Crawfish Hushpuppies

My contribution to a cajun or Mardi Gras dinner.

Mardi Gras is almost here. I’ve never been to a Mardi Gras and I guess I don’t care if I ever go to one but I do love cajun cuisine. When we were in New Orleans last summer we had all kinds of cajun food and a few things I made after I got home.

I picked up these decorations/props at my craft circle. There’s a room bigger than my whole house (maybe twice over) full of supplies that we can go back and get for any project our group is working on. The little jester, mask and beads came from the floral department. And, since they weren’t using them for a few days, I thought I would borrow a few things and use for props. Just look at that little girl with her hand out, just waiting for a hushpuppy.

My local HEB had a guy out front last week with a big contraption that he was cooking crawfish in; so I decided to buy them and not fool with cooking such a small amount. I only bought a pound which didn’t make nearly enough meat. I’m putting 1 – 1 1/2 cups of crawfish tails in the recipe because that’s what it is going to take to make these delicious. At $5.99 a lb, and I bought only a pound and got 3/4 cup of meat, I’d go for the ones you cook yourself next time because they are going to be about $2.00 a pound, maybe less depending on where you live or you can buy crawfish tails in the freezer section.

This started off being my Dad’s hushpuppy recipe that calls for yeast and I added some corn, jalapeño and the crawfish and a little extra seasoning. My husband doesn’t agree but I think hushpuppies should be the last thing you cook before you sit down to eat. I tasted ours right out of the skillet and they were nice and crisp on the outside. We put them in the warming drawer outside while he did the blackened catfish and by the time we ate they were a little soft. If you need to keep them warm, then I would suggest putting on a cookie sheet with a draining rack on top and put them in a 300° oven to hole until ready to eat. Try them with some soft butter or make the sour cream sauce I did below.

If you have had your fill of hockey puck type hushpuppies, you just have to give these a try.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: So, if you are doing a Mardi Gras party/meal you just have to try my Banana Foster Ice Cream.

Thinking crawfish boil? No, crawfish hushpuppies. I bought these already cooked.

All the ingredients to throw these together right before serving.

I put all my dry ingredients in one bowl, vegetables and crawfish in another and the buttermilk and egg in a third bowl. Ready to mix together.

Add the chopped vegetables and crawfish to the dry ingredients and then stir in 1 cup of the buttermilk. If you need more to get it this consistency, add a little at a time. After mixing do not stir again until you are ready to fry.

See that cup of water on the side? That is to dip you spoon in each time before getting a spoonful of batter to dry into the hot oil.

These will start to float as soon as they hit the oil, when good and brown on one side, flip over to brown on the other side. You might want to sample one to check on the doneness. You don’t want doughy middles.

Drain on a broiler rack or cookie cooking rack. I sprinkled some green onions on top of my. (For looks only.)

Revenge of the crawfish heads; they want their tails back.

We had blackened catfish and we always cook it outside now that we have the outdoor kitchen because it keeps from smoking up my kitchen.