Seeds of lotus flower a summer treat for south Louisiana Cajuns

DES ALLEMANDS, La. - Through the hot summer, Cajuns take to the bayous in their air boats, pirogues and flat-bottomed mud craft in search of patches of lotus flowers floating in the shallow swamps and marshes of coastal Louisiana.

But what they're after isn't the large, pretty white flower with a bright yellow centre - they're out to harvest the green pods left behind after the flowers lose their petals. Each pod holds as many as two dozen seeds, a tasty treat known in these parts as "graine a voler."

Loosely translated, the Cajun French term (pronounced Grah-NUH VOH-Lay) means "seeds that fly" or "seeds in the air," stemming from the fact that when the seed pods are left to wither and dry, the pod husk retracts and applies pressure to the seed. As the pod dries, the seeds eventually pop out.

Graine a voler is a seasonal treat that through the summer and early fall months is harvested to be eaten raw, fried, roasted, boiled or cooked down in soups and stews. It's a starchy, rather bland seed with a nutty taste and hint of sweetness in the younger, plumper pods.

"I call it a Cajun peanut," says Casey LeBlanc, a Cajun from Des Allemands who runs Cajun Crab Connection, a company that ships Louisiana blue crabs across the country. "I grew up eating them, like bread and milk."

But graine a volers won't be found in the produce section of any local grocer. They're hard to find - unless you go to specialty markets - because they can't be harvested from land. They only grow in the shallows of fresh water bayous and waterways.

"You definitely have to have a boat," LeBlanc says.

While the lotus can grow in ponds, the plant thrives in freshwater bayous, where the flowers in full bloom can reach the size of a dinner plate. When the flowers lose their petals, the green pod that contains the seeds is left behind.

To harvest the seeds, each pod must be grabbed by hand and bent sharply to the side, causing the pod to break from the stem. The pods are then split open and the seeds shucked out. Each seed's green casing must either be peeled by hand or boiled off.

Though lotus seeds are a popular ingredient in some Asian cuisines, they are much less common in the U.S., available mostly at Asian grocers. But in this region, they have a long culinary history.

It's not clear who introduced the Cajuns to lotus seeds, which had been a staple of the south Louisiana Native American diet. But by the late 1700s, Cajun farmers and ranchers who had migrated south were eating them, too.

"Whether there were people from original (Native American) tribes who taught the Cajuns is something we can't say," says Carl Brasseaux, a Cajun historian with the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

"There's no paper trail. We just don't know. It's plausible, but we have no way of knowing for sure," he says.

LeBlanc, who is in his 30s, says his father learned to eat graine a voler from older Cajuns in the Des Allemands and Bayou Gauche area. LeBlanc said it's something his family looks forward to each year, "like alligator season and bass fishing season."

Chris Matherne, of Lafitte, said he, too, enjoys making graine a voler stew, which is made similar to the way one would cook a pot of white beans. He begins with a roux - equal parts oil and flour - and adds the seeds, along with seasonings such as onions and garlic.