Crawfish Boudin Cakes with Popcorn Rice and Remoulade Sauce
A Louisiana-inspired dinner fit for a king with crawfish cakes served with seasonal greens, spicy boudin sausages and classic remoulade sauce
INGREDIENTS
4 tbsp Butter
Dash of Celery Salt
1 Green Bell Pepper | Finely Chopped (I used a jar of our sweet-pickled peppers)
1 Medium Onion | Chopped
1 cup Cooked Popcorn Rice (see directions on bag, sub water with broth)
1 cup Chicken, Veggie or Fish Stock (I used chicken broth left from last week)
1 tsp Sea Salt
½ lb. Shelled Crawfish Tails | Cooked
Notes From OUR Kitchen
Since our rice portion for this week’s CSA comes from Louisiana, I thought it would be appropriate to include a seriously delicious Creole recipe. Any aromatic rice will suffice if you don’t have the popcorn rice.
I always cook our grains in broth instead of water.
My favorite place to purchase the crawfish tails is Sextons Seafood in Cahaba Heights. They will have them prepackaged in the freezer.
Sear up some Conecuh sausage and serve alongside.
Method
Step 1
Thaw out the crawfish, rinse and strain.
Chop ½ of the crawfish, leave ½ whole.
In a skillet, melt the butter and add peppers, onion and spices.
Sauté 2 minutes.
Add the chopped crawfish to the veggies (1/2 lb), cooking for 3-4 minutes more.
Step 2
In a saucepan cook the popcorn rice in stock (chicken stock, veggie or fish).
Bring stock to a boil, add rice, cover and reduce heat.
Let it gently simmer until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.
Let the rice cool then add to the sautéed veggies mixture, taste and add salt or pepper if needed.
Step 3
Put into a food processor and whirl just long enough to chop the mixture, but not so long that it becomes a purée.
Form the mixture into eight cakes by hand and put them on a buttered cast iron skillet (or baking sheet).
When ready to serve, bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes and then transfer to plates with a wide metal spatula.
Step 4
Whip up the Remoulade Sauce while the cakes are cooking.
Plate the crawfish cakes atop a salad green, such as spinach.
Top the crawfish cakes with remaining crawfish (the ones we didn’t chop) and a bit of the liquid.
Send them on over the top with a dollop of remoulade sauce.
Garnish with sprouts from this past weeks CSA.
