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.

Chicken Gumbo

Gumbo is an original creation and is a staple in South Louisiana cooking. The word "gumbo" comes from the Congo "quin-gombo" which means okra which is a thickening agent. While classified as a soup it really is more like a stew in taste and texture. Additionally, gumbo is served over rice, whereas, soup is not.

There are many different types of gumbo from chicken to wild game to seafood and the recipes vary somewhat. The gumbo we make most often in our house, simply for ease, economics and availability, is Chicken Gumbo. I have to admit, my favorite is Seafood gumbo but it gets really expensive to make if you don't live in South Louisiana! Here is a basic Chicken Gumbo recipe that you can start with and add other types of meat such as sausage, venison, duck or seafood. Have fun experimenting!

3 tbl Oil
3 tbl Flour
1 pkg Boneless Chicken breasts
1 pkg boneless chicken thighs
1 med onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 10 oz pkg frozen sliced okra
Tony’s, salt and pepper
Parboiled rice

In large pot, brown chicken in oil. Remove from pot when thoroughly browned on both sides. Add oil and flour and make a dark brown roux. Add onion and stir well; then add okra and blend well. Add all other vegetables except tomato and allow to cook down, cover if necessary to retain moisture. Cut up chicken into large bite size pieces. Add about 4 cups of water, tomato, and seasonings; blend well. Add chicken and stir. Cook down for about an hour adding more water if necessary. Recheck seasonings. Serve over rice.

***Note: If you will be making Giblet Gravy for the holidays, now would be the time to cook it as you need pan drippings and a little meat, not to mention that it can be frozen ahead of time. Add some extra chicken when making your gumbo then set aside some of it and all of the pan drippings from when you brown the chicken as stated above, then make your gravy while your gumbo cooks! This way, you can make the gravy ahead of time without having to do any extra work to obtain the two aforementioned ingredients.

Giblet Gravy

One Christmas, I must have been about 6 or 7, my great uncle gave me a HUGE candy cane as his present to me. Everything seems so much bigger when you are little but I swear, that thing must have been about 18 inches long and 3 inches in diameter! It was gigantic!

After Christmas dinner, one of my cousins kept teasing and tormenting me relentlessly and we started squabbling. My mother made me come inside and I was furious. My uncle took me aside and privately whispered to me that if my cousin bothered me again, I was to take that candy cane he gave me and whack my cousin with it! He wasn’t serious, but being a little kid, I took what he said seriously.

So, when my cousin started tormenting me again, I grabbed my candy cane weapon, swung it like a bat and {{{{CRACK}}}}, whacked him in the head with it! He let out a blood curdling scream. All the parents came running outside and there I was standing over him, holding my broken, shattered candy cane with a very satisfied smile on my face!

This is the Giblet gravy recipe that goes with my South Louisiana Cornbread Dressing. These are dishes that we serve at both Thanksgiving and Christmas unless we do a Cajun Christmas meal. I used to make Giblet gravy exactly the way my grandmother made it…with the actual Turkey Giblets. But after she passed away and in response to several requests, I stopped doing that and have since been using either breast or thigh meat.

Since this can be made ahead of time and frozen, I usually bake some chicken or make some Chicken Gumbo the week or two before. Then I use a little of the meat and the all of the pan drippings from it and make the gravy then, freezing it for later. Additionally, I usually double the recipe, then when it's cool, divide it in half and freeze both separately: one batch for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas!

3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 can chicken broth
Garlic powder, Onion powder, Celery salt and Tonys, to taste
1 to 1-1/2 cups Chicken breast or thigh meat, chopped fine***
Pan drippings

Over medium-low heat, combine the oil and flour in a large saucepan and make a dark roux. Slowly stir in the chicken broth, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the gravy is smooth and thickened. Add pan drippings and allow to thicken again.

Reduce heat to low, add seasonings and the giblets. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Recheck seasonings, adding more if necessary. This gravy can be made ahead of time and frozen or refrigerated until needed.

My grandmother's way of making it is as follows:

In a medium sauce pot, boil 1 stalk of celery and 1/2 a medium onion along with the turkey neck and giblets. Season water with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and garlic powder. Cook until done. Discard celery and onion. Remove neck and giblets and allow to cool. Make a dark brown roux and add the pan drippings and the seasoned broth you just made (refer to recipe above for instructions). When neck and giblets are cool, remove meat from neck bone, finely chop it and the giblets. Stir that into your gravy. Recheck seasonings and serve.

***Note: I usually bake some chicken for dinner or make a pot of Gumbo the week before, separate enough chicken and the pan drippings and make my gravy at the same time. Then I freeze the gravy and later thaw it out in the refrigerator the day before I need it.

*** When I make chicken salad, I freeze my broth and use that when I make my gravy instead of using canned broth. See Gourmet Chicken Salad recipe.

***See Tips and Information for making a roux and for Tony's.

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.