Crabmeat Stuffing

Per request, here is a versatile crabmeat stuffing recipe that can be used in a wide variety of dishes. I use it to stuff vegetables like baked tomatoes and mushrooms as well as for stuffed crab, shrimp and even stuffed chicken! It can also be formed into patties and pan fried in butter.

It's more economical to use the claw crabmeat unless you are making crab cakes or something special and want to use jumbo lump crabmeat in your recipe. If you want more crabmeat in your stuffing than what this recipe calls for, just add another pound. Additionally, you can add chopped shrimp as well as chopped crawfish for a different flavor. This recipe makes a large batch but you can either cut it in half or freeze the rest in an airtight container.

1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine
2 medium bell peppers - chopped
3 large onions - chopped
3 stalks celery - chopped
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cups bread crumbs
1 tbsp. Flour
3 eggs
1 handfull chapped parsley
1 lb. claw crabmeat, shells and cartiledge picked out


Melt butter in a sauce pan and saute onion, celery and bell peppers on medium heat until translucent - approximately 15 minutes. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.In a separate bowl, mix all other ingredients except the crabmeat. Add the sauted vegetables and mix well. Gently fold in the crabmeat.

Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival

Breaux Bridge, Louisiana is the Crawfish Capital of the world and is home of the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival which takes place annually on the first weekend of May.

For those of you who have never been, this is an event to experience! It's full of Cajun traditions, music, dancing, food, fun and an opportunity to submerge yourself in the Cajun culture. If you have a opportunity to get away, you should make plans to attend.

Not only can you enjoy Cajun music and dancing but you can try crawfish prepared every way imaginable and by the best cooks! Also, you can get to know the locals, hear their wonderful cajun accents, become enthralled by the stories they tell and listen to some hilarious cajun jokes! It's truly an experience that you'll never forget. Just another snapshot into Life In South Louisiana! Laissez les bon temps rouler, Cher!

Lent Is Upon Us

Mardi Gras season ended with Ash Wednesday yesterday and now Lent is upon us. Time for all us South Louisiana Catholics to repent for the drunken debauchery we partake in the rest of the year! Mea Culpa!

Lent is the period of the liturgical year from Ash Wednesday to Easter and is a time of sacrifice for Jesus. It lasts for 40 days and culminates with Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. On Ash Wednesday, every Friday and on other Holy Days during Lent, we do not eat meat.

Because seafood is acceptable and Louisiana has an abundance of fabulous seafood, we make a lot of our best and favorite seafood dishes during Lent. I've linked seafood recipes and other non-meat recipes that I've previously posted on the site so you can peruse them easily.

Shrimp Jambalaya
Seafood Gumbo
Seafood Eggplant Casserole
Cajun Cornbread Casserole
Copeland's of New Orleans Hot Crab Claws
Barbeque Shrimp
Crawfish Bisque
Garlic Cheese Grits Just Add Shrimp!
Shrimp Salad
French Onion Soup
Chicken Enchiladas Substitute the chicken for Shrimp!
Vegetable Boil Season it up some more and add any seafood!
Shrimp and Spinach Salad or Dip
Creole Crawfish Etouffee
Crawfish Stew
Spinach Madeline Add some lump crabmeat or shrimp!
Shrimp Creole
Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca

Seafood Eggplant Casserole

Seafood Eggplant Casserole is a dish I usually make in the summer with plenty of fresh shrimp and nice eggplant. While there are many seafood eggplant recipes out there, this one is my favorite and is more "cajun" than "greek". When combining ingredients, I usually mash the eggplant but it can be left in chunks also.

Seafood Eggplant Casserole

2 lg eggplants
2 lb of crawfish or shrimp
1/2 stick butter
1 cup onion chopped
4 green onions chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
2-3 ribs celery chopped
2 tbl parsley
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1-1/2 cups Italian breadcrumbs
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp pepper,or to taste
1/4 tsp tobasco, or to taste

Cut eggplant in half and boil till soft. Remove, cool and scoop out pulp. Set aside. Saute seafood in butter. Add vegetables and saute till wilted. Add eggplant and seasonings and mix well. Cook about 7 – 10 min. Add breadcrumbs and seafood, mix well and remove from heat. Use white wine, cream or chicken stock to thin if necessary. Pour in casserole dish, dot with butter and sprinkle with more bread crumbs. Bake at 350 till brown.

Cajun Cornbread Casserole

One of our favorite casseroles in South Louisiana is Cajun Cornbread Casserole. Cajun Cornbread Casserole is an excellent and versitile dish that we serve at Thanksgiving or Christmas but it can be adapted for Lent by eliminating the sausage. Also, it can be served as an entree or side dish. If you don't want to make your own cornbread or can't find the Pioneer mix, just buy what you can find but check the ingredients. You don't want to use a mix that has too much sugar in it thus making the casserole too sweet.

Cajun Cornbread Casserole

2 pkgs Pioneer Yellow Cornbread Mix or homemade cornbread
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped
1 lb of Louisiana crawfish tails, chopped
1 lb shrimp, peeled
1/2 lb chopped hot sausage
1/2 cup milk
1 can cream style corn
2 whole eggs, beaten
1 cup mild cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parsley
Tony’s

Bake cornbread as directed per package instructions or make homemade cornbread. Crumble into a large mixing bowl. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan; add onions, celery, and bell pepper sauté mixture until the onions clear. Add crawfish tails, shrimp, sausage. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add milk and cream corn, stir until mixture is fully blended. Fold all ingredients into the bowl of crumbled cornbread, along with eggs, cheese, and parsley. Mix well, season with Tony’s to taste, transfer to a baking dish, and bake it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Copeland's of New Orleans Hot Crab Claws

I went to Copeland's with a friend a while back and we ordered the Hot Crab Claws for our appetizer. I never had them before and boy, I really missed out all these years! They were divine! Doing what I always do when I find a new dish I love, I picked through it figure out what was in it. That evening I looked on the internet and I found Copeland's recipe! It's so easy to make and if you buy enough claws, you can make a meal off this with a nice salad to go with it. If you can't find crab claws, they can be substituted with crawfish or shrimp. Enjoy!

Copeland's of New Orleans Hot Crab Claws

2 teaspoons garlic
1 teaspoon parsley, chopped
2 tablespoon scallions, chopped
2 tablespoons butter, divided
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
6 ounces fresh crab claws, crawfish tails or shrimp
3 ounces chicken stock
1 ounce Italian dressing

Place seasoning, herbs, garlic and half the butter in a preheated skillet; saute until butter is melted. Add seafood, chicken stock and Italian dressing; increase heat to high and toss until seafood is cooked through. Add remaining butter; swirl into the sauce. Do not boil. Serve immediately with buttered and toasted French Bread slices.

Crawfish Bisque

I love, love, love Crawfish Bisque but it's one of those things that I have never tackled on my own because it's so labor intensive. When I go out to eat, I always order something I wouldn't or don't make at home and this is one of those dishes.

However, I've helped others make it many times and it's always fun to do as a group because that's how we roll in Louisiana! Food, drinks, people = PARTY!!! Because we get a group together, we all chip in on the ingredients and make enough for everyone to take a good quantity home. That's the way to do this really...just turn it into a Crawfish Bisque party. Supply the kitchen, snacks and cocktails, invite friends over and cook!

Stuffing

2 lbs crawfish tails
60 cleaned crawfish shells
1-1/2 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
½ cup chopped bell pepper
2 tbs minced garlic
1/2 cup chopped parsley
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups seasoned Italian bread crumbs
salt, pepper and Tony's to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grind crawfish tails, onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and parsley in a home-style meat grinder or food processor. Once ground, add eggs and enough bread crumbs to hold the mixture together but not so that the stuffing becomes too bready. Begin with 1 cup. Season to taste. Stuff equal amounts into the 60 crawfish heads. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned and fully cooked. Remove and set aside.


Bisque

3 lbs crawfish tails
1-1/2 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 cup flour
1-1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
2 tbs minced garlic
1/4 cup tomato sauce
3 quarts crawfish stock****
1 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped parsley
salt, pepper and Tony's to taste

In a heavy dutch oven, heat oil and flour to make a dark brown roux. Add onions, celery, bell pepper and garlic; sauté until vegetables are wilted, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Add crawfish tails and tomato sauce, blend well. Slowly add crawfish stock until sauce-like consistency is achieved. Bring to a rolling boil, reduce to simmer and add stuffed crawfish heads. Stir well and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add green onions and parsley and season to taste. Serve over white rice.

*** I would use Better Than Bouillon seafood paste and water for the stock and season with Tony’s.

A Cajun Christmas, Heaux, Heaux, Heaux

Depending on what side of the family we are spending Christmas with or what our plans end up being otherwise, we will sometimes forego the traditional Southern Christmas and instead have a Cajun Christmas! Cajun Christmas traditions are celebrated somewhat in our household every season but some years we go all out and go full blown Cajun.

We have some wonderful Louisiana traditions that may seem crazy to the rest of you and are very different than the way you celebrate Christmas yet, they are so incredible and unique!

Instead of Santa Claus we have Papa Noel. Papa Noel lives down in the hot, humid, swampy bayou of Louisiana. He's a Cajun legend and you'll often find momma’s (Mère’s) and daddy's (Père’s) reading such books as The Legend of Papa Noel or Cajun Night before Christmas on Christmas Eve.

While Santa is pulled in his sleigh by eight reindeer, Papa Noel is pulled in a Pirogue (pro: Pea-row) by eight alligators: Gaston, Tiboy, Pierre, Alcee, Ninette, Suzette, Celeste and Renee.

On Christmas Eve we follow a tradition dating back hundreds of years....the lighting of bon fires on the levees of the Mississippi River and in the bayous to guide Papa Noel and his alligators to the swamp to deliver gifts to our children in Bayou Country.

Christmas in South Louisiana is so unique and magical with the Cajun decorations, traditions, food and Christmas Zydeco and Jazz music.

The following are a few of our traditional Cajun dishes we serve at Christmas.

Bar-B-Q Shrimp

4 lbs shrimp with shells on (heads on, if possible)
1/2 lb butter
3-4 tbl Worcestershire sauce
3 tbl pickapepper sauce
1-1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp rosemary
1 lg lemon
1 tsp tabasco
4 tsp salt
4 cloves garlic sliced

Melt butter in large casserole dish and add all ingredients except lemon. Cut lemon in half and squeeze juice, add to mixture. Bake in oven at 350 until done. Serve in large soup bowls with lots of sauce and toasted french bread for dipping.

Copeland's of New Orleans Hot Crab Claws

2 teaspoons garlic
1 teaspoon parsley, chopped
2 tablespoon scallions, chopped
2 tablespoons butter, divided
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
6 ounces fresh crab claws, crawfish tails or shrimp
3 ounces chicken stock
1 ounce Italian dressing

Place seasoning, herbs, garlic and half the butter in a preheated skillet; saute until butter is melted. Add seafood, chicken stock and Italian dressing; increase heat to high and toss until seafood is cooked through. Add remaining butter; swirl into the sauce. Do not boil. Serve immediately with buttered and toasted French Bread slices.

Cajun Cornbread Casserole

2 pkgs Pioneer Yellow Cornbread Mix or homemade cornbread
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped
1 lb of Louisiana crawfish tails, chopped
1 lb shrimp, peeled
1/2 lb chopped hot sausage
1/2 cup milk
1 can cream style corn
2 whole eggs, beaten
1 cup mild cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parsley
Tony’s

Bake cornbread as directed per package instructions or make homemade cornbread. Crumble into a large mixing bowl. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan; add onions, celery, and bell pepper sauté mixture until the onions clear. Add crawfish tails, shrimp, sausage. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add milk and cream corn, stir until mixture is fully blended. Fold all ingredients into the bowl of crumbled cornbread, along with eggs, cheese, and parsley. Mix well, season with Tony’s to taste, transfer to a baking dish, and bake it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Additionally, we also have dishes from previous posts such as Crawfish Stew, Creole Crawfish Etouffee, Shrimp Creole, and Spinach Madeline. And, of course, we have a smoked or fried turkey!

Crawfish Fettuccine

Crawfish usually come fully into season midway through Lent. As a result, one of my family's favorite Easter dishes is Crawfish Fettuccine. It's a nice fattening celebratory splurge after the restrictive fast of the Lenten period so this is the only time I make it!! This dish is absolutely fabulous and really not all that difficult to prepare. You will need a very large pot and two large 9x13 casserole dishes (or equivalent), however. This recipe makes enough for a fairly large gathering or you can have plenty of leftovers. It also freezes well. Just put it into gallon size ziplock bags and squeeze all the air out before sealing the bag closed. Lay the bag on its side and flatten it as much as possible before placing it in the freezer. Shrimp may be substituted for the crawfish. Beware! Crawfish Fettuccine produces cravings!!!

2 lg onions, chopped
1 bellpepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 sticks butter
2 12oz pkgs fettuccine
¼ cup flour
1 qt Half & Half
1 can mild chopped green chili peppers
4 lbs crawfish tails with fat (or peeled Small to Medium Shrimp)
1 lb Mexican Velveeta cheese, cut up into chunks
Grated Parmesan cheese

Put pasta on to cook. In the large pot, saute vegetables in 2 sticks of butter. Add flour, blend well. Add peppers & crawfish. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until crawfish are done. Raise heat a little, add cheese and Half & Half slowly. Stir frequently until cheese melts. Drain cooked pasta. Add remaining stick of butter to crawfish mixture and allow to melt. Stir well. Mix pasta and crawfish mixture together until well blended. Separate mixture into 2 lg greased casserole dishes. Sprinkle liberally with Parmesan cheese and bake @ 350 for approx 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and browning on top. Serve with a nice salad and french or garlic bread.

Creole Crawfish Etouffee

Crawfish Etouffee (pron: Ay-too-fay) is sometimes mistaken for Crawfish Stew. The difference between Cajun cooking and Creole cooking is Cajun food is more "country" cooking and Creole food is more refined "city" or French cooking. The Cajuns used roux's and heavy seasoning whereas, the Creoles used delicate, rich creams and their food was lighter in color and taste. This is a fine example of Creole Crawfish Etouffee. Compare the ingredients and photographs to my Crawfish Stew recipe.

1/4 pound butter
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped green peppers
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh chopped garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
4 dashes Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup half-and-half
4 lbs crawfish tail meat

Melt butter in large heavy-duty pot. Add onions, peppers, garlic and all seasonings. Saute, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent. Add flour and mix thoroughly for 1 minute, stirring often. Add whipping cream and half-and-half. Cook until cream thickens but does not boil, stirring often.

Add crawfish tails. Stirring often, cook until meat and vegetables are done. Crawfish may be substituted for shrimp.

Here is another version:

4 lbs crawfish tails
2 can cream of mushroom soup
2 can cream of celery soup
2 lg onion, chopped
2 bunch green onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
6 tbs parsley, chopped
2 sticks butter
Tony's seasonings

Saute' onions, green onions, and garlic in butter in a pot until onions are browned and wilted. Stir in cream of celery and cream of mushroom. Increase heat and bring to a boil stirring constantly.

Reduce heat to medium and stir in crawfish and Tony's seasoning. Cook for about 10 minutes and reduce heat to medium. Sprinkle parsley on top. Serve over hot rice.

Crawfish Stew

In my younger days *ahem*, I spent the weekend on a dear friends houseboat on Lake Verret in Louisiana and went waterskiing with friends up and down Bayou Corne. We attended a bonafide Cajun wedding on the bank deep in the bayou and the reception was held in a shack up on pilings high above the water accessible only by boat and you had to climb this TALL ladder to get in the house!

We had a huge crawfish boil one night and some local cajun friends joined us. After everyone finished eating, several of us peeled all the remaining crawfish and packed the tailmeat in ice chests.

The next day an older cajun couple came back to visit and the cajun woman taught me how to make Crawfish Stew. I learned alot that weekend from her and others. That's when I learned how to Cajun dance too!

The difference between Crawfish stew and Crawfish Etouffee is the stew is a cajun dish and is made with a dark brown roux while the etouffee is a creole dish and is made with cream.

1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup flour
1 lg onion, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1 bellpepper, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped or minced
1 lg can tomatoes, chopped
¼ tsp tobasco
2 tbl worchestershire sauce
4 lbs crawfish tails
salt pepper cayenne & Tony's to taste
Approx 1-1/2 – 2 cups water
Cooked rice

Make a roux with oil and flour. Add vegetables except tomato and saute until cooked. Add tomatoes, sauce and seasonings blending well. Add crawfish tails and water, stir well. Simmer on low heat until cooked down, about 1 hour. Serve over hot rice with a salad and french bread.