Crawpeesh Monica

My girl, Aunt Ali as the kids call her, helps us out a lot. She will be enduring the wedding with us tomorrow. She's coming to help out with the kiddos. As a thank you I wanted to make her favorite dish.

She LOVES this dish. Orders it every time when she's out.

This also happens to be THE dish to eat at Jazz Fest. I've been told the lines for Crawfish Monica are always the longest at the festival.

I looked online to try and locate the original recipe. All I found was a lot of debate. So, I looked at several recipes, and came up with a version that I thought sounded good.

Now, I don't eat seafood so it was hard for me to prepare something that I wasn't going to taste at all. I relied on Aunt Ali and The Dude to do the tasting for me.

They were MUCH impressed.

I titled mine "Crawpeesh Monica" because that's how Pickles pronounces crawfish.

Crawpeesh Monica

1 lb crawfish tails (or 1 lb shrimp, 1 lb crab meat, 1 lb oysters)

4 T butter

1 pint half and half

1 bunch green onions, chopped (green parts only)

2 T Cajun seasoning (Tony Chachere's, Emeril's Bayou Blast, or othe similar blend)

1 T minced garlic

1/2 C Parmesan cheese

1/2 C finely chopped onion

1-2 T finely chopped sun dried tomatoes or 1/2 Cup diced Roma tomatoes.

Saute garlic and onions in butter until onions are translucent, about five minutes. Add half and half, tomatoes and seasoning. Bring to a simmer. Add cheese and crawfish. Allow to simmer 8 minutes, stirring constantly. Serve over fettuccine. Top with green onions.

I know it simply sounds like an Alfredo with crawfish, but they tell me it's SO different. The addition of the Cajun spices and sauteed onions apparently change it up. Hope you like it...even though I didn't touch the stuff!