quote.    Until next time…

 

Don’t be left out on the exciting new additions coming soon!  Follow us on Twitter @nolacajun

Springtime In NOLA

The Final Four is wrapping up tonight in New Orleans which has been a great event full of activities, music, and basketball.  With the first quarter of the year behind us, Spring has definitely arrived in New Orleans.  The temperatures are steadily rising but not quite at the mid-summer walk outside and start sweating point yet.  It also means that it is festival time in the city and two of New Orleans biggest festivals are in April.  The French Quarter Fest starts April 12^th and ends on the 15^th.  If you are not familiar with French Quarter Fest, here is a brief explanation from their website www.fqfi.org.

The award-winning French Quarter Festival is Louisiana’s largest free music event, a four-day local music showcase scattered throughout the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. There are music performances on 22 stages. The community festival also features the “World’s Largest Jazz Brunch,” which are the festival food booths operated by some of New Orleans finest restaurants, open throughout the festival weekend.

Hard to complain about free music on 22 stages throughout the French Quarter plus some of the best food purveyors the city has to offer.

 

The other festival arrives at the end of the month and into May is called the Jazz & Heritage Festival or Jazz Fest.  You might have heard of it.  Here is a brief explanation from their website www.nojazzfest.com.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a/k/a Jazz Fest, is a 10-day cultural feast in which thousands of musicians, cooks and craftspeople welcome 400,000 visitors each year. The Louisiana Heritage Fair showcases unforgettable music on multiple stages, delicious Louisiana cuisine in two large food areas, and crafts artisans from the region and around the world demonstrating and selling their work. The Louisiana Heritage Fair is held at the Fair Grounds Race Course over the course of 2 weekends. They are April 27, 28, 29 & May 3, 4, 5 & 6, 2012.

More to come in future blogs about Jazz Fest as it gets closer but here is the music schedule, http://lineup.nojazzfest.com/.

If you are visiting and enjoyed the food and culture that New Orleans has to offer, come back to New Orleans and stay for awhile. The city has more to offer than you could imagine.  In the meantime, if you want to revisit that trip in New Orleans back at your home, come to NolaCajun.com. Were shipping the food and culture of New Orleans across the world.

Do you have any interesting recipes of New Orleans and/or Cajun cuisine?  If you would like to send us the recipe with a picture of the finished product, we would love to feature it on our blog, Facebook page, Twitter, and Pinterest!  This goes for all of our productswe are always looking for great ideas from our loyal customers!

Have You Tried Elmer’s Easter Candy

When I was a kid, there was nothing like waking up Easter morning and running into the living room where all of the Easter baskets were lined up to see what the Easter Bunny had brought.  As our family’s taste for candy changed throughout the years, one set of items remained constant…Elmer’s Easter Candy.  Nostalgia definitely hits these days when I take a bite of an Elmer’s Gold Brick Egg, Elmer’s Heavenly Hash or an Elmer’s Pecan Egg.  Although these three main pieces haven’t changed, Elmer’s has added a few new products, which you can find on NolaCajun.com.

 

All products include:

–         Elmer’s Gold Brick Eggs

–         Elmer’s Heavenly Hash

–         Elmer’s Pecan Eggs

–         Elmer’s Gold Brick Malt Eggs

–         Elmer’s Gold Brick Rabbits

–         Elmer’s Strawberry Heavenly Hash

–         Elmer’s Dark Chocolate Heavenly Hash

 

Keep in mind, Elmer’s Easter Candy are only in “season” from January through Easter, unless the Saint’s have another amazing season and they bring out the Saint’s Gold Brick Eggs and Saint’s Heavenly Hash again…ahhh, the memories…

 

We only receive a limited supply of candy, so once it is gone, you have to wait until next year to get it again.  So many of our customers “stock up” on the candy and freeze it to enjoy throughout the year.  Nothing is better than a chopped up Gold Brick Egg or Heavenly Hash on ice cream during the summer months.  Try stirring the chopped up candy into your shortbread or sugar cookie dough…talk about an amazing cookie!

 

Do you have any interesting recipes using Elmer’s Easter Candy?  If you would like to send us the recipe with a picture of the finished product, we would love to feature it on our blog, Facebook page and on Twitter!  This goes for all of our products…we are always looking for great ideas from our loyal customers!

 

Restaurant Review – Iris

Iris is located in the Bienville House Hotel on N. Peters between Bienville St. and Conti St.  If you have been to New Orleans, you have more than likely walked right by it and didn’t even know it.  I’m from New Orleans and never knew it was there.  We didn’t have reservations and were able to easily get seated as a party of 11 plus my 2 year old.  Typically, on a Saturday evening, this would make you second guess your restaurant choice…but hunger and a 2 year old win over rational thought.

The restaurant has a nice cozy feel to it. It’s not that big but is large enough to sit comfortably.  I’m not one to tell you that the lighting was nice or the decorations were appropriate.  It’s just not something that catches my attention unless it is too dark for me to see what I am eating.. then I got a problem. So to start everybody got cocktails.. a wide variety from a Jack n Coke to a fruity mix drink that my wife strangely ordered.  Nine out of ten times she will order a Chocolate Martini. So seeing her drink a cocktail with fruit hanging off of it like we were on the beach , was quite unusual.  Anyway, to start I got the Kurobuta Pork Cheeks which was accompanied by a raw vegetable salad. The pork cheeks were perfectly tender and the crunchiness of the raw vegetable salad tossed in a vinaigrette dressing  complemented the pork cheeks nicely.  This was my first taste of pork cheeks and I must say just like my introduction to sweetbreads, I will definitely order them again.  For an entrée, I ordered the veal short ribs with fresh red beans and legumes.  The short ribs were tender but had a little more fat on them then I would have liked.  The red beans and legumes were cooked perfectly..not too mushy but also not too hard.  Of course, we drank some red wine the name of which escapes me at the moment.

Very rarely do we order dessert… unless something chocolate catches my wife’s eye. So we called it a night and came home satisfied with a good meal at a decent price.  If you are ever in the area of N. Peters (Canal Place, Jax Brewery, Coyote Ugly) and get in the mood for a nice sit down meal at a reasonable price, check out Iris’ Restaurant in the Bienville Hotel.