Crawfish Etoufee

Source: Emeril Lagasse

1 stick butter
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1 pound peeled crawfish tails
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 bay leaves (omitted this, didn't have any)
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup water (mixed in one chicken bouillon cube
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch of cayenne
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
3 tablespoons chopped green onions
Cooked rice

n a large saute pan over medium high heat, melt the butter. Add the onions, celery, and bell peppers and saute until the vegetables are wilted, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add the crawfish, garlic, and bay leaves and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the crawfish for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Dissolve the flour in the water. Add the crawfish mixture. Season with salt and cayenne. Stir until the mixture thickens, about 4 minutes. Stir in the parsley and green onions. and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Serve over steamed rice.

Basil Shrimp

2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 1/2 lemons, juiced
3 tablespoons dijon mustard (I used honey mustard)
1/2 cup minced basil leaves
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to tasts

Mix olive oil, butter, juice and mustard together. Mix well with a fork and add mustard and basil leaves. Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste. Add shrimp and marinate in fridge for 1 hour.

Heat griddle (I used my indoor grill, but you could bake in the oven or pan sautee) and spread shrimp evenly. Cook until translucent.
My griddle has a drip pan, so I took all the sauce that cooked off, as well as what was left in the bowl, and cooked it down in a sautee pan. Then I tossed with a little bit of pasta. It was DELISH!!!!

Crawfish Fettucine

4 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, diced
small package mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 teaspoon flour
6 ounces Velvetta cheese, cubed
1 can Rotel, drained
1/2 cup grated parmesean cheese
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Tony's
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound crawfish tails

Melt butter over medium heat and add onions, cook until soft and add mushrooms. Cook for about 2 minutes and add flour. Stir and cook down until flour is no longer clumpy. Add half and half and crawfish tails. Let simmer for 6-8 minutes, until the flour is completely cooked down. Add Rotel and Velvetta. Once Velvetta is melted, add cayenne pepper, Tony's and salt. Slowly add parmesean cheese. Let simmer for a few minutes until desired consistency is reached.
Serve over pasta.

Crawfish Fettucine

We had our annual Good Friday crawfish boil yesterday. We had a few leftovers, maybe about 2 pounds peeled. So I froze one pound and made this fettucine with the other pound. I can't stand a dry fettucine, so I made quite a few alterations to this recipe, which I have tried before. I also don't like it when it tastes like mac and cheese, so I cut back on the cheese too. It was delish!

Original Source: Good Louisiana Eatin' cookbook

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound crawfish tails

1 small onion, diced

1 heaping tablespoon chopped garlic

1 stick of butter

1 tablespoon flour

2 stalks green onion, chopped

2 5 ounce cans of evaporated milk

1 can of Rotel tomatos (I only used 1/2 of the can)

8 ounces of Velvetta Cheese, cubed

1/2 bag of cooked egg noodles

DIRECTIONS:

Saute onions and garlic in butter until soft. Add flour and stir until well blended. Add crawfish, green onions, evaporated milk and rotel tomatos. Cook on low heat for 10 minutes, stirring often. Slowly add cheese and continue to stir until mixed well. Stir in cooked noodles. Bake in covered casserole dish at 350 for 30 minutes.

Shrimp Portofino

It's lent! And that means seafood on Friday's. We love seafood, of course we do, we live in Louisiana. But for some reason, I don't cook much of it. I'm trying to venture out a little bit, so thought I would try my favorite shrimp dish from Macaroni Grill. I found this recipe online at work, but now that I'm home, I can't find the link to include it here. If you google it, you will find several recipes that call for artichoke hearts, and that is not the one I used. So I'm sorry I can't link to the original source.

This dish was very good. I especially loved the butter sauce. I will make that again and pour over pasta and served with grilled chicken. It has a very distinct flavor.

24 large shrimp (peeled and deveined) (I used one pound of shrimp)

3 cups sliced mushrooms (washed and sliced ( 1/4 inch thick)
1 1/2 tablespoons pine nuts (couldn't find these, so used slivered almonds)
6 cups fresh spinach leaves (only used about 4 cups)
6 cups cooked vermicelli
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons fresh garlic (minced, up to 4)

Lemon Butter Sauce:
1 tablespoon shallots (minced) (used yellow onion)
1 tablespoon fresh garlic , minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed) (only used about 1/4 a cup, per many reviews)
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1 lb lightly-salted butter (cut into tablespoons)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spread pine nuts over bottom of sheet pan and place pan in oven on top rack. Roast until golden brown, approximately 2 to 4 minutes.

For the Lemon Butter Sauce:
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté shallots and garlic until translucent. Add white wine and reduce slightly more than 1/2, whisking occasionally. Add cream and reduce by 1/2. Add lemon juice and reduce by 1/2. Add white pepper. Reduce heat to low. Add remaining butter 2 tablespoons at a time, whisking continuously after each addition to completely incorporate butter. Continue to simmer, whisking until sauce just coats spoon.

In separate large skillet over medium-high heat melt the 4 tablespoons of butter. Add garlic and sauté until garlic is translucent. Stir in mushrooms, shrimp, and pine nuts. Sauté several minutes or until shrimp are done and show color. Remove skillet from heat and gently stir in spinach. Place warm pasta on plate with shrimp mixture to the side. Pour lemon sauce over cooked pasta, permitting a bit of sauce onto shrimp.