Earner's Crawfish Bisque

By á-34054

Start the party early - enlist some friends to help you peel the crawfish for this worth-the-effort Louisiana bisque. Stuffed, baked crawfish heads make it fun!

Ingredients

• For Gravy:
• 11 sack live crawfish (about 40 pounds)
• 2large2 large onions
• 44 ribs celery
• 1/41/4 bell pepper
• 4cloves4 cloves garlic
• 10sprigs10 sprigs of parsley
• 1cup1 cup cooking oil
• 2cups2 cups flour (about)
• 4heaping teaspoons4 heaping teaspoons tomato paste
• 9cups9 cups hot water
• 5teaspoons5 teaspoons salt
• 2teaspoons2 teaspoons red pepper
• 66 green onions
• For Stuffing:
• 2large2 large onions
• 33 ribs celery
• 1/41/4 bell pepper
• 4cloves4 cloves garlic
• 10sprigs10 sprigs parsley
• 1/4cup1/4 cup cooking oil
• 22 eggs, beaten
• 2cups2 cups dry bread crumbs (or more)
• 4teaspoons4 teaspoons salt
• 2teaspoons2 teaspoons red pepper
• Flour
• 66 green onions

Preparation

Step 1

To Prepare Crawfish:
Scald live crawfish in almost boiling water for about 15 minutes. Drain and cool.

Peel crawfish and save the meat and fat in separate bowls. Grind the crawfish. Set aside.

Clean about 200 heads to stuff. Set aside.

To Make Gravy:
Grind onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and parsley. In a large heavy pot, heat oil; add flour to make a roux. Stir constantly until browned. Add ground vegetables. Cook on low fire about 30 minutes. Add tomato paste and crawfish fat. Cook about 30 minutes. Add hot water and let cook on low fire. Add 2 1/2 cups ground crawfish tails, salt, and pepper. Cook on high fire about 20 minutes.

To Make Stuffing for Heads:
Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Grind onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic, and parsley. Fry remaining crawfish tails and ground vegetables in hot cooking oil; cool. Add remaining crawfish fat and eggs. Mix in bread crumbs, salt, and red pepper. Stuff the crawfish heads. Dip the stuffed part of head in flour and place on cookie sheet. Bake 20 minutes.

Add baked crawfish heads to gravy. Cook on low fire about 1 hour. More hot water may be added if too thick. Stir carefully. Serve in soup bowls over rice. Garnish with green onions.