by: Melissa M. Martin

“I wanted to bring the best of the bayou to the table and shine a light on what was happening to the place where I grew up and the people who live there,” Melissa M. Martin.

Mosquito Supper Club is a great cookbook telling all about the Louisiana bayous. My Dad grew up in New Orleans and I still remember my Grandma cooking some recipes that I am sure were inspired by bayou recipes. This cookbook shows you how to make great Cajun recipes while also drawing attention to how quickly the bayou’s and their way of life are disappearing.

Smothered Chicken

I am always looking for new ways to cook chicken and found this recipe. The recipe is easy to understand and all of the ingredients were easily located. (I did buy a whole chicken and cut it up myself, which I am not the best at, I wished I had bought an already cut up chicken).

The dish takes about 2.5 hours to make but the slow cooking makes the chicken so tender and moist. I will definitely cook this again for a nice Sunday dinner.

Smothered Green Beans

My Grandma used to cook a version of this recipe, we even used to sit and help her snap green beans. I was really excited when I saw this and knew immediately that I had to try it!

The ingredients included salt pork and I thought that might be hard to find, but surprisingly it was next to the ham slices in my normal grocery store (Harris Teeter).

One important thing to remember with this recipe (and all in the book) is that onions always take longer than you think to dice. The recipe takes between 1.5 – 2 hours to cook completely.

I served this with oven baked pork chops and it was a great pair.

Lagniappe Bread Rolls

I have had a version of these rolls before from a bakery so was excited to try to make my own. The leaf lard was hard to find. I was able to preorder from one of the vendors at our local farmers market. (You can also find it online to have it shipped to you).

My dough seemed really wet after I mixed it so I added a little more flour as it wasn’t stirring together into a ball. However, even with my hiccups the results were great.

The rolls rose really nicely and the final product was fluffy and flavorful. Keep in mind the recipe does take about 3.5 hours to make. I served these with the smothered chicken.

I really liked the Mosquito Supper Club cookbook for the wide variety of Cajun recipes. The recipes I tried did take a little longer than I originally anticipated but all of them were worth it. I would say this cookbook is well suited to someone who is comfortable with complex recipes in the kitchen. This would make a great gift to anyone who lived in New Orleans and misses the cuisine.

Next time I am in New Orleans I am going to go try the author’s Mosquito Supper Club restaurant.