Crawfish Monica

This creamy noodle dish has Cajun flavors and is great for walking around a fair or music festival . It's basically a mac and cheese recipe with a Cajun roux and fried garnish.  Rotini is a lame pasta, but it’s the traditional choice for the jazz feast celebration and has good forkability. It's also an excellent recipe for left over crawfish after a boil.

Why it works:

The rotini is a great shape for walking around in a bowl, and to hold sauce, This also can hot hold for Mardi Gras parties or tailgates or music festivals.

Yield: 4 portions

Time: 1 hour

Pairing: Beer!

References:

Equipment:

• Medium Saucepan

• Large Saucepan for Pasta Boil

• Pasta Strainer

• Whisk

• Wooden Spoon

Ingredients:

• Pasta

  • 1 # Rotini Pasta

  • 4 cups Fresh water

  • Salt (for the pasta boil)

• Roux

  • 1 stick butter

  • 
    

• Trinity

  • 1/2 Spanish (Yellow) Onion

  • 1 Red Bell Pepper

  • 2 Table Cajun Season (Tony's works)

  • Green onion

• Pope

  • 4 Cloves Garlic
    

• Liquid

  • ¼ cups White wine (or Dry Vermouth)

  • 4 cup Heavy Cream

  • 1 whole lemon juice

• Cheese

  • 3 cup grated Parmagan Regiano.

• Protein

  • 2 # Crawfish tail (or shrimp) 

• Dredge

  • ½  cup AP Flour

  • ¼ cup corn starch

  • 2 tablespoon Cajun seasoning ( see page XXX)
    

• Fry

  • 2 cup peanut oil

• Garnish

  • Fresh chopped parsley
    

Instructions:

1. Bring salted water to boil, boil pasta to al dente. Drain and reserve. Continue with the recipe while pasta boils.

2. Pat all seafood dry and season with salt. Reserve half of the seafood and set aside for the final fold of cream sauce. Dredge and fry remaining seafood. Hold on a paper towel. 

3. Chop Trin to a small dice, or pulse in a food processor until the size of grated carrot.

4. Begin Roux: Begin Melting Butter in the sauce pan, add flour and whisk in. Roux should be the consistency of wet sand, and a spoon should be able to pull through it and slowly come back together.  Bring roux to a blonde color.

5. Turn roux to high heat and add trinity. Saute until onions are translucent. Add pope and saute until garlic is fragrant. 

6. Deglaze with vermouth until fond is released from pan, using wooden spat to emulsify. Add Stock and bring to a soft simmer. Add cream, and begin reduction. 

7. Add drained al dente pasta to the cream mixture. Reduce until the consistency of Mac and Cheese. Check with a heat proof spat, and fold from the bottom of the pan.  

8. Fold in held seafood, and temper for 5-7 minutes. 

9. Plate and garnish with fried seafood, squeeze of lemon, and fresh parsley.  Plating instructions:

Tasting Journal

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