Boudin Chimichangas and Crawfish Cream Sauce

Hey y'all, bringing you another original recipe, straight from our crazy brains. This was a collaborative effort between myself, The Hubs, and Primo.

Last summer while down visiting in Louisiana, we saw a sign that Bourgeois Meat Market was selling boudin burritos.  

If you're not familiar with the awesomeness that is boudin:  it's simmered pork, mixed with seasoning, vegetables, and rice (generally about a 50/50 mix, though Bourgeois makes theirs with less rice, about 30%), inside a natural casing.  It's often served grilled, or smoked and cut into bite-size links, or the casing is completely removed and folks will roll it up into little balls, bread it, and then deep fry. Piece of Meat restaurant in New Orleans makes a boudin egg roll that is INSANE.

So a boudin burrito makes sense, I mean: rice and meat inside a tortilla?  A logical lateral train of thought.

But we wanted to go one better.  Because you know what's better than a burrito?  A deep-fried burrito...aka a chimichanga.  Top that with a homemade crawfish cream sauce, and now THAT....that would be something.  I pitched the idea to Primo who responded "10/10 would eat."

So before we booked it back to Missouri, we hit up NuNu's market for some of their amazing boudin, and a packet of crawfish tails. Along with some other essentials.

Now...when it came time to actually make this masterpiece...I didn't actually feel like deep-frying anything. (Especially after having a particularly bad frying incident the week before which scorched my arm and filled our house with smoke.)  So instead, I decided to feaux-fry them (aka oven bake).

INGREDIENTS: (makes 6)
1 lb boudin (fresh or thawed), casings removed
6 "soft taco" size flour tortillas
Oil or butter 
green onions (for garnish)

Sauce:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp dried onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 tsp Cajun Seasoning (we use Fontenot & A Half which is extra spicy, so I just use 1 teaspoon)
12 oz crawfish tails
1.5 cups half & half or heavy cream
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp butter
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese - OPTIONAL (note: most crawfish cream sauces don't call for this, but it wasn't really thickening up for us, so I added the cheese. I'd just recommend having it on-hand in case your sauce misbehaves as well.)

DIRECTIONS:
Heat oven to 400F.
Place about 1/2 cup of loose boudin in the center of a tortilla,

 ...fold in the sides, and then wrap/fold the long edges, and repeat six times.

Spray a 9x11 pan with olive oil, and then place the wraps inside, and bake for about 30 minutes or until golden.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat, and add the onions and garlic.  Then add the flour and stir well.  Next, add the crawfish tails and cajun seasoning and let cook for 2 minutes.

Add the cream & Worcestershire sauce, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer, stirring often.  Let reduce for 20-30 minutes or until thickened/reduced by about half.  If sauce doesn't reduce/thicken to your liking, add the cheese.  

Let the sauce cool for about 5-10 minutes to help thicken, and then pour over the chimichanga and top with sliced green onions.  Enjoy!

Crawfish Boil Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

A few weeks ago I posted about making bacon-wrapped crawfish stuffed jalapenos using leftovers from a crawfish boil.  We didn't quite use up the filling we made with the jalapenos, so I decided to use the rest to make this side dish!

We added some sweet corn to the filling to round out this dish and make it truly reminiscent of a crawfish boil.

INGREDIENTS (makes 4 servings):
2 medium sweet potatoes
1/2 cup crawfish tails
1.5 Tbsp low fat cream cheese
1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 green onion, sliced
1/4 cup sweet corn
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella

DIRECTIONS:
Heat the oven to 350F.
Wash the potatoes, stab with a fork and nuke in the microwave for 3-4 minutes or until tender.
Combine the rest of the ingredients, minus the mozzarella, in a small bowl.
Cut the potatoes in half, then mash the guts with a fork, pressing the potato flesh to the sides to make a hollow for the filling.  Fill each of the potato halves with 1/4 of the crawfish filling, and then sprinkle the cheese over the top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is browned & melted.

Serving suggestion: baked or grilled chicken and a green salad.

Crawfish Stuffed Jalapenos

Leftover crawfish?  If you live in the south, it happens after nearly every boil, to the point that it’s almost part of the tradition—plunking down around the table with friends & family to peel all the little critters you couldn’t finish off.  There are plenty of options for what to do with leftover crawfish (like the Crawmlette or Crawchos), but what if you only have a little bit of meat to work with?  Here’s an option for you: mix with a little cheese, stuff inside of a jalapeno, and then wrap it in bacon.

Last week The Hubs & I took an extended Memorial Week trip down to Houston to visit his sister & her family.  As part of the trip, my nephew K asked if I would make crawfish for him, since he’d never tried one before.  Always happy to oblige a food request, I brought my 3-gallon pot & boil seasoning down with me. 

Since only K was really interested in trying the crawfish (my other nephew & nieces were iffy about the idea, and my sis-in-law doesn’t eat seafood), I decided to do a traditional shrimp/sausage boil, and then just pick up a few pounds of already cooked crawfish from the most popular local crawfish place (The Crawfish Shack in Crosby, TX…good stuff).

Our Feast!  Gulf shrimp, crawfish, pecan-smoked andouille, red potatoes & sweet corn. 

While we did as much damage as possible, at the end of the meal about a third of the crawfish were still left.  So I peeled the rest & brought the meat home with us.  There was only about a half cup of leftovers, so not enough to make much of an etoufee or bisque (or even Crawchos, really).  Thought about making some quesadillas, but then Primeaux suggested stuffed jalapenos.  Since we were grilling anyway, jalapenos won out.

 

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup crawfish tails/claw meat, chopped

1.5 tablespoons low fat cream cheese (try it with Creole cream cheese if you can find it!)

1/2 tsp boil seasoning or Cajun seasoning

1 green onion, diced

4 large or 8 small jalapenos, with caps removed and seeds scraped out

4 slices reduced sodium bacon

 

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the crawfish, cream cheese, seasoning & green onion in a small bowl until well combined.

Place in a sandwich bag (we reused the bag we brought the crawfish home in) and snip off a half-inch hole in one corner to create a piping bag.  Then pipe the crawfish mixture into the jalapenos. 

Use the end of the bacon strip to cover the open end, then wrap around the jalapeno & secure with a toothpick. (If you use small jalapenos you may be able to wrap them with only half a strip of bacon.)  Grill on the top rack for about 5 minutes on each side (or until the bacon is crispy), or in your oven on an aluminum covered cookie sheet at 400F.

Since we only made 4 stuffed jalapenos, we had some of the crawfish stuffing mix left over… stay tuned to see what we make with it!!!

Crawchos!!! (aka Crawfish Nachos)

This is an invention of my cousin Primo’s, that he dreamed up back in the day when we were still roommates in Lafayette.  Of course, back then, it was just an idea, a loose concept.  But since that time, Primo’s had a chance to perfect it into a pretty tasty dish.  And while I was down in Louisiana for work last week, he was cool enough to teach me his recipe.  This makes a pretty big batch, so it’s great for a party, and a great way to use up leftover crawfish tails after a boil!


Ingredients: (this has been slightly health-i-fied from the original)
32 oz block of Velveeta (2%), cubed
8 oz fat free cream cheese, cubed
14 oz can sweet corn, drained
2 tbsp jalapeno slices, diced
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
10 oz can of Mexican Rotel, drained
4-6 oz light beer (I’ll recommend Abita Light to keep it Cajun)
1 lb crawfish tails (preferably leftover from a crawfish boil so they have some good spice)
1 tbsp dry Crab Boil seasoning
Tortilla chips
Sliced green onions or cilantro (optional—we didn’t have them, but I think it would make a nice garnish & add another pop of flavor)

Directions:
In a large skillet, heat the corn over medium-low heat & season with the Cajun seasoning.  Stir occasionally.  This is to pull some of the moisture out of the corn, to give it a crunchier texture.  After about 5 minutes, add the jalapenos & continue to stir.

P.S.  Now’s a good time to have one of these:

(My favorite time of year—Strawberry Lager season!)

And of course, what’s an episode of FeauxCajun Kitchen without some canine sous chefs?

(“Furreals Dad…just ONE piece of cream cheese.  But don’t try stickin’ that heartworm pill in there again. I’m on to your schemes.”)

In a large pot, combine Velveeta, cream cheese, rotel, crab boil seasoning, and beer over medium heat. 

Stir periodically until smooth & creamy, then add crawfish & corn mixture.

Continue to cook until crawfish are heated through, stirring frequently to make sure the bottom doesn’t scorch.

Arrange your chips on a plate and then pour the crawfish cheese sauce over the chips.

Proceed to chow down!!!

Nutrifacts (makes 12 servings):

Calories 370.2
  Total Fat 13.7 g
  Saturated Fat 6.3 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 2.9 g
  Cholesterol 88.0 mg
  Sodium 1,869.9 mg
  Potassium 359.8 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 34.0 g
  Dietary Fiber 2.4 g
  Sugars 8.1 g
  Protein 26.7 g

Guest Post: Crawmlette!

It’s just a week of firsts around here, isn’t it?  This is my first time hosting a guest poster on my blog.  As such, it’s only appropriate that my first guest poster is also one of my favorite people on the planet—my cousin Primo.

(Former Missourian-turned-NOLA resident, fellow Cajun food lover, and Dive Buddy Extraordinaire.)

Primo moved to Louisiana in 2008 for work & then stayed for school (along with all the other awesomeness that is New Orleans).  Now he’s got a rock star job with one of the consulting firms in the Crescent City. Like myself, Primo loves the local fare—along with putting his own unique spin on it.  So here we go!

(NOTE: Portions in italics are comments from me.)

~~~~~

Crawfish season; it’s the magic time of year between February and June when these amazing crustaceans are in full swing and everyone is happy. Well, everyone in my area at least. These guys are consumed by the sack full (that’s about 30-35 pounds for those of you not fortunate enough to live near the Gulf) at crawfish boils. Rarely do I have any leftovers when I boil.

One of my local watering holes holds a crawfish boil every Friday evening. This past weekend, they had had an excess of crawfish at closing time, so I was able to purchase an ice chest full for $30. …It sounded like a great purchase after a night of drinking. When I woke up, I had 40 pounds of crawfish boil leftovers in my kitchen.

  

(A thing of beauty, I tell you…)

I knew I could salvage the tails. What about the rest?

Being time for breakfast, the answer was easy. The Crawmlette had been born. All of the ingredients were already in my kitchen. All but one was in the ice chest awaiting preparation.

(Breakfast of Champions!  …or, hungover Cajun foodies.  Whatevs.)

 

The recipe is simple:

2 large eggs

½ C crawfish tails, removed  from the rest of the body

¼ C spicy boiled corn, cut off the cob

1/8c spicy boiled mushrooms

2 spicy boiled Red Potatoes

 

Directions:

Heat a skillet to a medium-high heat.

Chop up the mushrooms to your desired consistency. The ones I had were button mushrooms so I quartered them. 

Whisk 2 eggs.

Combine the eggs, crawfish tails, mushrooms, and corn and cook yourself the best high protein, omelet your taste buds have experienced. That’s it. No seasoning required. All the flavor of the boil is still with your ingredients.

Dice up a couple potatoes from the boil leftovers. Throw them in your skillet and quickly pan-fry the outside to a nice crisp for some spicy home fries.

(DUDE.  I am stealing this plate next time I visit.  You’ve been warned.)

 

Rough nutritional facts for the Crawmlette: 332 calories, 15 grams of fat

Shared on 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesdays.

Wednesday Word/Phrase of the Day: comme ça.

This is another phrase that I picked up in Louisiana & it has stuck...I use it in conversation with non-Louisianians & get a raised eyebrow & a quizzical look, like I was momentarily possessed by a demon. In Louisiana, where peeps can recognize simply by every other word in a sentence that I am not a native, a slightly proud sparkle glimmers for a moment in the corner of their eye, as they realize their infectious way of life has ensnared the heart & tongue of an outsider.

To be fair, I was familiar with the phrase "comme ça" (come sa) before I moved to Louisiana, as I had 4 years of French classes under my belt. But I was familiar with it in the following usage:

"Comme si, comme ça", meaning "so-so", as a response to someone asking "How are you today" (Comment allez-vous aujourdhui?) While there are MANY correct responses to that question, "Comme si, comme ça" was the one I used most frequently. I mean, as a stressed-out college student with a 12-hour course load and 2-3 part time jobs at any time (during my senior year, I was delivering pizzas, bartending at a pool hall, and working as a photographer for the campus newspaper), it was either that or "Je suis fatigué" (I'm sure you can figure that one out.)

But I think it was my friend/coworker Dre who first introduced me to the more Cajun usage of the phrase back in '06. Dre was a draftsman & we were discussing a set of maps:

Dre: *draws on the map* So you want it comme ça?
Me: I want it what?

Cajuns typically have a bad rap for butchering the French language, but surprisingly, in this instance the Cajun usage is actually more accurate than the "so-so" translation I was familiar with.

The literal translation of "comme si, çomme ça" means "like this, like that". Cajuns use "comme ça" for "like this" or "like so". Some still use the "like" in front of it, indicating that it represents just "so", or they'll say "like ça". Just depends on the mouth that's saying it.

And since I so RARELY get to use any of the French I spent 4 years learning (because I've never been to Canada and our most frequent immigrants are coming from the South, not the north), I latched onto comme ça almost instantaneously. It wasn't a conscious effort--I just heard it SO often around our office that it just wormed it's way into my vocabulary.

Uses in sentences (complete with Louisiana pics, of course):

As a measurement: "I caught me a decent gaspergou*...it was like comme ça..."

(freshwater drum, also referred to as a "croaker" because of the grunting noise it makes when caught)

Or as instruction: "You see, you gotta peel the crawfish comme ça..."