Best Crawfish And Shrimp Pot With Spiced Sweet Potatoes Recipes

SPICED CRABS AND SHRIMP WITH POTATOES

Steps:

• Combine the dill seeds, dried dill, mustard seeds, chili powder, paprika, coriander seeds, peppercorns, celery seeds, red pepper flakes and bay leaves in a small bowl. Transfer to a blender or spice grinder in batches and pulse until coarsely ground.
• Fill a large deep pot with 8 quarts water. Add the spice mixture, thyme, parsley, garlic, celery and 1/4 cup salt. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Uncover, reduce the heat and simmer, 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, put the crabs in a large colander in the sink. Holding each crab with tongs, run under cold water to wash away sand. Transfer to a large container of ice water and soak 15 minutes. (This relaxes the crabs and helps remove the grit.) Remove the crabs and discard the water. If the crabs are still sandy, repeat.
• Bring the spiced broth to a boil over high heat. Wrap the potatoes in cheesecloth and tie closed. Add the crabs to the broth, then the potatoes; cover and cook, stirring once or twice, until the crab shells are bright red, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the potatoes after 15 minutes.
• Transfer the crabs to a platter or newspaper with tongs, letting the excess liquid drain into the pot. Let sit at least 5 minutes before eating.
• Meanwhile, add the shrimp to the pot, stir once and cook until the shells are pink, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. Season the crabs, shrimp and potatoes with salt. Serve with melted butter and the broth, for dipping.

SPICY SHRIMP AND SWEET POTATO SOUP

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir onion and garlic in the hot oil until onion is tender, about 10 minutes. Add vegetable stock, corn, sweet potatoes, diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, salsa, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper to onion mixture; bring to a boil for 5 minutes.
• Stir shrimp into stock mixture and return to a boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer until shrimp are cooked through, about 10 minutes more. Stir green onion into soup; season with salt and pepper.

ANN AND EUGENE PATOUT'S CRAWFISH BISQUE

Steps:

• Rinse crawfish; place in large pot of boiling water. Cook for one minute. Remove crawfish from water. Cool.
• Remove tail meat from crawfish: break off the ridged tail, snap in half lengthwise, lift out meat in one piece. Place tail shells in large pot. Remove black vein if it remains. Carefully remove the yellow fat from tail and body so the mud sack doesn't burst; add to pot. Snap off claws and smaller legs; place in pot. Clean out the body cavity, called the head; discard eyes. Rinse shells; place in pot.
• Add 2 cups crawfish fat to pot with 3 quarts water; simmer stock until reduced to 2 1/2 quarts, about 30 minutes.
• Chop half of the onions, green peppers and celery finely.
• Melt butter in large skillet; saute finely chopped vegetables for 10 minutes, until very soft. Add 1/2 cup crawfish fat; cook 2 or 3 minutes more.
• Chop 1 pound of crawfish tails very fine. Add to skillet; simmer 3 minutes.
• Mix 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, 1/4 each teaspoon white and black pepper, salt and 5 or 6 dashes hot pepper sauce into crawfish mixture. Simmer 3 minutes. If mixture is not thick enough for stuffing, add bread crumbs.
• Add 2 tablespoons each parsley and green onion; cool and use to fill crawfish heads.
• Lightly dredge the opening of the stuffed heads in flour. Oil cookie sheet; bake heads at 350 degrees until brown, about 20 minutes. Refrigerate, if not using immediately.
• Make roux: combine oil and flour in heavy skillet; cook over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Roux will begin to color slowly, taking about 45 minutes to reach desired nut-brown color. Toward end of cooking, watch roux carefully, making sure it does not burn. Roux may be made ahead and reheated.
• To assemble dish, dice remaining onion, green pepper and celery; add to boiling stock. Return to boil. Pour a little of the stock at a time into hot roux, stirring. Return roux mixture to stockpot, bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 45 minutes. Five minutes after adding roux, stir in remaining cayenne, white and black pepper, salt to taste and hot pepper sauce.
• To serve, put stuffed heads in bisque and cook for eight minutes; add remaining 1 1/4 pounds of tails (this includes approximately 1/2 pound removed from live crawfish); cook another two minutes. Adjust seasoning.
• Stir in remaining green onion and parsley. Serve over rice in individual bowls.