What follows is a general sauce piquante recipe. This Cajun stew uses whatever meat or seafood is available. I've seen recipes for sauce piquante using alligator, frog, crawfish, crabs, shrimp, chicken, venison, armadillo (!), squirrel, duck and goat. (I also have a snapping turtle sauce piquante recipe.) Suffice to say you can use anything. The only thing I would suggest is to match meat with roux and wine. Light meats with a peanut butter-colored roux and white wine, dark meats with a dark (the color of dark chocolate) roux and red wine.
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time4 hourshrs
Total Time4 hourshrs15 minutesmins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Cajun
Servings: 8people
Author: Hank Shaw
Ingredients
1cuppeanut oil or lard
1cupall-purpose flour
2cupschopped onion
1cupchopped green pepper
1cupchopped celery
5garlic cloves
One 6-ounce can of tomato paste
1tablespoonCajun seasoning,or more to taste
3-4poundsvenison or other meatdiced small
1cupred wine
One 28-ounce can tomato puree or crushed tomatoes
4bay leaves
Salt,black pepper and hot sauce to taste
Chopped green onions or parsley, for garnish
Instructions
In a large, heavy pot like a Dutch oven, heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat for a minute or two. Stir in the flour, then turn the heat down to medium. Cook this roux, stirring often, until it turns the color of dark chocolate, about 15-20 minutes. Once the roux turns the color of peanut butter, you will need to stir it almost constantly to prevent it from burning.
While the roux is cooking, Heat 6 cups of water in another pot to the boiling point. Hold it at a simmer for now.
When the roux is ready, add the onions, celery and green pepper and stir to combine. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook this, stirring often, until everything is soft, about 6-8 minutes. Sprinkle some salt over everything while you do this. Add the garlic, Cajun seasoning and tomato past and stir to combine. Cook this, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes.
Mix in the venison, then add the cup of red wine, the can of crushed tomatoes and the hot water, stirring as you add. Add the bay leaves and bring this to a gentle simmer. Add salt and hot sauce to taste. Let this simmer very gently until the meat is tender, about 3 hours or more.
When the sauce piquante is ready, add any more salt, black pepper, hot sauce and/or Cajun seasoning you want, then serve it with white rice and lots of green onions or parsley. Make sure you have hot sauce at the table; I use Tabasco, but use whatever variety you prefer.
Notes
Always serve this with white rice. And remember, like all good stews, this one is better the day after it's made.