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.

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.

Salmon, pasta, and chutney oh my.

This was very simple since and quick.

Ingredients:

1 bag ricotta stuffed spinach pasta
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 cup of any mild cheese to finish

Salmon-
ground salmon (1/4 lb per patty)
salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste
1 egg
juice of one lemon, to sprinkle over salmon

Mix ingredients excluding lemon juice and place in fridge for thirty minutes.


Chutney-
1 cup whole kernel corn
1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple
1/3 medium red bell pepper
1 diced fresh carrot
1/2 cup of water
black pepper

I cooked all three parts of the dish at the same time since each part only takes a few minutes to cook.

First, start water boiling for pasta. Once water has come to a boil, add pasta. Pasta will only take about 4 to 5 minutes to cook. After draining cooked pasta, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with cheese.

While pasta is boiling, form salomon cakes. Heat a skillet on medium high heat and add a little olive oil to prevent the salmon cakes from sticking. Once salmon cakes are in the skillet drizzle each with a little lemon juice (save a wedge or two to serve with the dish).

You will also need to heat a skillet (medium Heat) to sautee the chutney ingredients excluding the water. Sweat veggies adding water as need to prevent burning. Once veggie are soft, remove skillet from heat and you are ready to fix a plate full of yummy treats.

Pasta Salad and Peace

This evening's menu consisted of a super easy Seafood Pasta Salad.  The original recipe came from the Kraft Foods website.  But, because I'm never satisfied with most recipes I find, I gave it a little spice.  So here it goes...

1 box mini Farfalle

2 bundles asparagus

1 pound cleaned and deveined shrimp
1 pound bay scallops
1 can lump crabmeat
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 can Italian diced tomatoes
1 can whole black olives
1 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
Kraft Light Zesty Italian Dressing OR Hidden Valley Ranch Farmhouse Originals Creamy Parmesan
Parmesan cheese to garnish

Begin by sauteing shrimp and scallops in a heavy bottom saucepan.  Midway through the cooking process (3 minutes), add minced garlic.  Season with Old Bay seasoning and/or Tony Chachares if available in your area. Cook seafood for approximately six minutes; until shrimp are firm and pink.  Follow directions on pasta packaging to prepare, add asparagus last five minutes of boiling time until al dente.

In a large bowl, combine the lump crabmeat, tomatoes, olives, and basil.  Add the pasta, asparagus, and seafood.  Toss to combine.  Add dressing and cheese to taste!  Enjoy!

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While having dinner, Melanie texted a picture of the queche that she prepared for dinner.  I had just taken a picture of my dish to text to her as well!  That's when the idea of a Blog hit me.  Since she now lives in Dallas, and I in Lake Charles, I figured this would be a great way to communicate and share our experiences.  This is my first official posting, and I hope we accumulate readers who may become inspired to do the same with family and friends.  Welcome to Food and Friendship!