INGREDIENTS
For stuffing the heads
2 pounds crawfish tails peeled
1 ½ cup Yellow Onions minced
½ cup Celery minced including leaves
5 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons parsley minced
3 whole eggs
2 cups seasoned breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
Black pepper to taste
About 50 to 60 cleaned crawfish heads
For the bisque
8 cups crawfish stock plus some extra if needed
2 pounds crawfish tails peeled
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1 ½ cup Yellow Onions finely chopped
½ cup Celery finely chopped
½ cup bell pepper finely chopped
2 bunches green onions finely sliced
5 cloves garlic finely chopped
¼ to ½ cup Tomato Sauce
½ cup parsley finely chopped
2 tablespoons Creole seasoning plus some for the tails.
Kosher salt and pepper to taste.
Here’s What You Do
To stuff the heads
Set aside about ¼ cup of the crawfish tails.
DIRECTIONS
Place the remaining tails into a food processor and grind until fine, place in a bowl.
Take the reserved crawfish tails and roughly chop them into small pieces, place them with the ground tails.
Place the onions, celery, garlic and parsley in the food processor and chop until very fine.
Place the vegetables in the bowl with the crawfish and make sure to include any juice generated by the food processing.
To the bowl add the eggs, creole seasoning and pepper.
Add the breadcrumbs, starting with about 1 cup. Mix all together with your hands. Add more breadcrumbs as needed to make sure it holds together.
Stuff the crawfish heads with the filling. Starting on the wider end of the head’s opening, use your left index finger to spread the shell open, place filling into the head and stuff it tightly with your right index finger. Alternately, you could forego stuffing the heads and form the filling into small balls known as boulettes.
Place all the stuffed heads on a baking sheet and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. Set aside.
To make the bisque:
Place the tail meat in a bowl, sprinkle with creole seasoning and set aside.
Place 8 cups of crawfish stock in a stock pot and warm until almost boiling.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large cast iron dutch oven over high heat.
When the oil is shimmering, add the flour and whisk constantly until you have a medium roux. Add the trinity (yellow onions, celery and bell peppers) into the roux and stir constantly until softened, about 8 minutes.
Add the garlic, about ⅔ of the green onions and the creole seasoning. Stir until blended and becoming aromatic, about 2 minutes.
Add the crawfish tails in about four batches and the tomato sauce, stir to mix well.
Making sure the stock is about the same temperature as the roux mixture, slowly add stock to the roux and crawfish, a ladle at a time, stirring to completely blend the stock into the roux mixture before adding the next ladle.
Continue this, one ladle at a time, until about half of the stock has been added, then you can add the balance of the stock and mix together very well. Make sure there are no lumps.
Bring the bisque to a high boil, reduce heat to a medium simmer and let it simmer for about 15 minutes uncovered.
Add the stuffed crawfish heads and return to a boil.
Once it boils, lower the heat to a simmer, cover and continue to simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir often to keep the heads off the bottom of the pot.
Add some of the reserved stock if it gets too thick.
After 45 minutes add the parsley and stir well.
Serve in a bowl over a scoop of white rice, making sure to get some of the stuffed heads in each serving. Sprinkle chopped green onions on top.
