Crawfish Bisque White House Recipes

Steps:

• Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir chopped onion and green onion in melted butter until softened, about 5 minutes. Add crawfish tails, potato soup, mushroom soup, yellow corn, white corn, and cream cheese; cook and stir until cheese melts completely into mixture. Pour half-and-half into the pot; stir. Season with Creole seasoning, salt, and black pepper. Cook until hot, about 15 minutes.

Steps:

• For the crawfish stock: Remove the meat from the crawfish tails and set aside. Place the shells and heads in a large stockpot. Add water to cover. Add the carrot, celery, onion, bay leaves, and thyme sprigs, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain, reserving the stock.
• For the bisque: Melt the butter in the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the bell pepper, celery, onion, tomato, and Cajun seasoning and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour and tomato paste and cook until bubbly and beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Stir in the crawfish stock and sherry and cook until it evaporates, about 1 minute. Stir in the cream and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the soup begins to thicken.
• Use an immersion blender to puree the soup until smooth. Alternatively, use a standard blender and puree in batches. (Be sure to remove the lid cap to allow steam to escape.) Stir in the reserved crawfish meat and cook until heat through, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Divide the bisque between serving bowls and garnish with parsley, if desired.

Steps:

• Bring 2 quarts water to a boil, add crawfish, and 2 teaspoons salt. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain and save stock. Pull out middle tail fin and with it the intestinal vein of each crawfish. Pick fat and meat from tails and heads and save it. Keep head shells for stuffing. Return tail shells to stock, and add 1/2 cup celery and 1/4 cup parsley. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain. Chop crawfish meat and add half of it to this bisque. Remove from heat and cover to keep hot. Meanwhile sauté onion and remaining 1/2 cup celery and crawfish fat and butter in a heavy pot for 10 minutes. Combine drained soaked buns, crumbled bread, and eggs and stir into onion mixture. Add remaining chopped crawfish meat, remaining 1/4 cup parsley, scallion tops, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, a few grains of cayenne pepper, and black pepper. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Stuff crawfish heads with this mixture. To serve, put 5 stuffed crawfish heads and a few spoonfuls of rice in each soup bowl. Pour bisque over each serving. Author's note: A little secret-boil rice in fish broth or even chicken broth in place of water.

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan.
• Add the flour and cook, stirring, to make medium brown roux (the color of peanut butter).
• Add the onion, garlic, celery and the white parts of the scallions and cook until softened, stirring occasionally.
• Gradually stir in the water, then add the tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, 4 Tbsp of the parsley, allspice berries, cloves, salt, peppers, cayenne to taste and the lemon juice.
• Bring to a boil, stirring well.
• Chop about one-quarter of the crawfish tails and add with the fat, if available.
• Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
• Add the remaining whole crawfish tails and simmer, covered for 15 minutes or longer.
• Stir in the green parts of the scallions and the remaining parsley.
• Serve hot over rice.
• NOTE*** If available, add 12 or more stuffed crawfish heads (thawed if frozen) 5 minutes before serving.