How to Take the Heat Out of Cajun Cuisine

Cajun and Creole food is closely linked because most people can't distinguish the difference between the two. Although the foods of both types of cuisine area are tantalizing and enjoyable, some people suffer from the heat of the food. The primary ingredient that transmits that heat is cayenne pepper. Cajun food is much more of a problem in this area.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Identify the ingredients in the recipe or dish, in particular the spices used. Cayenne pepper is undoubtedly one of these spices. This pepper gives a Cajun dish its characteristic heat. Most of the other ingredients used in the spice category for the recipe are for the intense "spicy" flavor of the dish. Note that there is a difference between spicy and "hot."
2. Substitute an equivalent amount of paprika in place of the cayenne pepper. This will preserve some of the pepper flavor that may be characteristic to the dish but without the heat of the cayenne variety.
3. Alter slightly the amount of black pepper and white pepper to cover up the deletion of the cayenne from the dish. The taste of the recipe will not be the exact same as the original if the cayenne is left out; however it should be close.

Tips & Warnings

• Cajun cuisine claims its origins in the immigrants that migrated to Louisiana from the Acadia region of Canada. They had a lifestyle that included living off the land and taking advantage of the particular vegetation, game and wildlife of the area that they lived in. They also included in their cooking things that were obtained from the Indians in the area.