A “Lighter” Version of Crawfish Étouffée That Will Keep Your Waistline Happy :)

Using a stick of butter or even a half a stick of butter just doesn’t sound very appealing to me especially after the holidays. So I made one of my favorites with a quarter of the fat and it turned out awesome!  You will notice I served this in a “bread boat”, this is how Evan likes it. You can do it plain, in a boat, or on top of rice-your choice!

Prep Time: 25 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Serves: 4-6 People

Ingredients:

• 1lb Crawfish meat (shelled and deveined)
• 1 C. Celery, chopped
• 1 C. Red and Green Bell Pepper Mixture, chopped
• 1 C. Sweet Onion, chopped
• 2 Cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Bay leave
• 1/2 C. Chicken Stock, no sodium
• 2 TBS Butter
• 1 TBS Coconut Oil
• 1 TBS Favorite cajun seasoning
• 1/2 TBS. Jalapeno (fresh), minced
• 1 tsp. Black pepper
• Salt to taste
• 1.5 TBS Flour dissolved in water

Instructions:

• Heat butter and coconut oil on medium, once hot add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
• Add the Holy Trinity: Bells, Onions, and Celery! Saute for 12-15 min
• Add Crawfish, seasoning, bay leave, and chicken stock and simmer for 10 min.
• Add flour to thicken sauce and season to taste with salt or more cajun seasoning.
• Serve over white rice or in a bread boat.

Enjoy!

Crawfish Étouffée with Jalapeno Cheese Cornbread

Hey fellow foodies! I was out over the weekend with my husband for our first wedding anniversary! We had a blast, maybe even too much fun 🙂 It started Saturday with some Christmas shopping for our family. Then we went to the lake (where Evan’s parents live and we soon will be living in 8 days… more on that in a moment).

I made us (Evan’s parents and us) a delightful dinner: Quail wrapped in bacon, stuffed with La Marechal Emmi Cheese, Jalapenos, and seared in duck fat. They offered to dog sit for our big day/night out on the town the following day. On Sunday we got up took the dog out for a quick walk and then made our way to downtown. We stayed at the Driskill, one of my favorite places in Austin (we came here after our wedding a year ago on that day). For dinner we went to Uchi and drank and ate far too much, it was incredible as usual! It was the perfect way to celebrate one year of marriage and many more to come!

Back to the whole moving thing… in 8 days (oh my I cannot believe how close it is), we are moving to Lago Vista for at least a year possibly 2. Evan’s parents will be going to Singapore for work and then when they return they will be retiring! We are lucky enough to be staying in their beautiful home while they are away! I would imagine this may be my last blog post until the new year since I will be waist deep in packing the house up. So if you don’t hear from me for about a week, that’s why 😉

This Crawfish Étouffée is simple to make and not very time intensive! For all of you cajun purist out there, beware I have made some modifications so don’t hate 😉

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 20-25 min

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1lb Crawfish- thawed tails, cooked ( I buy the frozen bag already peeled and cooked, just tails when they are not in season).
• 1/2 Stick of salted butter
• 2 TBS Rendered duck fat (if you do not have this you can get some at Marx Foods or you can add more butter (2 TBS). I know what you’re thinking… but there’s nothing healthy about this dish so why not add some duck fat!!! 😉
• 1 Green bell, chopped
• 1 Red bell, chopped
• 1 Sweet yellow onion, chopped
• 1/4 Poblano pepper, chopped
• 1 C. Chopped celery
• 1/4 C. Shallots, minced
• 2 Cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. Green peppercorns, finely ground.
• 1 tsp. Sea salt, kosher
• 1 TBS of your fav. cajun spice mix
• 1 Pinch of cayenne pepper if desired, the poblanos to contain some heat.
• 2 Whole bay leaves
• 1/2 C. Chicken Stock,  1/2 C. Water 2 TBS flour, dissolve flour in it.
• 2 C. Uncooked rice long grain white rice (there will be left over rice).
• 4 C. Chicken stock for rice and a TBS of olive oil.

Instructions:

1. Get rice going with broth and oil. cook accordingly to package.
2. In a large skillet or dutch oven heat butter and duck fat on high (don’t burn it though), add all of the veggies, garlic, and shallots. Cook for about 10-12 min or until onions are translucent.
3. Add crawfish and spices cook for 5 min.
4. Add water/broth and flour mixture and let thicken for about 4-5 min.
5. Taste and add salt or cajun spice if needed (depending on your broth and cajun seasoning you may need to add something).
6. Remove bay leaves and serve Crawfish Étouffée over rice with a side of corn bread (recipe coming soon).

Enjoy and Cheers!

Venison Sausage Stuffed Empanadas

These are a little time intensive but worth it!  I like that they are baked and not fried and that I used butter rather than lard.  Butter makes a dense dough, lard creates a flaky dough.  There’s just something about lard that makes me uneasy.  I’ll eat it (tortillas) but if I’m cooking… I’d rather cook with butter personally 🙂

Prep: 2 hrs

Cook: 1 hr

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 2 1/4 C. flour
• 1 very cold stick of butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 TBS white vinegar
• 3/4 C. of ice cld water
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt, finely ground
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp fresh finely ground pepper

Venison Sausage Mixture:

• 1lb Venison pan sausage (from a hunter friend)
• 1/2 Large yellow onion, diced
• 1 large shallot, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1TBS parsley, dried
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Dough Instructions:

1. Sift flour with salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and garlic powder into a large bowl and blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with some (roughly pea-size) butter lumps.
2. Beat together egg, water, and vinegar in a small bowl with a fork. Add to flour mixture, stirring with fork until just incorporated. (Mixture will look shaggy.)
3. Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and gather together, then knead gently with heel of your hand, just enough to bring dough together. Roll dough out into a large rectangle on a floured space and cut out 10-15 circles with a large cup or cookie cutter.  (I use a cup that’s about 4″ diameter).
4. Refrigerate floured dough circles for about 30-45 min before filling.

Sausage Instructions:

1. Use fresh pan sausage:  Heat large skillet on medium high and add meat, onions, shallots, and garlic.  Cook thoroughly, 15-20 min.
2. Drain fat/juices
3. Add spice and then salt and pepper to taste.
4. Set aside in bowl

Additional/Optional Ingredients

• Cheese
• Mashed sweet potatoes
• 1 Egg, beaten for wash

To make the empanadas:

1. Take a circle of dough and add a mound of meat mixture to center (add a pinch of cheese if desired) and fold circle in half and seal with a dull fork (pressing down all the way around the dough to make a half circle).
2. Continue until meat or dough is gone.
3. Brush empanadas with egg wash. (Beaten egg)
4. Bake for 25-35 min @ 350 degrees

Serve with Sriracha

I filled some of the empanadas with mashed sweet potatoes, they were good too!

Venison