Last night, I wanted to do something different for dinner. I did a little bit of research on crawfish cakes and blended a few recipes to come up with the following. I did use Louisianna crawfish, as apposed to imported mudbugs from China…at about a 1.5X premium in cost.
1lb Crawfish Tails
1 Bunch Green Onions, Thinly Sliced
3 Cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
1/2 Medium Red Bell Pepper, Small Dice
1 Meyer Lemon, Juiced and Zested
1 1/2 TBS Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
1 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs +/-
2 Whole Eggs
1 TBS Mayonnaise, Homemade
Extra Bread Crumbs as Needed
Clafified Butter as Needed
Grapeseed Oil as Needed
- Thaw the package of tail meat and place the tails in a fine mesh strainer to collect as much liquid as possible from the crawfish.
- In a medium saute pan, heat the clarified butter and sweat the onions and bell pepper over medium-low heat. When softened, add the garlic.
- When garlic is fragrant, add the lemon juice, zest and reserved crawfish liquid. Raise heat to medium-high and allow the liquid to reduce. Set aside and allow mixture to cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add the mayo and Creole seasoning and mix well.
- When the veggies have cooled, add them to the egg mixture and fold in with a wooden spoon.
- Add the crawfish tails and fold in.
- Slowly add the bread until all the liquid is adsorbed and you get a good semi-solid consistency. This is all about feel for me, so it may take some experimenting.
- Place mixture, covered, into the fridge for a couple of hours to firm up.
- Divide the mixture into four even portions and form the cakes as you see fit. I made mine about and inch thick.
- Coat both sides of cakes with panko and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Place the finished cakes back into the fridge for an hour or so.
- In a large skillet or saute pan, heat equal parts grapeseed oil and clarified butter over medium-high heat.
- When hot, place the cakes directly from the fridge into the fat. Allow to cook for approximately 6 minutes and then flip for another 6 minutes. Of course this is just an estimate based on range temp and cake thickness.
I served mine without any sauce of any kind along with some steamed broccoli. Very happy with the first attempt. Next time, I will add some form of hot sauce to get the spice level up a bit.
10.
3