“What the blazes is boudin?” my friend Jo asked me yesterday, in much the same way a southerner might ask, “What in tarnation is a baba ganoush?”, but with a completely different accent.
Poor thing. She doesn’t know about boudin. Bless her heart…and she’s such a great cook, too. This is enough to make a southern girl’s mascara run. I must right this wrong. I must stand in the gap. I must do my part. I must…
Boudin (pronounced boo-dan) is a French/Cajun sausage concoction made with rice, pork hearts and livers, spices and various other unmentionables as is typical of weird southern foods that arrived via the French. The whole marvelous mess is stuffed in pork casings. One can find boudin on the menu of a five-star restaurant, behind the counter of any decent southern deli, next to the boring offerings from Hillshire Farms at H.E.B, or warming under a red lamp in a southern gas station. There’s a zillion varieties and lots of ways to enjoy it, but my favorite is…
Boudin Balls
Take about a pound or so of boudin (Jo, you’re gonna have to make it yourself, or find a specialty butcher shop-it’s difficult to come by up north), and remove the sausage from the casings. Put the sausage guts in a good sized mixing bowl. It’s dry because of the rice, and needs to breathe and dance. Get out a fork, take off your shoes (mandatory-don’t fight me on this), and turn on some good southern music. Break up the boudin until its free and crumbly. Fair warning to Good Baptists: this will result in dancing. Cue obligatory Alabama tune:
In a small mixing bowl, combine one cup of all-purpose flour, one cup of white cornmeal, a smidge of salt, and a hint of cayenne pepper (or more than a hint…”As…you…wish…”). Set cornmeal mixture aside. Fill a medium-sized saucepan with two inches of good vegetable oil and heat on medium heat, taking care not to let it smoke or overheat. Keep dancing:
Add to the boudin the following:
(Necessary Caveat: as with all Good Southern Cooking, all measurements are approximations. One must get the hands dirty to make these well. You are looking for a meatloaf-ish consistency, and you are only going to find it with your fingers.)
2 eggs
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
Tony’s to taste
Add the flour a little at a time (too dry can be fixed, too wet can’t). Mix. With your hands. (It’s part of the dance.) Add more flour if needed, a little at a time. Form one-inch balls and roll them in the cornmeal mixture. Fry until golden brown, and drain on paper towels. Serve with jalapeno ranch dressing, and a some good beans or greens. Enjoy them with people who appreciate simple pleasures and dirty hands. And dancing.
