Party like it’s NOLA! Or, at the very least, feast like it is. With Mardi Gras around the corner, we’re donning our beads and wigs, and getting ready for a food and drink-filled bacchanal. You don’t need to hop on a plane to experience New Orleans’ signature flavors. With the help of recipes from Southern experts—jazzed up with our favorite specialty ingredients—you can let les bon temps roulez from breakfast to happy hour.
This classic whiskey cocktail originated in New Orleans. While its contents may vary between whiskey and cognac, the use of Peychaud’s Bitters is almost always non-negotiable. If you can’t get away for a wild time in the Big Easy, you can still raise a (weeknight appropriate) glass to the occasion. Swapping Spiritless 74 for the whiskey means you can enjoy this classic on a Tuesday without any fuzziness the next day.
Molly’s on Market in New Orleans' French Quarter serves a boozy yet refreshing frozen coffee that will simultaneously wake you up and put you to sleep. Though our recipe comes from Prohibition in Charleston, it embodies this spirit (heh) of this creamy, frosty drink. Before cocktail hour, reserve extra coffee to blitz into your evening beverage. We like making it with Red Rooster’s Night Owl Half-Caff blend, so that we can still get to sleep that evening.
Instead of the luxurious antipasto spread of olives, cheese, cured meat, and bread, meant for grazing and sit-down luncheons, Italian immigrant Salvatore Lupo revolutionized the lunchtime staples into a portable handheld (nifty and delicious!). He sold this sandwich, dubbed the muffuletta, to his fellow countrymen from his shop in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The muffuletta’s legacy endures throughout the Crescent City today. The key is to let simple ingredients shine, including a coarse and piquant giardiniera. For that, we love to use Olinda Olives, which sit in a particularly sea-salty brine.
Rich and nourishing, gumbo transports you instantly to bayou territory between the thick, dark roux and smoky andouille sausage pieces. We make ours extra Southern by serving it over Carolina gold rice, a heritage grain with a coarse texture that maintains its shape and snap in stews, soups, and sauces.
Whether you call it Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday, there’s always room on the table for pancakes. If a curated Mardi Gras feast isn’t in the cards for you on a Tuesday night, but you still want a little festivity, the buttermilk pancake mix from Altman Farms makes dinner in minutes. Made with heirloom corn, this mix from Evergreen, South Carolina, contains buttermilk in it to create a tender pancake that’s crispy on the outside with a soft, fluffy interior.
