Mess of Greens

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Crawfish Elegante’

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I’ve shared so many of my Grandmother’s recipes here that I’m a bit worries my cousins are going to hunt me down for giving away family secrets. Well, I would be worried except that my cousins and I all feel the same way about our Grandmother… that she was the warmest, kindest, most loving woman on the planet and that if we can be just a little bit like her in our lives, we’ll be doing things right.

Somehow she made all of her children and her grandchildren believe that we were her absolute most favorite (and, you know what, I bet we ALL were.) She was forever sewing something for a friend, or cooking something delicious for one of us, or making up something fun for us to do together.

My cousin, Amy, gave us the most wonderful Christmas gift a couple of years ago…she painstakingly typed up and bound all of Grandmother’s recipes into a cookbook of sorts.I use it every week at least once, and I’d bet they do, too (if they haven’t memorized the recipes yet.) Grandmother has some Louisiana roots, which is why a bunch of her best recipes have a creole/New Orleans flair.

Her recipe for Crawfish Elegante’ is a super delicious, very versatile dish that can be made ahead, frozen, and eaten in a variety of ways. It’s perfect for spring when crawfish are in season, but also pretty great whenever as you can get frozen peeled crawfish at the store. Here, I’m sharing it as a dip with toasted New Orleans French Bread, but it’s also great over rice as a main dish OR as a filling for puff pastries. We also had it as a catfish topping this same night, and as my cousin Virginia would say “it didn’t suck.” 😉

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Dining Out Delta: Juke Joint Crawfish

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it’s FINALLY crawfish season here in the ‘Sip, and we’ve been eating the hell out those spicy little things. At festivals on picnic tables, in our own backyard over a washtub, over newspaper on the kitchen counter… wherever we can find some space (and have an opportunity), we’ve been taking full advantage of the time of year. not everybody likes mudbugs (something about looking your dinner square in the face while you peel their shell away makes some folks queasy, I guess..and other people can’t take the spicy slow-burn of the Old Bay, crab boil, and salt that seasons the water) but I can’t get enough of them. I’ve heard that getting them shipped live out of their native lands MS and LA and Texas can cost CRAZY amounts, so it’s probably better to just make a trip down south if you’ve never tried them before.

 

In fact, my most favorite people in the whole world came down last weekend for our favorite Festival of all time.. the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, MS. (That’s a lot of favorites, I know… but truly, I’m not exaggerating!)  Blues music everywhere, local folks, visitors from around the Delta, along with European tourists milling around the downtown, funnel cakes, hot tamales, booths and booths of artists’ wares, and all of the juke joints in town open with great live music… if you’ve not been here for it, you should make a note on your calendar RIGHT NOW for next year’s festival…the 3rd weekend in April.

Anyway, every year we eat crawfish until we burst…. it turns out that 30 pounds of cooked crawfish for 8 people may just have been a few too many, but we sure did make a solid effort to eat them all. Sometimes we get them at the Delta Amusement Cafe (worth it!) but this year we worried they’d run out before we arrived, so we ordered them from a great place down the road from our house… Fratesi’s Grocery. They make them just spicy enough to make your lips tingle, but not spicy enough that you have to stop eating them… perfect.

If you want to cook your own, you’ll either have to buy them at a store (if you live between Texas and Florida) OR, if you live in other parts of the country and are dead set on it, you’ll have to order them, which I’ve heard costs an arm and a leg since you have to order them LIVE. If that’s your lot, I’d recommend just coming down to Juke Joint or making sure to visit deep south in spring time!

We didn’t cook our own this time, but the next time we do, I’ll share the secrets with you! For now, let your mouth water at all the spicy goodness…

Crawfish Bisque

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I LOVE LOVE LOVE boiled crawfish and it’s FINALLY the time of year when you can get them EVERYWHERE. (see tomorrow’s post). but just BEFORE crawfish season,  I got a taste for some and decided to try my hand at a bisque. I mean, obviously I prefer fresh ones just out of the pot on a springtime afternoon, but sometimes that’s just not possible.
 During the months of about July- February you can enjoy this little delicacy by way of the freezer section of your grocer, and honestly, if you’re going to make a soup, bisque, or etoufee’, why on earth would you want to go through the trouble of boiling THEN peeling enough of the little guys for everyone at your table? trust me, you wouldn’t…which means the little frozen packages are a godsend, if not as juicy and fresh as the ones you’d cook yourself.
My bisque was a pretty basic attempt, but it hit the spot for me and told my tastebuds spring was on it’s way. Here’s how you can replicate it (and make it even better with your own additions) if you’re interested!
Crawfish Bisque
Serves 4 (or 3 if you’re like me and have a portion control problem)
What you need:
1 tablespoon of oil (or less..just enough to saute’ the vegetables)
one red bell pepper, diced
one white onion, diced
two ribs of celery, diced
1 or 1/2 lb of frozen, cooked crawfish, roughly chopped
1 can of corn, drained
1/4 cup of white wine
1 1/2 Cups of chicken stock  (OR 1 cup of chicken stock and 1/2 cup of lobster/seafood stock)
3/4 Cup of heavy cream (or whole milk if you’re cutting calories)
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/2 bunch of green onions or parsley for presentation
What to do:
Chop the celery, bell pepper, and onion. Saute’ the the onion until translucent, and add in the celery and pepper. Saute’ for 1-2 minutes. Add in the cayenne, salt, and pepper. I feel like the heat releases more flavor and cooks into the vegetables more evenly than when you add it in afterwards.
 

Drain the corn and add it with the crawfish into the pot. stir for 1 minute. Pour in the white wine and let that cook down for about 3 minutes.

Pour in the stock/broth  and add the bay leaf and let simmer for at least 30 minutes (but longer is usually better for flavors to meld together)

Just before serving, add in the cream. this will lighten the color and give it a really lovely richness… viola’! you’ve got a southern seafood bisque that tells you spring is on the way (or already here!) serve with crusty bread and sprinkle it with green onion for a little color… and your good silver if you want it to feel like more than a regular old soup. I did. 😉