ANNA MONICA / L’Observateur / June 17, 2000

LAPLACE – At 10-years old, Dale Madere lost his mom, Ida Keating Madere, and was living with dad, Henry (Henri). Dad was usually out working, so it didn’t take young Dale long to learnthat he wanted a real meal he had better start cooking.

Dale first tried cooking red beans and it was a disaster because it started to burn before fully cooked. His aunt advised that he had not put lard in it so Dale adjusted and the “next pot turnedout really nice,” he says. Then he started with simple things and learned to cook rice.By himself while dad worked, it was easy for Dale to allow his boyhood friends in the neighborhood to come over and “hang” at his house, especially when he started cooking. Thenfour of them, which included Dale, Allen Ryan, Terry Keating and the late Jerry Keating, all started cooking since Dale’s house was available and the kitchen was free. It really began when afishing trip resulted in a six-pound bass that the boys took to Dale’s house and cooked it with a tomato sauce. Dale says it was good. From then on, the decision was made that the cookingwould always be at Dale’s house.

“It was not like it is today,” Dale believes, “when you could get into trouble. We were alwaysplaying in the fields; had a lot of room to do something.” Dale remembers that in the 1950’s,when they were older, they would go catch frogs. Allen would tell Dale, “As I clean them, you gocook them.” By the time they finished cleaning, Dale had at least six frogs, each ready to eat inthe middle of the night. Sometimes they had five to 10 dozen frogs and would sell the rest toAirline Motors and Roussels for $6 a dozen. That gave them spending money for movies,hamburgers and fries.

Already preferring to cook for large groups, Dale became head cook for the Andouille Festival after the late, well-known Riley Hymel retired, and now cooks jambalaya for the Knights of Columbus. The late Fr. Bergeron would not have anyone but Dale cook his jambalaya. Dalewasn’t shy about being the head cook for 14,000 people. For that project he had about 70 peoplehelping. They would have at least 10 pots of jambalaya cooking at the same time as well as 12pots of gumbo. They also had a giant Navy kettle that could hold 50 pounds of red beans. Theywould start at 4:30 a.m. to feed at 10 a.m. Mike Milioto was always in charge of the bread.At home, Dale shares cooking duties with his wife of 40 years, the former JoAnn Delhommer, herself, an accomplished cook. In their home, whoever cooks the dish best, does it. This LaPlacecouple has raised three children, Paul of Houston and Ida and Joseph of LaPlace. Theirgrandchildren are Mikey, Andrew, Rachael, and 10-month old Bailey. Dale is very busy thesedays with his Justice of the Peace duties. He took time to adorn his front yard with a 1925-30plow once owned by his grandfather.

For a private event, Dale might charge a nominal fee, but there is no charge for churches and civic groups. He, Del Persinger and Jerry Aubert did the cooking for St. John’s Day at the capital inearly May. School children, teachers and legislators all got a chance to enjoy the food. For smallercooking, Dale has a hard time coming up with recipes but could easily have given us one for 200 people. For about 10 people he offers the following for the first time:

SEAFOOD JAMBALAYA 2 lbs. real butter3 lbs. peeled raw shrimp1-1/2 lbs. onions, chopped5 ozs. garlic, mincedAt least 4 live crabs – put on ice to clean them and they get so cold they cannot move.

Clean while alive.

1 cup celery, chopped 2 cups bell pepper, chopped 1 cup shallots, chopped 2 ozs. Lea & Perrins or Worcestershire Sauce1 oz. Tabasco sauce1 tbsp. paprika (to get the color)2 tbsps. Kitchen Bouquet (also for color)1 tbsp. Season All (McCormick), black and red pepper, to taste2 lbs. rice, long grain

(When mixture tastes good, add another tablespoon of salt because when you add rice, it will absorb the salt.) Get pot hot. Put in 1 lb. of the butter and let it start browning. Break crabs intwo; leave whole if small, include claws. All this goes into the butter. Saut for a while. Removecrabs from butter; add onions, saut, add some of the garlic. Add Lea & Perrins, paprika, blackand red pepper to taste. Put crabs back in, add 1/3 gallon water. Bring to a boil. Add celery,shallots and bell pepper, continue boiling. Add rest of garlic and whatever ingredients are left. Add rest of butter (add butter because seafood has no fat). Let come back to a boil. Taste forsalt. If good, add more salt. Add raw shrimp. Add oysters and crayfish tails if desired (you cansubstitute). If you use crayfish alone, throw live crayfish into the butter, at least 15 if two lbs. ofrice is used. These can later be used to decorate on top of jambalaya when finished. Makesapproximately 10 servings.

SHRIMP BROTH Make broth from shrimp heads and peelings (put in pot and boil). This makes your stock. Make stock with gallon of water and shrimp heads and peelings; 50 ounces of that to two lbs. ofrice. Put one tablespoon crab boil.

CRAYFISH BROTH If using crayfish, use boiled crayfish. Grind up whole crayfish (already seasoned). Use foodprocessor, chop until fine. Put in gallon of water, boil for 10 minutes to get flavor. Strain anduse as you did the shrimp stock. Stock gives the flavor. Use about 2 lbs. rice, 4 lbs. tails, boiledand peeled, ready to go into jambalaya.

If you use oysters, you would have to take out four ounces of liquid; depending on how many oysters you use. For every dozen, take out at least one ounce of water. Keeps rice from gettingtoo mushy.

MORE TIPS For second pound of butter, pinch it and drop into different areas of the pot.

If you add too much water, use a colander inside the pot, press down and scoop up excess water with a ladle.

After the rest of the butter is in, bring to a boil, add rice. Do not stir for first five minutes -medium heat. Do not stir so liquid does not lose the heat.Put a tablespoon of butter or olive oil if you are cooking rice; keeps from sticking.

Back to Top

Back to Leisure Headlines

Copyright © #Thisyear# Wick Communications, Inc.Best viewed with 4.0 or higher