by Ellen Byron
Aime had one son, Gabriel, who died of yellow fever at the age of twenty-eight. Aime never recovered from the loss, which was exacerbated by the death of his beloved wife Joséphine and his daughter Felicie within the following two years. He became a virtual recluse, passing away in 1867. The once palatial grounds of the plantation fell into disrepair. A fire destroyed the manor house in 1920, and nature eventually reclaimed the garden. All that remains of the legendary place is a marker on the River Road and the family’s deteriorating tomb. The former gardens are now private property, but Mary Ann Sternberg, author of the quintessential guidebook Along the River Road, details a fascinating tour she got to take of them in another wonderful book, River Road Rambler.
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One of my favorite events to attend as an author is the Louisiana Book Festival. A couple of years ago, I decided to stop at St. Joseph Plantation after my festival panel and take its Creole Mourning Tour. The tour, presented as living history with actors playing the roles of doctors, priests, and mourning family members, was a wonderful experience. I learned so much that I was able to incorporate into Murder in the Bayou Boneyard. I wrote a blog post about it that I’m thrilled to see is now featured on the St. Joseph website. You can find it, along with photos I took, at https://www.stjosephplantation.com/2017/11/mourning-tour-review.
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The word rougarou derives from the French word loup-garou. Loup is French for wolf, while garou means man who transforms into an animal. The English equivalent for both words is werewolf.
The legend of the rougarou dates back to the first Cajun settlers. Like the werewolf, the Cajun monster is described as having a human body with a wolf’s head. As this is a Louisiana beast, a vampire element was eventually added to the legend. A rougarou is under a spell for one hundred and one days, after which it can transfer the curse by drawing a human’s blood. Rougarous were rumored to prowl the swamps and woods of Acadia and the greater New Orleans area.
Cajun parents used the beast as a threat, as in, “You’d better behave or the rougarou will get you.” Legend also had it that rougarous would hunt down and kill Catholics who weren’t following the rules of Lent.
Pop culture has jumped on the rougarou bandwagon. New Orleans’s Audubon Zoo has a rougarou exhibit, complete with a scary statue of the feared creature. There’s a summer collegiate baseball team named the Baton Rouge Rougarou. And Houma, Louisiana, hosts a yearly Rougarou Fest, featuring a parade, costume contests, live music, and family events. Only in Louisiana can a fearsome mythical beast generate a weekend of nonstop partying!
Recipes
Holy Trinity Chicken
Ingredients
1 whole chicken
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
½ green pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 cups chicken broth mixed with 1 cup water
½ tsp salt
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Creole or Cajun seasoning
2 to 3 carrots, cut into ¼-inch rounds
1 cup frozen peas
4 cups egg noodles
Instructions
1. Remove giblets from chicken and discard. Rinse the chicken well, removing excess fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper inside and out.
2. In a large, heavy pot (a Dutch oven or cast-iron pot is ideal) melt the butter and sauté the onion, pepper, and celery until wilted. Add the broth and water, ½ tsp salt, garlic, and seasoning. Stir to blend. Add the chicken. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and simmer on low heat for about twenty minutes.
3. Turn the chicken over very carefully and add the carrots and peas to the pot. Cover and simmer for thirty minutes. Turn the chicken over again, increase heat to boiling, and add the noodles, pressing them into the water. Reduce heat again and simmer until the noodles are al dente, about ten minutes. Cut a slice of chicken from the breast to make sure it’s cooked through, then remove the pot from the heat. To serve, cut the chicken into pieces, distribute into bowls, then ladle the broth, noodles, and vegetables over each bowl.
Serves 6.
Sugar High Pie
Sometimes one recipe begets another. I was making the Pecan Coconut Pie Bars from the recipe in A Cajun Christmas Killing, my fourth Cajun Country Mystery, when inspiration struck. What if I took a frozen pie crust, made the pecan pie base, and threw in a bunch of stuff along with the pecans? Thus Sugar High Pie was born.
The name comes from the fact that in addition to that basic pecan base, the ingredients for this dessert include dark chocolate, milk chocolate, coconut, and raisins. When you think about it, it’s like a candy bar inside a pie.
While you’re welcome to follow the recipe below and enjoy the ensuing deliciousness, feel free to experiment. Add a half cup of chopped dates or dried cherries. Or both. Just make sure you share the recipe with all of us!
Ingredients
1 unbaked 8- or 9-inch frozen pie crust
1 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp light butter
1 whole egg
3 egg whites
2 tbsp bourbon
½ tsp salt
½ cup light corn syrup
½ cup pecan pieces
½ cup milk chocolate bits
½ cup dark chocolate bits
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup shredded coconut
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream brown sugar and butter until well blended. Beat in egg and egg whites one at a time. Stir in bourbon, salt, and corn syrup.
3. Add pecans, chocolate, raisins, and coconut one ingredient at a time. Stir to blend well.
4. Pour mixture into pie crust. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until middle sets or a knife inserted in the pie comes out clean.
Serves 6–8.
Ghoulish Cajun Goulash
Loaded with pasta and cheese, this dish is something the whole family will love—especially the kids.
Ingredients
2 cups elbow macaroni
1 tbsp olive oil
1½ pounds ground beef or ground turkey
1 small white onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, seeded, chopped
¼ cup chopped celery
3 garlic cloves, diced
¼ cup beef, chicken, or turkey broth
1 (14.5-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes (I found a brand that includes onions, peppers, and celery—the Cajun Holy Trinity! But that was a fluke. Regular diced tomatoes are fine.)
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp paprika
Salt and pepper to taste (if your Cajun seasoning includes salt, go easy on it here)
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
¼ cup parsley, chopped
Tabasco sauce to taste
Instructions
1. Cook elbow macaroni according to directions on package. Drain. Set aside.
2. In a large cast-iron or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook olive oil, beef or turkey, onion, pepper, celery, and garlic for 5 to 6 minutes until beef or turkey is browned and vegetables are softened. Add broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, Cajun seasoning, Italian seasoning, paprika, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, then mix in cooked pasta. Cover and reduce to a simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Just before serving, add the mozzarella and cheddar cheeses to the pot, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes until cheese is melted. Garnish each serving with parsley. Serve immediately, with Tabasco sauce on the side for anyone who wants to add a little heat to their meal.
Serves 8.
Crawtatoes
Crawtatoes can be served as a fun, filling appetizer or as a side dish to a meal. Since crawfish are seasonal, you can easily substitute shrimp for this r
ecipe and make Shrimptatoes instead.
Ingredients
8 cooked small red potatoes, cut in half and trimmed on the bottom so they sit flat
2 cups cooked, chopped crawfish or shrimp
½ cup light mayonnaise
1 tbsp Creole or stone-ground mustard
1 tsp Creole or Cajun seasoning
1 minced garlic clove
¼ cup sweet relish, plus more for garnish
Instructions
1. In a medium bowl, mix the mayonnaise, mustard, seasoning, garlic, and relish together. Add the crawfish or shrimp and stir well to combine. Chill for an hour or more.
2. Gently spoon out a hole in each potato so each one becomes a small bowl. Fill the holes with a small spoonful of the seafood mixture. Top with a dab of sweet relish. Serve immediately.
Makes 16 Crawtatoes.
Cajun Pecan Cookie Fingers
These cookies are similar in texture to Pecan Sandies. They’re tasty and not super sweet. Shape them like fingers. You can even skip rolling them in powdered sugar and use ready-made frosting to create “fingernails” by frosting one tip of each cookie.
Ingredients
2¾ cups flour
6 tbsp powdered sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 cup softened butter
4 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp ice water
1 cup finely chopped pecans
Extra powdered sugar in which to roll the cookies
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix together to blend. Add the other ingredients and work the dough together with your hands. (Yes, your hands. It’s like you’re making pie crust dough.)
3. Chill the dough for about an hour, unless you feel you can work with it without chilling.
4. Shape the dough into finger-length strips, almost like small cigars. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for about 15 minutes.
5. Remove them from the oven and roll in powdered sugar while they’re still hot. They’re delicate, so be gentle. And be careful not to burn yourself. Let the cookies cool, then roll them in powdered sugar again.
Yields 24–36, depending on the size of the cookies.
The recipe for jambalaya appears in Body on the Bayou as JJ’s Jambalaya.
The recipe for Shrimp Remoulade appears in A Cajun Christmas Killing.
The recipe for Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding appears in Plantation Shudders.
The recipe for Bananas Foster Coffee Cake appears in Body on the Bayou.
The recipe for Spicy Cajun Sugar Cookies appears in A Cajun Christmas Killing.
The recipe for gumbo appears in Mardi Gras Murder.
Also available by Ellen Byron
CAJUN COUNTRY MYSTERIES
Fatal Cajun Festival
Mardi Gras Murder
A Cajun Christmas Killing
Body on the Bayou
Plantation Shudders
Author Biography
USA Today bestselling author Ellen Byron is a television writer, playwright, and freelance journalist. Her TV credits include Wings, Still Standing, and Just Shoot Me, and her written work has appeared in Glamour, Redbook, and Seventeen, among others. She lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband, their daughter, and the family’s very spoiled rescue dog. A native New Yorker, Ellen still misses her hometown and still drives like a New York Cabbie. This is her sixth Cajun Country mystery.
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by Ellen Byron
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crooked Lane Books, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Crooked Lane Books and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-64385-460-1
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-64385-461-8
Cover design by Stephen Gardner
Printed in the United States.
www.crookedlanebooks.com
Crooked Lane Books
34 West 27th St., 10th Floor
New York, NY 10001
First Edition: September 2020
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