Cool Recipe Alert: Crawfish bisque

Louisiana’s famous little crustaceans made up the whole menu at Tulane’s recent Craw Dat event, held at Bruff dining hall. The kitchen team prepared a traditional crawfish boil with corn and potatoes but didn’t stop there. The crawfish feast also included crawfish pizza, crawfish etouffée, crawfish grilled cheese, crawfish pasta and crawfish bisque. The event drew big crowds of students, who described it on social media as “crawfish on crawfish on crawfish.”

The bisque begins with a dark roux and features “the trinity” of onion, bell pepper and celery, so it’s very authentic New Orleans. Add a few dashes of hot sauce and you’ll be on your way to serving bowls of bayou goodness.

[CHARTBEAT:3]  

Crawfish bisque
YIELD: 25 (small, appetizer size) servings

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1 cup diced bell pepper
1 cup diced yellow onion
½ cup diced celery
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
1 gallon fish stock (or substitute fish bouillon) 
1 ½ lbs. crawfish tails
salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste ¼ cup chopped green onion

1.    For roux: Combine flour and oil and cook over medium heat for approximately 15 minutes, until medium brown in color. 
2.    Add onions, celery and bell pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.
3.    Add remaining ingredients except for green onion, salt, pepper and hot sauce. Season with salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste, then bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with green onion as garnish.

Photo and recipe: Tulane University