Food on the Hill: On March 2, 1699, adventurer and fur trader Pierre Le Moyne D’Iberville set up camp along the Mississippi River near the present day location of New Orleans. Le Moyne D’Iberville was leading an expedition for the French crown to find the mouth of the Mississippi and build a fort to preclude use by other nations.
The next day was Mardi Gras, and the story is that Le Moyne D’Iberville introduced the festivities associated with French Carnival celebrations to the New Orleans area, where they have been observed with gusto ever since. These ancient celebrations occur between the Epiphany and Lent, with public feasting and mischief prior to the fasting and reflection that follows.
On March 2, 1992, my husband and I flew to Chicago to drop off the boys at their grandparents’ house and continued to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. We were meeting my sister Melody and her partner Kris there for the festivities. Our older son, six at the time, had suggested Waldo of “Where’s Waldo?” and Wenda (his little known girlfriend) as our costumes. I sewed them up before we left.
The French Quarter was everything we had heard it would be, with elegant buildings and raucous crowds. We were enthralled by the costumes worn by people in the streets, on the balconies, and on the parade floats, magnificent costumes that had been sewn over a period of months and constructed of satin, feathers, sequins and other fine materials. Although our own costumes were quite modest, folks called out “Where’s Waldo?” throughout the day and wanted pictures. We stood with outstretched arms amid thousands of others to catch thrown necklaces and other trinkets.
Over the long weekend, we sampled beignets and chicory coffee, gumbo and platters of seafood. We enjoyed jazz and blues music in small venues. On a hike through a nearby swampy forest we saw mud chimneys indicating burrowing crawfish sitting in water below. The whole trip was wonderful.
Back in New Mexico, we tried to describe for the boys what we had seen, and read a book together about the regional customs. Although Lent is not part of our faith tradition, the boys were enchanted by the notion of a King Cake, and at Mardi Gras time in a subsequent year I made one, complete with a plastic baby hidden inside. The person who finds the baby in the slice they are served has the “good luck” of preparing the King Cake the next time.
There are many variations on the cake, including some filled with cream cheese, almond cream or praline. New Orleans residents did add some of their own touches to the old customs, including to the traditional King Cake. In Louisiana, the cake is decorated with purple, green and gold icing to reflect the official Mardi Gras colors created in 1872 by the Krewe of Rex. (Purple represents justice, green represents faith, and gold represents power.)
I adapted a classic recipe years ago to reduce the fat and sugar and increase the cinnamon. Although the recipe is long, it is not difficult. Note that the cake requires at least 3 hours to prepare. Much of that time is waiting for the dough to rise or bake and cool. The recipe makes one cake, and serves 10-12.
Happy Fat Tuesday for those who observe Lent!
This Week’s Recipe: King Cake
Photo by Felicia Orth
Ingredients:
To prepare the dough, stir together the yeast, warm water and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a mixing bowl and let sit for five minutes, until the yeast bubbles.
Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan. Over low heat, add the sour cream, 3 tablespoons sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir until the mixture is warm (not hot), between 100-110 degrees.
Add the sour cream mixture to the yeast mixture in the bowl, along with the egg and one cup of flour. Whisk until smooth. Stir in a second cup of flour until it is incorporated, then a third cup of flour, until it is incorporated, and as much of the last ½ cup flour as necessary to form a soft dough ball.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for several minutes until it is smooth and elastic, not sticky. Place the dough ball in a buttered bowl, turning it over so that all of the surface is buttered; cover with plastic wrap or a dish towel or both; and set it in a quiet warm place for one hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
Toward the end of the dough rising time, melt 4 tablespoons butter for the filling, and stir in the sugar and cinnamon.
Punch down the dough, and roll it out with a rolling pin to a rectangle at least 14 x 18 inches in size. Spread the filling across the surface of the rolled dough, leaving a 1-inch border around the edges. Starting at one of the long edges, roll the dough like a jelly roll, pinch the bottom seam together, and then pinch the ends together to form an oval.
Place the oval on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or oiled. Cover and let rise again for 30 minutes, until doubled again. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bake for 30 minutes, until toasty brown and hollow-sounding when tapped. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. You can slip a plastic baby into the bottom of the cake at this point for someone to find later.
While the cake is cooling, prepare the glaze: melt one tablespoon butter, and stir in the vanilla and milk and powdered sugar. Adjust the consistency of the glaze with more sugar or more milk as necessary—it should be thin enough to drizzle, but not runny. Divide the glaze into three small bowls, and add drops of food coloring to each to make purple, green and yellow glazes. Purple food coloring is widely available, or simply mix red and blue to the desired shade.
Move the cake from the wire rack to a serving platter and tuck strips of wax paper around the bottom to catch drips. Glaze the cake with alternating stripes or patches of color, and while the glaze is still wet, sprinkle the colored sugars on each stripe. Remove the wax paper strips. Cut the cake into slices and serve at room temperature.
No plastic baby in this slice! Photo by Felicia Orth Felicia is a local home cook; she can be reached at orthf@yahoo.com.
