I find that the food in the Midwest is...OK. The Italian is...OK. Asian food is...OK. American food is...OK. I thought that food was an obsession for all Americans as it is for me and my family in friends in Southern Louisiana. I was wrong. With food that's just...OK, I know that food can be just an afterthought to some. Now I know how people up here stay thin.
I was craving a taste of home as I reminisced about all of the great food I used to eat back home. A flash remembrance of this horrid coral-Pepto-pink cookbook called Louisiana Legacy came to mind. This was one of the first cookbooks that I remember cooking from as a kid, and my stepmom made this ridiculously good dish from it called Crawfish Thermidor. That was it: I had to make it. I promptly called her and harassed her for the recipe.
Here it is, in all of its glory, adapted from Louisiana Legacy. If you're on a diet, so sorry:
Crawfish Thermidor
1 onion, chopped 1- 40z can mushroom pieces (I used fresh mushrooms)
1 small bell pepper, chopped 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup green onion, chopped 1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup parsley, chopped salt, pepper (and spices to taste: I like Tony Chachere's)
1/2 cup margarine (I used butter) 1 cup shredded American cheese (I used cheddar)
1 lb. crawfish tails cooked rice
2 cloves minced garlic
Preheat oven to 350. Saute' onions, pepper, green onion, and parsley in margarine until soft. Stir in crawfish, garlic, and mushrooms and saute' a few minutes more. Combine flour and milk in a separate container and mix until smooth. Slowly stir flour mixture into crawfish and cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into casserole dish and top with cheese. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve with rice. Will serve 8.
This was easy, freakin' amazing, and made me homesick.
