Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Creole Crawfish!



I was poking around in the freezer and found a bag of frozen crawfish tails begging to be cooked. Hmm...I had several pasta ideas, but I was needing something for a sort of first course before a dinner-level soup. I dug around in my files and came up with a handwritten recipe. In a handwriting I don't recognize. Looking at the ingredients, it had to date from my days in New Orleans, almost 20 years ago. But it sounded quite tasty and just what I needed. And in fact I must say it was even tastier than it sounded! If you try it, be sure to get the crawfish tail meat that comes in bags with the juices and fat crom the crawfish. And don't forget the bread!
Here it is:

3 tbsp butter
1/3 cup onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup celery, finely chopped
1/3 cup green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/4 cup green onion, with some of the green top, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup REAL mayonnaise
1/4 cup Zatarains creole mustard, or other whole grain mustard
2 tsp parsley, minced
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne, or to taste
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 egg
1 lb crawfish meat,
1/2 cup heavy cream
Paprika

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Heat the butter in a sauté pan and add the veggies. Cook over medium high heat until tender but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the mayonnaise, mustard, parsley, worcestershire, salt, cayenne and peppers. Blend well, then whisk in the egg. Add the crawfish with all the juices from the bag and gently toss.

Spoon into 8 half-cup ramekins. Pour 2 tbsp heavy cream over each. Sprinkle with paprika and baked until browned and bubbly, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately with crusty bread to dip into the juices. Posted by Picasa

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This dish is EXCELLENT and very easy to make. It would make a great first course or even the entrée If you don’t have the ramekins, just cook it in a small casserole dish.

Anonymous said...

Where does one find crawfish that doesn't come from China these days???