Crawfish Cornbread

In addition to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the Lenten season brings to mind NO MEAT on Fridays. Many people add Wednesday to their diet restriction as an added day of observance. Catholics all over the world stock up on meat-less meals during this time, especially seafood.

Fish, shrimp and crab sales soar in the six-week period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Fast food franchises stock up on their fish & crab patties while dine-in restaurants add new seafood entrees to their menu. Supermarkets increase their orders for imitation crab and lobster as well as seafood based frozen or microwaveable meals.

Over the years, folks have gotten very creative in finding ways to prepare these meatless meals at home too....Soups, salads, pasta, omelets. We fry and boil or cook in gumbo or red gravy but by the time Lent is over, we're ready for a change.

Lent is the perfect excuse for eating crawfish too. The mudbugs are plentiful during this time of year but how many ways can you eat a crawfish?

We all know of Etoufe and boiled, fried and in salads, but have you ever considered Crawfish Cornbread?

Ingredients:

1lb crawfish tails (store bought)
*you can use previously home-boiled but save as much of the drippings, fat & seasoning. I've found that the store bought are better.

1 stick butter

1 can cream-of-mushroom soup

1 box jiffy cornbread mix.

In melted butter, sauté onions, bell pepper, mushrooms or your favorite combination of seasonings. Add crawfish tails and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cream of mushroom soup - simmer another five minutes.

Remove from heat.

Pour into baking dish and stir in cornbread mix. Bake according to directions on box.

Recipe can easily be doubled by adding another pound of tails, another can of soup and 2nd box of cornbread mix.

Some have used this recipe with boiled shrimp also and imitation crab or lobster, although I've tried both, crawfish seems to work best.

This simple recipe is wonderful for all occasions and makes a great dish for any event and with the supermarkets offering frozen crawfish tails practically year around, especially during the Lenten season, it can be another alternative to the normal meatless fare. Add a green salad and/or corn-on-the-cob and you have a full course meal.

So next time you have a hankering for something different or need a quick and easy recipe for a family or church function, give Crawfish Cornbread a try.