Cajun French: l’arbre (l’arb) – tree
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me – a crawfish in a fig tree.
In reality we had a crawfish casserole with a fig salad. Figs are a popular fruit in south Louisiana except they are not available fresh at Christmas time. So we used dried figs and reconstituted them. The crawfish were frozen tails we had stored in the freezer. We always try to have frozen crawfish tails available for use and always Louisiana Crawfish Tails.
This is also a great recipe for using those Christmas leftovers. Almost any vegetable could be used as well as leftover rice.
Our gift to you for the First Day of Christmas.
Mais C’est Bon!
Enjoy!!
Crawfish Casserole
Ingredients:
- 1 med onion, finely chopped
- 1 lg clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1# crawfish, cleaned and coarse chopped – reserve two dozen whole tails
- 1 cup small cubed bread
- 1 sm yellow squash diced
- 4 sm fresh carrots diced, about 1 cup
- 1 red jalapeno, finely sliced
- 6 shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped
- 1 cup cooked rice
- ½ – 3/4 cup vegetable broth
- Cayenne
- Cajun Seasoning
- Olive Oil
- Garlic and herb bread Crumbs
- 4 Tbl Parmesan Cheese
Reserve about two dozen whole crawfish tails for topping.
Heat 2 Tbl olive oil to medium in cast iron skillet.
Sauté carrots 3 minutes then add onion, jalapeno and garlic and sauté until onions are just tender.
Add squash and mushrooms and sauté about 2 minutes.
Add crawfish and heat thoroughly.
Season with Cajun seasoning to taste.
Add rice and bread and mix well.
Add broth and mix well.
Season with Cajun seasoning and Cayenne to taste.
Top with parmesan cheese.
Top with seasoned bread crumbs.
Bake in cast iron skillet in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until heated through.
Abot 10 minutes before complete, place crawfish tails on top.
Before serving sprinkle with more parmesan cheese.
If you have a cast iron skillet with a cast iron top, this may be cooked on top the stove.
Fig and Kohlrabi Salad
Ingredients:
- 2 sm kohlrabi, peeled and julienned
- 6 dried figs sliced into small strips
- ½ tsp olive oil
- ½ tsp Splenda
- pinch of salt
Reconstitute figs in water or citrus juice by simmering figs in liquid until tender.
Combine all ingredients and mix well.
