Singing Crawfish. Costumed revelers by the Mississippi River front, Mardi Gras Day, New Orleans. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Food video included. From Denny: This Mardi Gras photo of a woman costumed as a singing and accordion playing crawfish was too funny to pass up! Food photos of cheese grits and crawfish creole are a dime a dozen but this carnival season photo was priceless and sure gave me a grin.

I started this blog as a way to preserve local recipes sent in by readers of the Baton Rouge newspaper. Why? Three reasons: 1) five years later and the newspaper still has a really crappy search engine that makes it too difficult to find what you want. 2) the paper starting charging fees for any recipes over a month old - and they don't even own the copyright to those recipes! 3) for years, as the economy went up and down - our house was moving in and out of Louisiana and we sure missed the style of cooking. It's amazing how when you move out of an area you start to forget the little things like technique or where to shop for that special ingredient that make a recipe taste good.

This food blog was for personal use initially but then decided to open it up for the public too. It's a lot more popular than I ever expected! Thank you for your continued support all these years!

You can print up any of these recipes for personal use. Just remember that the creator of the recipe owns the copyright so you will have to contact them for publishing in a book. As a journalist the posts and my writing are copyrighted so not available for reposting without links and permission and/or compensation. (contact my public email: warriorspearl@gmail.com)

Oh, yeah, and on to the chef recipe... This a WBRZ Chef of the Month recipe from the Le Creole restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Before I visit any area I like to go online and check out the local restaurant menus. I even do it here locally! Here's the dinner menu and the lunch menu.

Gives you some serious inspiration for your own home cooking, doesn't it? Now check out this easy to make recipe of Crawfish Creole and Pepper-Jack Cheese Grits. You can always substitute shrimp or even a tasty firm fish if you cannot get crawfish in your area or the budget does not allow for crawfish.

This recipe might be nice with calamari if you can get it fresh and already cleaned. Read a news story a few months ago about how off the coast of California they were inundated with schools of calamari. Sure makes you think about moving out that way for some good eating!

Oh, and here's an online Louisiana crawfish supplier from Branch, Louisiana, where you can purchase already cooked or uncooked crawfish - along with other Louisiana products: CajunCrawfish.

Louisiana Seafood Reusable Shopping Bag - t-shirts for men, women, kids available too! Check out awesome Louisiana eating: oysters, shrimp, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya

* * * Support Warriors Pearl Foundation - contributing to fund efforts to help homeless female military veterans come home. Visit Denny Lyon Gifts @ CafePress.com - see what's new!

Crawfish Creole

From: Executive Sous Chef Justin McVey of Le Creole restaurant
"Where the Gulf of Mexico meets Old New Orleans"
18135 E. Petroleum Drive
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70809
(225) 752-7135
Fax (225) 752-7348

Hours: MON-FRI 11am - 2pm 5 - 10pmSAT5 - 10pm SUN10am - 8pm

Le Creole: We feature a different $9.99 lunch special each weekday.
$1 martinis from 11am-2pm weekdays
Each Sunday Jazz Brunch: Piano Brunch 10am-3pm

WBRZ in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, featured as Chef of the Month

Crawfish Creole

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. butter
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1 cup diced green bell pepper
2 cup diced fresh tomatoes
1 oz. minced garlic
3 oz. sliced tasso (Cajun ham)
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme
4 oz. crawfish tails
2 cup chicken stock
1 lemon (juiced)
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. sugar

Directions:

1. Sauté onion, celery, bell pepper, tasso and garlic in butter until translucent.
2. Add tomatoes and cook down for approximately 10 minutes.
3. Add stock and seasonings, simmer for 20-30 minutes.
4. Adjust seasonings if needed and add crawfish in last 5 minutes.
5. Thicken with cornstarch slurry, if need be (cornstarch dissolved in cold water)

Pepper Jack Grits

Yield: 12 cups

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. butter
1/2 onion (diced)
9 1/2 cups milk
3 cups grits
12 oz. Pepper Jack cheese
1 tsp. white pepper
4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme

Directions:

1. In a large pot, sauté onion in butter until translucent.
2. Add milk and thyme, bring to a simmer.
3. Slowly add grits while whisking constantly.
4. Add seasonings and reduce to low heat.
5. Whisk often until desired consistency.
6. Turn off heat, fold in cheese.

Louisiana Seafood Large Mug - t-shirts for men, women, kids available too!

* * * Support Warriors Pearl Foundation - contributing to fund efforts to help homeless female military veterans come home. Visit Denny Lyon Gifts @ CafePress.com - see what's new!

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