Crawfish Lasagna

1 lb crawfish

1 small bell pepper
1/2 yellow onion
salt
pepper
red pepper
basil
oregeno
1 bar cream cheese
1 small tube riccota cheese
1 small container of small curd cottage cheese
1 small can tomato sauce
1 large can tomato sauce
6 to 8 oven ready lasagna noodles (boiled for 6 minutes)
1 -2 cups cheese of your choice for topping lasagna


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix riccota and cottage cheese.

Saute onion and bell peper until tender. Add one small can of tomato sauce and crawfish. Season to taste. Cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Next, mix until smooth - 1 can of tomato sauce, room temperture cream cheese, herbs, and seasoning to taste. Place a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 9x11 pan. Place two lasagna noodles side by side then smooth a layer of the riccota/cottage cheese mixture about an inch thick. Add more sauce befor placing another layer of noodles. Now, place crawfish mixture and add a layer of noodles atop crawfish. Add another layer of cheese mixture, sauce, and noodles. Pour the last of the sauce on top and sprinkle cheese of your choice on top. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until cheese is bubbly.

Nola's Shrimp and Smoked Cheddar Grits

Thanks to Emeril Lagasse and Food Network for this oh so yummy dish!

Ingredients
For the Shrimp:
2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 1/2 teaspoons Essence, recipe follows
3/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 recipe Smoked Cremini Mushrooms and Rendered Bacon, recipe follows
1 recipe Abita BBQ Glaze, recipe follows
1 recipe Smoked Cheddar Grits, recipe follows
1 recipe Citrus Buerre Blanc, recipe follows
1 recipe Grilled Green Onions, recipe follows
Directions
In a large bowl, combine the shrimp with the Essence and salt and toss to blend. Set aside as you prepare the skillet. Place a large, 14-inch skillet over high heat and add the olive oil and heat until very hot. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter to the pan. Swirl to melt, and then add the shrimp to the pan, being sure that the shrimp are in 1 layer in the pan. Sear the shrimp until well caramelized on the first side, about 1 minute. Turn the shrimp over and add the Smoked Mushrooms and Bacon and Abita BBQ Glaze to the pan. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are well coated with the sauce and just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining butter to the pan and swirl until melted into the sauce.
To serve, divide the grits between 8 entree-sized shallow bowls. Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of the Citrus Beurre Blanc around the edge of the grits near the rim of the bowl. Divide the shrimp-mushroom mixture evenly between the bowls, and place a grilled green onion on top of the grits in a circle. Serve immediately.
For the Smoked Cremini Mushrooms and Rendered Bacon:
3/4 pound cremini mushrooms, halved, or quartered if large
1 1/2 teaspoons Essence
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 pound bacon, diced
Special equipment: stovetop smoker
In a medium bowl, combine the mushrooms, Essence and olive oil. Toss to combine and place on the rack of a stovetop smoker. Prepare the smoker over medium-high heat using applewood smoking dust, or the smoke chips of your choice. When the smoker begins to smoke, close the lid. Smoke the mushrooms until cooked through, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the smoker and set aside until ready to use.
While the mushrooms smoke, place the bacon in a 10-inch saute pan over medium-low heat and render the fat from them until they are just beginning to get crispy, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan using a slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain. Set aside until ready to use.
For the Abita BBQ Glaze:
1 cup ketchup
1 cup Abita amber beer
6 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
Combine the ketchup, beer, brown sugar and crushed red pepper in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat slightly and continue to cook at a steady simmer until the sauce is translucent and reduces to a consistency thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5 to 10 minutes. Set aside. You should have about 1 1/4 cups of glaze.
Yield: 1 1/4 cups
For the Smoked Cheddar Grits:
6 cups water
Salt
1 1/2 cups quick cooking or old-fashioned grits (not instant!)
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons butter
6 ounces grated smoked white Cheddar
Freshly ground black pepper
In a large, heavy saucepan bring the water to a boil. Add a generous teaspoon of salt and the grits and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. When grits thicken, add the milk, cream and butter and return to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, partially cover the sauce pan and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until grits are very tender, smooth, and creamy-thick. Add the Cheddar, season with black pepper, and stir until cheese is melted. Serve hot

Hey, Did I Ever Tell You I Might Be Famous?

Famous?  Not really.  If only fame could be captured by having a recipe posted on the Real Cajun Recipes site...  I've been meaning to post the recipe here.  I have concocted a knock-off to the Copeland's crawfish ravioli dish. 

Ingredients


1/2 stick butter or 1/4 cup margarine
1 cup to 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 small yellow or white onion
1/2 medium to large bell pepper
3 cloves minced garlic
1 green onion, coarsely chopped
Cajun seasoning to taste
Pinch nutmeg
1 pound cleaned crawfish tails
1 box breaded cheese ravioli (found in the frozen food section) or 1-Package fresh cheese ravioli
Parmesean cheese to garnish


Directions

Begin by preheating oven to appropriate temperature marked on breaded ravioli package. -OR- If you are using fresh ravioli, bring salted water to a boil in pasta or "soup" pot.

In a heavy bottom saucepan, melt butter/margarine over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Saute until onions are clear. Add crawfish tails and stir. Saute for 3-5 minutes until tails begin to curl. Add heavy whipping cream, Cajun seasoning and nutmeg. Stir to incorporate. Allow to simmer for ten minutes over low to medium heat. Meanwhile, boil fresh ravioli, or bake breaded ravioli according to package directions.

If sauce seems to be too thin, use a thickening agent such as flour, Wondra Quick Mixing Flour for Sauces and Gravy (preferred), or as a last resort, corn starch. Sauce should be thick in consistency similar to that of an Alfredo sauce.

Once ravioli is ready to plate, check for consistency and seasoning one final time. (Remember not to exceed fifteen minutes crawfish cooking time; otherwise, they may become tough.)Plate ravioli in stacked circular pattern, ladeling crawfish cream sauce over ravioli. Garnish with chopped green onion and parmesean cheese.



**Most good Cajun cooks never measure ingredients. We all rely on the three most important cooking senses: sight, smell, and taste. These measurements are extremely rough and may need to be adjusted to fit your own taste.

Recommended Sides Garlic bread or homeade rolls are an excellent complement to this dish. Also, try serving a green salad with a sweet onion dressing or vinegrette.

This is NOT a fat free recipe.  (In fact, not many of mine are...) But, it sure is a wonderful dish. You could easily substitute shrimp, crab, etc. in place of the crawfish.