Ann and Eugene Patout's Crawfish Bisque

Preparation

1. Step 1

   Rinse crawfish; place in large pot of boiling water. Cook for one minute. Remove crawfish from water. Cool.

2. Step 2

   Remove tail meat from crawfish: break off the ridged tail, snap in half lengthwise, lift out meat in one piece. Place tail shells in large pot. Remove black vein if it remains. Carefully remove the yellow fat from tail and body so the mud sack doesn't burst; add to pot. Snap off claws and smaller legs; place in pot. Clean out the body cavity, called the head; discard eyes. Rinse shells; place in pot.

3. Step 3

   Add 2 cups crawfish fat to pot with 3 quarts water; simmer stock until reduced to 2 ½ quarts, about 30 minutes.

4. Step 4

   Chop half of the onions, green peppers and celery finely.

5. Step 5

   Melt butter in large skillet; saute finely chopped vegetables for 10 minutes, until very soft. Add ½ cup crawfish fat; cook 2 or 3 minutes more.

6. Step 6

   Chop 1 pound of crawfish tails very fine. Add to skillet; simmer 3 minutes.

7. Step 7

   Mix ½ teaspoon cayenne, ¼ each teaspoon white and black pepper, salt and 5 or 6 dashes hot pepper sauce into crawfish mixture. Simmer 3 minutes. If mixture is not thick enough for stuffing, add bread crumbs.

8. Step 8

   Add 2 tablespoons each parsley and green onion; cool and use to fill crawfish heads.

9. Step 9

   Lightly dredge the opening of the stuffed heads in flour. Oil cookie sheet; bake heads at 350 degrees until brown, about 20 minutes. Refrigerate, if not using immediately.

10. Step 10

    Make roux: combine oil and flour in heavy skillet; cook over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Roux will begin to color slowly, taking about 45 minutes to reach desired nut-brown color. Toward end of cooking, watch roux carefully, making sure it does not burn. Roux may be made ahead and reheated.

11. Step 11

    To assemble dish, dice remaining onion, green pepper and celery; add to boiling stock. Return to boil. Pour a little of the stock at a time into hot roux, stirring. Return roux mixture to stockpot, bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 45 minutes. Five minutes after adding roux, stir in remaining cayenne, white and black pepper, salt to taste and hot pepper sauce.

12. Step 12

    To serve, put stuffed heads in bisque and cook for eight minutes; add remaining 1 ¼ pounds of tails (this includes approximately ½ pound removed from live crawfish); cook another two minutes. Adjust seasoning.

13. Step 13

    Stir in remaining green onion and parsley. Serve over rice in individual bowls.