Friday, December 25, 2009

Crawfish Bisque - From "Cooking in Old Creole Days"













Crawfish Bisque

From Cooking in Old Creole Days,
(1904 R.H. Russell, New York) by Celestine Eustis

Take two or three dozen crawfish, throw them in boiling water for a minute or two, clean them thoroughly. Take off the heads, empty them, and clean them and wash them, keeping the fat part of the tails. Put them on a chopping board with the fat, a little chicken or veal, a little stale bread, chop it all fine together, flavor with pepper, red or black, a laurel leaf, or put in a bouquet of aromatic herbs for a few minutes, having tied it with a thread so as to pull it out. Brown all this in a saucepan with a spoonful of lard. Stuff the crawfish heads tight with this. Put them in a saucepan to simmer with a quart of bouillon for an hour or more, until you have a good soup. Serve hot.
--MME. JOSEPHINE NICAUD,
Who has been for over forty years in Ambassador Eustis' family.