Leon County Cooks: Mexican and Cajun – Who can beat it!!

“The Tamales Queen”, Liz Moreno, and “The Cajun Queen”, Pam Thomassie, sell excellent ethnic cuisine on the side of the road. Sherry’s Shots Visit almost any town in Leon County and chances are you will see a brightly colored sign on a white SUV that reads “Tamales and Cajun Budain”. If you stop to check this out you will meet a couple of energetic women who sell great tasting food and love working in Leon County.

Liz Moreno calls herself “The Tamale Queen”. She brings tamales up from Grandma Tamales Restaurant, a family owned business in Houston. Moreno is a widow with no children and she has no qualms about tak- ing her product from town to town.

“Leon County has very good people and I really appreciate the warm welcome they have given me. I am married to tamales and I love what I do,” commented Liz about her business.

Pam Thomassie is a Cajun and a rookie to this way of life. She sells Cajun Boudin (misspelled on her sign). Thomassie explained that Texans made the sign and misspelled the word. Boudin is a sausage which she gets from Beaux Bridge, Louisiana.

Just for fun I looked up Cajun Boudin to see what is in it and how it is made. Boudin, pronounced boo-dahn, is about as Cajun a dish as they come. Traditionally, boudin is a sausage stuffed with pork and rice. Recently, shrimp, crawfish, and alligator have been added to the list of meats used. Rice in a sausage may sound strange, but originally the rice was added to stretch the meat.

Below is a Classic Boudin Recipe which rated 5 stars on the Real Cajun Recipes web site. Boudin can also be spelled Boudoin.
Ingredients
10 pounds pork roast

2 bell pepper, whole
3 bunches green onion,
chopped fine
1 tsp white pepper
1 ½ tbsp black pepper
9 ¾ cup cooked rice
3 medium onions whole and
5 shallots
1 onion
1 bunch fresh parsley
2 tbsp salt
5 tbsp cayenne
1 package of sausage casing

In a large stock pot with enough water to cover the entire contents of pot, boil together the pork, 5 shallots, 3 onions, and 2 bell peppers until meat separates from the bone. Remove roast from water and then remove fat from meat. Reserve Stock.

With meat grinder, grind together the meat with the boiled onion, shallots and peppers. Also grind in a raw whole onion. Return the meat mixture to the pot and add the green onion and parsley, both chopped fine. Add the white pepper, salt, black pepper and cayenne. Stir thoroughly.

Add rice to the mixture and keep the consistency “wet” but not too wet. Stuff the boudin mixture into the casing, make boudin balls or eat as a rice dressing. Boudin goes well with cracklins.