First, You Make a Roux

Shrimp and Crawfish Remoulade Salad

To accompany the crawfish braid we made a simple shrimp and crawfish remoulade salad with lettuce, shrimp, leftover crawfish, hard-boiled eggs, and remoulade dressing. I used a modified version of the Remoulade Sauce recipe from Ralph Brennan's New Orleans Seafood Cookbook (my version below).

 

Remoulade Sauce

 

Ingredients:

1/2 an onion

4 green onions (white and green parts)

1 stalk celery

juice from 1/2 a lemon

handful of fresh parsley

3 tbsp. Creole mustard (or whole-grain mustard)

3 tbsp. ketchup

2 tbsp. horseradish

2 tsp. fresh garlic

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cayenne (more or less, depending on how much heat you want)

1/8 tsp. black pepper

a few tbsp. olive oil

tbsp. or two capers (optional)

 

Directions:

Chop up veggies, put all ingredients except olive oil in a food processor and puree for about 30 seconds. Slowly add olive oil until desired consistency. Spoon over salad. Top with capers, if desired.

 

Crawfish Braid

By the time we got to the 4^th and 5^th sacks of crawfish at the Easter crawfish boil everyone was full. We peeled most of the rest until we couldn’t take it anymore and then just pinched off the tails. We ended up with LOTS of crawfish. Usually we make étoufée, but I wanted to make something a little different. I googled “crawfish boil leftovers” because I wanted to find a way to use the leftover vegetables and crawfish. Not much luck with the veggies other than corn maque-choux (but didn’t have enough cook at home nights this week to make it). I did, however, find some great things to make with the crawfish. The first was a “Crawfish Braid” from the Cookin’ Up a Storm cookbook, which is a compilation of lost recipes swapped in the Times Picayune after Katrina.

 

1 lb-ish peeled crawfish tails, a few green onions chopped, and a cup of grated Pepper Jack

 

For the dough 1st mix together 3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 package active dry yeast, 1 tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. each of thyme, oregano, basil, and onion powder. Then slowly add 1 c. warm water and 1 tbsp. olive oil. At this point it's been kneaded and has risen for 30-45 minutes covered in a warm, draft-free spot.

Here the dough is rolled out with the crawfish, green onions, and cheese layered on top.

 

Next, slits are made about 1 in. apart so it can be braided.

Braiding...

Now brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with sesame seeds (poppy seeds might also be nice).

Beautifully browned after about 30 min. at 400 degrees.

Deliciousness.

Easter Crawfish Boil

This past Sunday my husband and I had a big family crawfish boil - our first family holiday at our house. We boiled LOTS of crawfish, and everyone ate, drank, and was merry.

 
The fixin's

 

 
 
Live crawfish

 
 Getting ready to start the crawfish races!

 

 
The crawfish were not motivated to race. Lucy, however, was motivated to get these delicious crawfish in her belly.

 

Hot boiled crawfish