My remoulade epiphany occurred when I was living in New Orleans, studying Creole cooking and doing my best to eat five square meals per day. My journey as a cook had brought me to K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in the French Quarter, where I ate more deep fried oysters and shrimp than most people will ever see in their lifetime. Sounds pretty dreamy, right? Snacking on an endless supply of oysters and shrimp during the lulls in the kitchen. But these were the spoils of the fry station, which was otherwise the worst job in the house.
It was during one of these endless shifts on the fryer that a fellow co-worker — not content to eat fried seafood without a dipping sauce — whipped up an impromptu remoulade that just dazzled me with its delicious simplicity. Of course, there was no recipe involved in this type of cooking. The guiding principle for any remoulade is that things that taste great will often taste great together, within reason. Since my days at K-Paul’s, I’ve read dozens of remoulade recipes, sourced from all kinds of Cajun and Creole cookbooks, just to research all of the different takes on this versatile sauce.
At the very least, remoulade must feature mayonnaise as its base, but after that, the entire recipe seems open to interpretation: some recipes call for the addition of ketchup, some call for mustard, and some call for hot sauce. I’m sure that somewhere in Louisiana, someone probably insists that no remoulade is complete without all three of these ingredients. As for me, I like to use hot sauce as my second ingredient, as long as this hot sauce is from Louisiana.
Although my first experience with remoulade was in the context of fried seafood, remoulade can actually have many culinary applications. It can be employed as a salad dressing, a dipping sauce, or sandwich spread. Essentially, any time a situation calls for mayonnaise, remoulade presents a terrific alternative. Here is my own recipe. And to all of my Southern readers, feel free to tell me what I’ve missed…
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Ingredients (makes about one quart)
• 30-oz (one standard sized jar) of Best Foods mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Crystal Hot Sauce
• 1/4 Creole mustard (or spicy brown mustard)
• 1T Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
• 3T dill pickle relish
• 2T capers, drained and minced
• 2T celery leaves, chopped (about one cup of leaves before chopping)
• 1T Coleman’s Mustard
• Juice of half a lemon
• Ground black pepper to taste
Method
1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Refrigerate.
you need to use creole mustard