Louisiana Crawfish and Eggs

By corlear

Chef’s Note: Crawfish lends itself to an endless variety of crowd-pleasing preparations. Customers give the thumbs up to our crawfish cakes, which we embellish with poached eggs and a buttery sauté of crawfish for a double dose of goodness.

Chef’s Tips: Since crawfish may not be the easiest thing to come by in some places, check the Source Guide (page 186 in the book) for advice on locating terrific ingredients.

Crawfish season generally runs from early January through June and at the season’s end, they sometimes lose some of their sweetness — add a splash of brandy to sweeten. Frozen Asian crawfish are available year-round. Andouille sausage is an optional ingredient in Sautéed Crawfish Sauce for this recipe.

Ingredients

• 8 Poached Eggs (see recipe)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 3/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 3/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
• 3/4 cup finely chopped celery
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 pound crawfish tail meat
• 1 teaspoon Louisiana hot pepper sauce
• 2 teaspoons Creole Seafood Seasoning (see recipe)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Dry bread crumbs as needed for dredging
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1 recipe Sautéed Crawfish Sauce (see recipe)

Details

Servings 4

Preparation

Step 1

Prepare Poached Eggs; reserve until needed.

Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic; sauté until translucent. Reduce heat to medium; add crawfish, hot sauce, Creole Seafood Seasoning, Worcestershire and cheese to vegetables and cook until heated through.

Remove skillet from heat. Stir in 1 slightly beaten egg, 1/4 cup bread crumbs and green onion; form mixture into 8 cakes.

Combine remaining 2 eggs and milk in a small bowl for egg wash. Dust crawfish cakes with flour, dip into egg wash and dredge in bread crumbs.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add crawfish cakes and sauté until golden-brown and heated through; drain on paper towel. Keep warm in oven.

Prepare Sautéed Crawfish Sauce.

To serve, place 2 crawfish cakes on each plate, top each cake with a reheated poached egg and 1/4 cup crawfish sauce.