The late spring is wearing out. It's Juneteenth, and the solstice is
only days away. The tomato plants are bearing even if they do have
some sort of evil wilt and look really ugly. D picked four okra pods
today. Guess we should have set out more okra plants.
Typically on Juneteenth I barbecue, but this year I worked a bit more
of the day than years past. Low and slow takes more time (natch) than
many inside methods. Anyway, we have quite a few nice tomatoes, and I
found a packet of frozen crawfish tail meat at the market on my way
home from the office. Real crawfish. Wild crawfish. From Louisiana,
not China.
I made a stripped down version of crawfish etouffee -- sweated Cajun
trinity, mushrooms, stock, thyme, bay, cayenne, salt and pepper --
adding the (precooked) tails at the last so they wouldn't overcook and
get tough. There wasn't a roux and there wasn't enough cream or
butter for etouffee. Real etouffee. The etouffee my mother makes,
that is. But the plan was to stuff some of the fresh tomatoes with
it, so it wasn't exactly an etouffee target I was aiming at. Not to
mention the fact that I substituted part of a poblano (finely diced)
for most of the bell pepper in the trinity. I'm in Texas, not
Louisiana. In China, I'd surely add and substitute ingredients, too.
When the tomatoes were cored and hollowed out and the vegetables were
done and it was almost time to add the crawfish, our egg lady and her
husband showed up with a delivery. Chickens this time, not eggs.
She'd scored a passel of free range birds from an associate and had
some to sell to us. There are $90 worth of chickens in the freezer
tonight. She also brought us some goodies from her garden, including
some squash blossoms.
She saw what I was doing and rhapsodized about the first time she'd
had crawfish etouffee. Apparently it was not unlike what happened to
St. Paul on the road to Damascus. Clearly she had a crawfish jones
tonight. Later, as the egg lady and her husband and D chatted out
front, I spooned the crawfish mixture into the tomatoes and patted
some Ak-Mak cracker crumbs on top. Half the crawfish was still in the
pan when the tomatoes were full. So I put it into a plastic container
and went out front to give it to the egg lady with the crawfish
jones. As she drove away she called out that she owes me something
REALLY GOOD.
I'd have thought the squash blossoms were good enough. They went
nicely with the stuffed tomatoes after I'd stuffed them with feta
seasoned with fresh mint and lemon zest. Fried them up for a side
dish.
This is what I made: http://i14.tinypic.com/54b0ar7.jpg
D liked the meal. So did I.
I sure wish I'd told the egg lady to stir a little cream into the
crawfish before she ate it. Just didn't think.
modom