Mardi Gras Crawfish Desire

Circumstances beyond our control prevented us from having our annual Mardi Gras Madness party. But a 5-pound bag of cooked, frozen crawfish gifted to us by Amy's mom and a desire for the taste of New Orleans made today feel like Fat Tuesday nonetheless.

Amy created this recipe long ago, based on a favorite dish served at Jazz Fest called Crawfish Monica. It can be made with shrimp, but crawfish is much more authentic, so if you can get it, go for it. Even if it's frozen.

Happy Mardi Gras, y'all!

Crawfish Desire

Ingredients:

1 lb. seafood: crawfish (cooked and peeled) and/or shrimp (raw, peeled and deveined)
1 stick unsalted butter
1 pint half-and-half
½ cup chopped green onions
6 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
Creole seasoning to taste (the more, the spicier, and I prefer Tony Chachere’s)
1 lb. pasta (rotini if you’re being authentic)

Put water on to boil pasta and cook pasta al dente. Melt butter and sauté garlic and green onions until fragrant. Add shrimp and/or crawfish and cook for three minutes. Gradually add half-and-half, then the thyme and Creole seasoning, stirring well*. Cook five minutes so that the seafood is cooked through and the sauce becomes thickened. Add cooked pasta and let the dish sit over low heat for five more minutes, stirring often. Serve with crusty French bread, of course!

*It is important to stir often so that the sauce doesn’t break (separate).

Wordless: Amy's Birthday 2014

Best Husband Ever

Amy writes: It's our first day of summer vacation together. Huzzah!!! I went off for a hair appointment and was due back around 12:30, so on my way out the door I half-jokingly hollered, "I expect lunch when I return!" When I returned, his car was nowhere to be seen. Where had he gone? Then...a text: Lunch extraordinaire < 3 min. I texted back: I'm intrigued. 

When he came in, I heard pots and pans and rustling noises in the kitchen. I attempted to go in there, but in vain - I was uninvited. Not long after he delivered to the table sweet Maine steamers, perfectly steamed in a lemony broth served with browned butter. One of my favorite things. "This is only round one," he said. Hmmm...

Round two? A pound of crawfish. Oh yeah. Another one of my favorite things. 

And finally? An entire Dungeness crab. Rare around these parts, indeed. But he managed it somehow. And it was delicious. 

I think it's going to be a great summer!!!

Happy Birthday, Amy!

Since last year was a big one (4-0, oh no!), this year we honored Amy's birthday with a little less fanfare. We had 15 pounds of live crawfish delivered up from Louisiana and had a crawfish boil for two Saturday afternoon. While we observed another year's passing with a feast reminiscent of the Big Easy, BFF Karen (who gets to live there) toasted Amy's birthday with a piece of lemon blueberry marscapone cake (and sent pics to prove it!). How lovely to be celebrated in two different states!

Jazz Fest Crawfish, or Crawfish Monica Copycat

We promised a follow-up post to our Connecticut Crawfish Boil, one that describes what we did with that pound or so of crawfish tails that we forced ourselves not to eat. The leftovers, if you will. Well, with this particular dish, "leftovers" is not a word we would use. In this dish, the crawfish are still the star of the show, spicing up a cream and butter pasta that is known the world over from it being served at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, aka Jazz Fest. The dish is called Crawfish Monica.

According to the article "New Orleans Nostalgia" by Ned Hemard (found on the New Orleans Bar Association website here), Crawfish Monica was invented by the president and head chef of Kajun Kettle Foods, Pierre “Pete” Hilzim, who named the recipe for his wife. It has been served at Jazz Fest since 1982, and for several years was only available there or via shipment from Kajun Kettle. These days, some grocery stores local to New Orleans carry it.

As with most "secret" recipes, there are many "copy-cats" and we'd like to offer ours. Hemard writes, "The ingredients remain a secret, but one can rely that butter, cream, onions and garlic are involved." Indeed. Those four ingredients are the starting point for our version. Although it's been many years since Amy has attended Jazz Fest, she knows Crawfish Monica when she tastes it. And this creamy crawfish concoction with a kick is pretty darn close to the real thing. Without the lines!

Melt butter

Add garlic and chives, and...

...cook to soften.

Add crawfish, then...

...milk and cream.

Creole Seasoning adds a salty, spicy kick.

Cook to thicken, then...

Pour over pasta. Allow to cook over low heat for 10 minutes or so.

A. Ma. Zing. Ness.

Jazz Fest Crawfish, or Crawfish Monica Copycat

Note: shrimp or crab are great substitutes for crawfish if you can't get mudbugs where you live.

Ingredients:

1 pound "leftover" crawfish tails, boiled and peeled

1 stick unsalted butter

6 cloves garlic, minced

6-8 fresh chives, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1-2 tablespoons Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning

1 pound rotini pasta

Set salted water to boil in a large pasta pat. In a large saute pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and chives and cook 2-3 minutes, until softened. Add crawfish and saute for 2-3 minutes until warmed through. Stir in cream and milk, then add Creole seasoning to taste. Cook for 10 minutes until sauce starts to thicken. Cook pasta according to package directions, then drain and return to pot. Pour sauce into pot with pasta and place over low heat. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring often, and allowing pasta to soak up the sauce. Enjoy!

Connecticut Crawfish Boil 2012

See that UPS truck? He's driving away from our house, having just brought us our favorite delivery of the year - live crawfish from Cajun Grocer in Lafayette, Louisiana. One of the things Amy misses most from her time in New Orleans is The Crawfish Boil. So, around her birthday every year, we splurge and have some delivered. This year, it was just for the two of us, so we got 15 pounds (hoping for a little extra for another dish).

It was a crisp, warm Saturday morning, and Amy was sitting on the front porch waiting (and not patiently, either!) for the brown truck to arrive. He carried the package over and said, "Whatcha got in here? Lobsters?" She answered, "Heck no! Live crawfish! We're doing it New Orleans style today!" He replied, joking, "What time should I come back?" She chuckled, he left, and Amy got to work.

Here is how they arrive - in an unassuming little white cooler. You can only imagine the culinary delight that is inside, namely, a plastic net-style sack full of live crawfish, some freezer packs to keep them cool and alive during shipping, Louisiana Fish Fry Co. Crawfish and Crab Seasoning, and a zip bag with the invoice and directions. Not that we needed those!

Here is our process, which was for 15 pounds of live crawfish.

First, we must clean/purge our crawfish:

Step One: Hose the crawfish sack with water thoroughly.

Step Two: Empty sack into cooler and rinse again.

Step Three: Sprinkle 16 ounces of table salt over the crawfish, then add enough water to cover the crawfish to purge them.

Step Four: Let stand for 10 minutes.

Step Five: Rinse crawfish thoroughly at least two more times.

Then, we must prepare The Boil.

This is a bit more exciting, so we'll give you more pictures.

Step One: Fill large pot with water, add the 16-ounce package of seasoning sent with the crawfish plus one cup additional seasoning (we happened to have on hand because we know we like 'em spicy!), and bring it to a rolling boil.

Step Two: While waiting for the water to boil, prepare some "other stuff" - we like to add a couple of quartered lemons, a few quartered red potatoes, a large onion (also quartered) and some spicy sausage - and throw it in the pot.

Step Three: Add the clean crawfish and boil them for only 5 minutes.

Step Four: Turn fire off and let crawfish soak for 1/2 hour. Try to be patient and do NOT eat anything! Save room for crawfish!

Step Five: Prepare your table by covering first with a couple of plastic trash bags laid flat, then with some newspapers, for no-fuss cleanup.



Step Six: Try one or two to make sure they are to your liking. The longer they soak, the spicier they will be, so maybe give them 5 more minutes, if you can wait that long...

Finally, at long last, the best part of all - we pinch 'da tails and suck 'da heads! With Abita beer to wash 'em down with and some Louisiana tunes on the stereo.

One heavenly hour later, we were elbow-deep in crawfish heads and shells, our bellies were full and our crawfish craving was (almost) satiated. The quality of the crawfish was excellent - they were just the right size and there were very few (maybe 3 or 4) that had died in transit. And the flavor! Unbelievable!

You can see we do have a stainless steel bowl with a few tails that didn't get eaten right away. (Those were mostly from Chris). Those are the ones meant for another dish. we'll fill you in on that one later.

The Aftermath