Mardi Gras Courtbouillon

Laissez les bons temps rouler. Tomorrow is Mardi Gras. While our little coastal celebrations are not as elaborate as those in our sister city to the west, we do put on the dog.

There were no parades on the Point, but when I was a little girl my family lived for a while in the Buena Vista Hotel's cottages (destroyed by Hurricane Camille) on Highway 90. My father managed food services for the hotel/motel/restaurant. The cottage's front lawn was the perfect viewing spot for both the day and evening parades.

At that time in the mid-1960's, the Buena Vista was the premier banquet/event hotel on the Coast. I viewed my first Mardi Gras ball there when I was only six years old. My cousin's fiance held me on his shoulders so I could see the presentation of the court; they were all dressed in beautiful aqua costumes with silver beading, plumes and rhinestones. It was like a fairy tale come to life! I couldn't sleep all night.

In later years, Aunt Dolores' house became Mardi Gras central. It was within walking distance of both Howard Avenue and the beach so we could catch the parades near the beginning and also near the end doubling our chances of catching lots of throws . Years later, when I was house shopping in Bay St. Louis, a seller proudly pulled out a kitchen drawer which he deemed the perfect "Mardi Gras bead storage drawer." Don't laugh. It's a practical homeowner consideration on the Coast -- on par with having a good place for the Christmas tree.

In between parades, we went to the house to catch a few zzzzs, and grab a bite to eat -- gumbo, red beans and rice, king cake, sandwiches -- and Uncle Steve's infamous courtbouillon.

Unfortunately, I do not have his recipe, but I remember it was hot, hot, hot. A little heat goes a long way with me. Here is a link to a vastly toned down recipe on the Zatarain's website. I suspect Uncle Steve would throw a bunch of cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce into it. I would add about a cup of chopped celery and some chopped parsley.

Some people on the Point made courtbouillon with crabs instead of fish. If you do this, you'll want to use a dozen gumbo-sized crabs, washed and scrubbed well, split in halves. Cook crabs separately from the tomato mixture in a pot, then add the bodies and claws to the rest of the mixture and cook for about an hour to an hour and a half more.