Keeping Fat Tuesday Fat

I’ve missed the beads, the parades and the bodacious gatherings during this year’s Mardi Gras carnival season. I’ll especially miss those things on its climatic finale, Fat Tuesday. And while I will stay safe and socially distanced, I do plan to keep Fat Tuesday, the last day before the Lenten fast begins, fat.

To keep the tradition of Mardi Gras feasting, indulge by including both Cajun and Creole classics to the menu. A Cajun-style crawfish pie and King Cake recipe inspired by New Orleans favorites, Bread Pudding and Bananas Foster.

Besides the King Cake, another must-have Mardi Gras food is crawfish. It’s hard to miss the crawfish traps that dot the flooded rice fields throughout Jefferson Parish, which is located next door to New Orleans; a parish where you’ll find roadside crawfish stands and eateries dishing up platters of boiled crawfish. Crawfish is a secondary crop farmed after the rice harvest, with its season beginning in January and ending when the temperatures spike in late spring.

Genuine Louisiana crawfish has a clean sweet flavor. This year‘s fresh catch can be ordered online – live in 15- or 30-pound sacks or as frozen tail meat, which is available from Louisianan  processors, such as Acadia Crawfish. I prefer the frozen tail meat because of its convenience, which I can toss into a pastas, salads or gumbo. It’s also a great base for filling a crawfish pie, or in a stuffing used to stuff fish filets or crabs.  I only order sacks of live crawfish when planning a crawfish boil.

Crawfish is available locally at larger grocery chains. Check the frozen seafood section. However, when shopping crawfish, check the label to make sure it’s Louisiana crawfish. Lesser-grade crawfish, often imported from Asia, won’t have the flavor of real Louisiana crawfish.

Finally, what would Fat Tuesday be without a King Cake? The traditional cake is a yeasted, raised sweet dough that hides a small trinket – usually a plastic baby. King Cake isn’t the easiest for novice bakers to attempt. Thankfully, the Louisiana Office of Tourism offered a recipe that is goof-proof. It’s a creation of  New Orleans culinary teacher and chef Amy Sins, whose King Cake is a bread pudding that is baked in a Bundt pan, glazed with a Bananas Foster-style sauce and decorated with gold, purple and green colored sprinkles, the iconic Mardi Gras colors.

Hopefully, 2022 will bring Mardi Gras back into the streets and bayous of Louisiana. Revelers should make plans now to attend. Stay in touch with the Louisiana Office of Tourism for the latest updates on Mardi Gras 2022, as well as all the culinary festivals. Until then, keep the Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday tradition strong, and eat up. It’s one of the best ways I know to make the good times roll.

CRAWFISH PIE

1/2 cup salted butter
1 large onion, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 bell pepper, seeded and diced (about 1/2 cup)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10.75-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water
2 pounds crawfish tail meat
1/2 cup chopped green onion
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 (14.1-ounce) package Pillsbury Ready-Made Pie Crust (2 crusts)

Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat; add onion, bell pepper and garlic; cook until softened. Add soup, evaporated milk, salt and peppers. Add cornstarch mixture. Reduce heat to low, and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes. Fold in crawfish, green onion and parsley; cook 5 minutes. Place bottom crust in a deep-dish pie plate, and bake, using pie weights, until lightly browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Fill with crawfish mixture, and place top crust on pie. Bake until browned, 25 to 30 minutes.

Recipe courtesy of Visit Jefferson Parish and Louisiana Cookin’

BREAD PUDDING, KING CAKE STYLE

Non-stick spray
3 cups heavy cream
4 eggs, large, lightly beaten
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk, whole
Pinch Kosher salt
10-12 cups French bread – day old – 1/2-inch cubed

Preheat oven 350 F. Nonstick spray a Bundt cake pan or muffin tin, or line a muffin tin with cupcake papers, set aside. In bowl, combine heavy cream, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, milk and salt. Toss in French bread cubes. Mix gently until evenly distributed over bread. Fill muffin tins 3/4 of the way with mixture, bake 20 to 30 minutes. Once the bread pudding is cool, remove from muffin tin or pan and place on a wire cooling rack. Top with bananas foster sauce and green, purple and gold colored sprinkles.

BANANAS FOSTER SAUCE

9 tablespoons butter – unsalted
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon – ground
6 bananas, firm ripe – sliced
1/4 cup banana liqueur
1/2 cup rum – dark
1/2 cup heavy cream
Pinch of Kosher salt

In a large nonstick sauté pan, melt the butter and add brown sugar and cinnamon, stirring often until the sugar dissolves. Add bananas and cook on both sides, turning until they start to soften and brown, about 3 minutes. Add banana liqueur and stir to blend. Carefully add the rum and shake the pan back and forth until there is a flame. You may need to light it on fire if it doesn’t produce a flame by itself. Baste bananas until the flame dies. Add salt and cream. Remove from heat.

Recipe courtesy of chef Amy Sins