The Trout Point Lodge Cookbook:
Creole Cuisine from New Orleans to Nova Scotia
“The book is incredible . . . The Trout Point Lodge Cookbook is not only a lovely collection of recipes; it’s a fascinating look into a corner of Nova Scotia’s culinary history. If you’re looking for a special gift for the cook in your life, this book is it.” Liz Feltham, The Coast
Visit the Trout Point Lodge website.
by Daniel Abel, Charles Leary, and Vaughn Perret
Reviewer’s comments (scroll down for complete reviews):
“one of the most important Canadian Cookbooks ever published” Gremolata.com
“An unusual cookbook from an unusual inn, this is recommended for most collections.” Library Journal
“Abel, Leary and Perret have done an astounding thing with this new book, taking Louisiana cooking back through 300 years of Acadian tradition and fast-forwarding it to the 21st century.” Dale Curry, Food Editor, New Orleans Times-Picayune
“this book's enticing food is notable for its originality and quality” Publisher’s Weekly
***
Published by Random House in the United States and Canada. Available at all major booksellers and direct from the authors.
Hardcover with numerous color photos, more than 230 pages, and over 140 mouthwatering recipes from Trout Point Lodge, the premiere culinary destination of Atlantic Canada.
Buy direct from the authors, signed first edition for the list price of $35.00! (plus shipping) (North American residents only)
(Canadian residents will pay additional customs & brokerage fees)
Here’s what reviewers & critics have said:
From
Sugarcane Vinaigrette to Tuna Daube to Smoked Trout Cakes, Abel, Leary, and Perret
are up to their usual brilliant adaptations of Louisiana cooking. They know
it’s best to create dishes with a rich understanding of the past. Ever
since these guys started showing up at the back door of Commander’s
Palace with some of the best cheese we’ve tasted, we’ve known they
do it right. These are our kind of guys and this is our kind of
cookbook.”
–ELLA
BRENNAN and TI ADELAIDE MARTIN, Commander’s Palace
“In
New Orleans, we know that Creole is the original ‘fusion’ cuisine,
and therefore ripe for exploration and expansion. In The Trout Point Lodge
Cookbook, Abel, Leary, and Perret have forged a new road for the future of
Creole cuisine by lovingly exploring its past. They know that great cuisine is
timeless, yet reflects the evolution of taste. Enjoy a fresh look at fresh
foods with the gentlemen from Trout Point Lodge.”
–FRANK
BRIGTSEN, Brigtsen’s Restaurant
The Trout Point Lodge Cookbook provides yet another example of how the grand culinary traditions of the Creole style have been successfully adapted to different geographic and cultural circumstances. And it does so with clarity, grace and recipes that are true to the spirit and the vivid flavors of Creole gastronomy. Gene Bourg, food and restaurant critic.
From the New Orleans Times-Picayune
Abel, Leary and Perret have done an astounding thing with this new book, taking Louisiana cooking back through 300 years of Acadian tradition and fast-forwarding it to the 21st century. Local fans of their Chicory Farms products and Chicory Farms Cafe, which gave fine restaurants and consumers wild foods and some of the first local handmade cheeses of the modern era (to name just a couple of the things they offered), will not find recipes here from the cafe. The authors' cooking school and resort in the Nova Scotia wilderness, Trout Point Lodge, explores the merger of Creole and Cajun techniques with the ingredients left behind. The clear joy of the recipe creators is evident in recipes for scallops in brochette and quahogs Florentine on the half-shell, an adaptation of oysters Rockefeller. The chapters on wild foods and recipes such as sea bean and mussel salad seem exotic and far-removed from the creators' Louisiana roots, but Finnan Haddie jambalaya, which uses smoked haddock fillets as a substitute for andouille sausage, is a concept we can embrace (along with the chapter on smoking seafood).
From the Halifax Coast
Trout Point Lodge, one
of Nova Scotia’s
best kept secrets, is an exclusive retreat and cooking school located at the
juncture of the Tusket and Napier Rivers,
northeast of Yarmouth. Daniel G. Abel, Charles Leary
and Vaughn Perret,
celebrated owners of New Orlean’s Chicory Farm, had taken a trip to Nova
Scotia to find their Acadian culinary roots and were
so impressed by the rural wilderness, they built the lodge.
The Trout
Point Lodge Cookbook (Random House) is a culmination of the history and recipes
surrounding the lodge; the cuisine the owners call “New World
Creole.” The book is incredible—the beautiful photography really
captures the rustic feel of the lodge and dishes prepared.
Recipes
feature local produce, seafood and game, and are well laid-out and easy to
follow. A section on gathering less common local ingredients such as sea beans
and bulrushes is particularly interesting. Dishes like finnan haddie jambalaya
combine local flavour with Acadian cousin Cajun cuisine, with great success.
Smoked fish
is integral in Nova Scotia
cuisine, and at Trout Point the chefs smoke their own. Instructions for smoking
your own seafood are included; although building a smoker is not practical for
many of us, it’s interesting to know the details of the process.
I especially
like the bread section, with detailed instructions on kneading and yeast; I tried
the rosemary ciabatta and was quite pleased with the results. In fact, I
enjoyed all of the trial recipes, and I’m sure this book will quickly
become dog-eared as I find some new favourites.
The Trout
Point Lodge Cookbook is not only a lovely collection of recipes; it’s a
fascinating look into a corner of Nova Scotia’s
culinary history. If you’re looking for a special gift for the cook in
your life, this book is it. --Liz
Feltham
From gremolata.com
How did three gentlemen from Louisiana manage to produce one of the most important Canadian Cookbooks ever published? Trout Point Lodge Cookbook is a beautifully produced book full of recipes that use indigenous Nova Scotian ingredients. Finally, (English-speaking) Canada is catching on to the Alice Waters mantra of "local, local, local" and we have three Cajun transplants to thank...["Sea Bean and Mussel Salad", "Bullrush Blinis topped with Salmon, Creme Fraiche, and Beluga Caviar", and "Finnan Haddie Jambalaya" are just three of the slightly weird but delicious dishes featured in what's arguably the most interesting Canadian culinary volumes ever published: The Trout Point Lodge Cookbook.
Trout Point Lodge is an inn and cooking school in the Tobeatic Wilderness near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. The authors and inn keepers are the triumvirate of Daniel Abel, Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret, who had great success with the Chicory farm, near New Orleans, in the 1990's. Trout Point is their attempt to get back to the roots of Cajun cooking in Acadia, and part of a family of gourmet destinations including the Inn at Coyote Mountain in Costa Rica and the Granada Cooking School in Spain.
Even if this premise seems a little dodgy (Nova Scotian Cajun?), it doesn't matter, since rural Nova Scotia brims with fresh interesting and wild foods, and it's a pleasure to all of this presented in a wonderfully slick book full of colour photos and tasty looking recipes. Gremolata applauds the idea of regionally based Canadian cuisine and hopes these Southern gentlemen have started a Canuck trend. If they have, they've done Canada a great gastronomic favour.
From Library Journal
Trout Point Lodge is an elegant inn and cooking school situated on a private nature preserve in a remote part of Nova Scotia, what the authors refer to as "the Acadian homeland." The Acadians were French settlers ousted by the British in the 1750s, and many of them ended up in Louisiana, the forebears of today's Cajuns. So it is not so surprising that the three owners of Trout Point, who had a thriving organic farm and restaurant in New Orleans, ended up in Nova Scotia-though the food they serve at the lodge is of the more refined, urban style of Creole cuisine than the simpler, unpretentious Cajun/Acadian cooking. Once again, they have an organic garden that supplies their produce, and they forage for mushrooms and other delicacies in the forests around the lodge and fish in the rivers and streams running through the preserve. This results in such dishes as Sea Bean and Mussel Salad, Grilled Trout with Wild Fennel and Almonds, and Wild Blackberry Custard Tart. An unusual cookbook from an unusual inn, this is recommended for most collections.
From
Amazon.com
As many readers know, Cajun cooking began with the Arcadians [sic], French
settlers who made their first home in what is now Nova Scotia. The
Trout Point Lodge Cookbook offers more than 150 uncomplicated recipes, from
the title's eponymous Nova Scotia inn and dining spot. Its owners--the book's
authors--have perfected a cuisine that embodies both Cajun, Creole, and
original Arcadian cooking, and offer a wide range of traditional and innovative
recipes for the likes of Grilled Eggplant Tart, Finnan Haddie Jumbalaya,
Creole-Stuffed Bell Peppers, and Braised Haddock with Summer Vegetables. The
book emphasizes the natural foods of the region, and readers will find
particularly worthwhile recipes for mushrooms, such as Grilled Oyster Mushrooms
and Garlic, and Shiitake Mushrooms Rockefeller. Formulas containing more exotic
natural ingredients include Sole in Wild Sorrel Velouté Sauce, and
Beer-Battered Elderberry Flowers. (A source list helps readers procure some of
the unusual ingredients.) Menus, and an extended section on smoking seafood,
with instructions for building and using a smokehouse, round out this special
exploration. --Arthur Boehm
From Publishers Weekly
The three authors—founders of Trout Point Lodge, as well as the Inn at
Coyote Mountain in Costa Rica and the Granada Cooking School in
Spain—successfully merge the flavors of their native Louisiana with
ingredients indigenous to Nova Scotia, where the inn and cooking school of the
title sits on 200 acres of Acadian forest. The book opens with a stern warning
to eat wild plants or mushrooms only with "expert guidance," and for
good reason: dishes such as Mussels Cooked in Pine Needles; Bullrush Blinis
Topped with Salmon, Crème Fraîche and Beluga Caviar (made with bullrush flour
you grind yourself); and Yellow Water Lily Leaves Stuffed with Purple Rice are
so intriguing, overzealous readers may be tempted to forage unwisely. Seafood
is a strong point; there's an entire chapter on smoking it, which includes
instructions for making Salmon Bacon; and recipes like Crawfish and Carrot
Jambalaya and Spicy Cornmeal-Crusted Scallops with Wild Sweet Fern Butter do a
bang-up job of merging two cultures on the plate. Although desserts aren't as
inventive as the savory fare, and occasionally the authors exaggerate the
availability of ingredients like the beans in Sea Bean and Mussel Salad, this
book's enticing food is notable for its originality and quality. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
From Booklist
Having created a successful New Orleans restaurant that relied on local ingredients and Creole traditions, chefs Abel, Leary, and Perret pulled up stakes and moved to Nova Scotia. In so doing, they brought full circle the migration that began hundreds of years earlier when French-speaking Acadians sailed out of Canada to Louisiana and became Cajuns. Moreover, these re-immigrants brought an advanced culinary tradition to a land not noted for its cuisine. In Louisiana, the chefs had learned to work with locally harvested wild foods. In Nova Scotia, they find familiar fiddlehead ferns and the less known, but tasty, roots of cattails. Pine needles offer a way to flavor mussels, and wild sorrel's lemony acidity pairs well with just about any seafood. Along the Atlantic coast, shellfish abound, so the chefs prepare lobster salads and entrees. In addition to Creole favorites such as red beans and rice and stuffed peppers, there are Acadian traditions, too, on the order of rappie pie--layers of grated potatoes stuffed with scallops and clams. Regional collections should not miss this unique volume.
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