In order to sleep well at night I have to have 3 staples in my freezer at all times.
1. Bacon - for obvious reasons.
2. Ice - it's my favorite mixer.
3. Crawfish tails - when the craving arises, nothing else will do.
I love eating crawfish. They are one of the tastier creature scurrying on this planet, and they've scuttled right into one of the tastiest cuisines on the planet (In my own humble opinion).
In honor of mardis gras, and the need for a quick & easy crawfish dish, I decided whip up a memorable concoction - Crawfish Cardinale.
Crawfish Cardinale1 lb. of crawfish tails
2 tbsps, cajun seasoning**
2 oz. (1/2 a stick) of butter
1 bunch of scallions, roughly chopped
3 tbsps tomato paste
1 cup heavy cream
3 tbsps cognac
3 tbsps fresh parsley, chopped
1. Season the crawfish tails with salt and the cajun seasoning. Set aside.
2. Heat large skillet over medium heat. Melt the butter and add the scallions to cook. Stirring occasionally.
3. Once they are slightly softened and translucent, after 3-5 minutes, add the cream, cognac, and tomato paste. Bring this to a simmer and reduce until thick. (by about 2/3's), this will take around five minutes.
4. Dump in the crawfish and simmer just enough to warm them well. Toss in the chopped parsley and serve with nice french bread or over pasta.
Print this recipe!
 |
| A good test to see if it has reduced enough is to scoot a song along the pan, if it leaves a clear wake your sauce is ready. |
You can serve this over pasta, but I prefer simply with buttered bread. It can be a great app for a table of empty bellies, or a great meal for two.
The only draw back to the meal is that now there are no longer any crawfish in my freezer.
**You could use something like Paul Prudhomme's Baleckening Seasoning, which I love. OR you could make some yourself.
Cajun' n Creole Seasoning
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
Simply mix the ingredients well and store in a dark, dry, cool place.
Note that this is pretty much the same as blackening seasoning. However, there is no salt in this mixture, I like to leave the salt levels up to the cook. If you wanted to sub this into other recipes for store bought mixes you would have to add 2 tsps salt.
