8 recipes for a typical Mardi Gras

Maybe you heard about this day that is all about pancakes (yes it’s wonderful), but why is that? What does it have to do with Mardi Gras? Actually, Fat Tuesday is just before Ash Wednesday, that starts the Christian season of Lent, during which people fast until Easter. So Mardi Gras is actually about enjoying food you love for the last time before a long and hard fast. And why pancakes? Because people had to finish their eggs and milk, and this recipe is the best way to achieve that!

The Jambalaya is an iconic dish from Louisiana, mixing rice and meat. Maybe you heard the famous song Jambalaya (on the Bayou) by Hank Williams, celebrating this loved and known dish. Any Mardi Gras table should have a Jambalaya on it, celebrating the cajun and creole culture!

Another iconic dish, ambassador of Southern cuisine in all the United States! Using Cajun spices, this dish brings together fried shrimp with a savory corn meal. A nice recipe to celebrate Mardi Gras and Southern food.

Declared the official Louisiana doughnut in 1986, this is the French way to make doughnuts. Really popular in New Orleans, this sweet dessert is an emblematic food to eat for Mardi Gras, even in France!

Yes, it maybe isn’t the best appealing name for a dish, but it is really better that it sounds! It is actually called that way because of the color the rice turns into while cooking with chicken livers, bell peppers and onions. So, not that dirty after all!

Staying with Creole Louisiana cuisine, it is traditionally made on Mondays, but, let’s get crazy and cook it during Fat Tuesday! Fun fact, it was Louis Armstrong’s favorite dish, and it led him to sign his letters with “Red Beans and Ricely Yours, Louis Armstrong”.

Even if a lot of countries associate the King Cake with the Epiphany festival, in other places, it is commonly eaten for Mardi Gras. Find the bean inside, and become the king of the festival! This hollow circle brioche is covered with colored frosting to represent the celebration of Fat Tuesday!