Ingredients:
1/3 cup bacon drippings or olive oil
2 packages** frozen crawfish tails, thawed. Or, 1 package crawfish and 1 pound fresh medium shrimp, peeled and deveined. Substitute: If crawfish not available, use all shrimp. (**Note: crawfish tails are fairly widely available now, in the frozen seafood section, usually in 12 or 16 ounce packages. They are already parboiled, so don't overcook).
6 cups of fresh white corn, cut off cob. If white corn is not available substitute yellow corn, but it’s not as traditional. Substitute 1 pound frozen corn if fresh is not available
2 tablespoons heavy cream
3 cups chopped onion
1 cup bell pepper, chopped
3 large creole tomatoes, coarsely chopped. If good, flavorful fresh tomatoes aren’t available, substitute one can chopped tomatoes, using only half the liquid.
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat, Italian parsley. If ingredient not available, omit.
2 tablespoons salt
Juice of ½ lemon
1 teaspoon, or more to taste, freshly ground black pepper OR Banana Courtyard Famous 3-Pep Seasoning.
½ cup dry white wine
½ stick butter
½ teaspoon Tabasco or other hot sauce
Instructions:
Marinate crawfish in the white wine and the juice of ½ lemon. When you cut the kernels off the cob, then scrape the cob, with a knife, to get the liquid. Add the cob liquid. If fresh corn isn't in season, substitute can or frozen corn and add 3 extra tablespoons heavy cream in place of corn cob liquid.
In a large iron skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the bell peppers, about 3 minutes, then add onions - cover skillet to speed process. When bell pepper and onion are softened, lower the heat - try not to brown them. Remove and reserve this in a bowl. Put the corn, corn liquid, butter, and cream, in the skillet. Mix thoroughly. Cook on medium heat, 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, reserved onion and bell pepper, plus salt and pepper and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add crawfish and shrimp, part of the marinade, white wine, then cook for 4-6 minutes, stirring frequently.
If mixture seems too dry, add 2-3 tablespoons of reserved marinade or chicken stock, toward end of cooking period. Taste for seasoning.
Serve hot in wide soup bowls. This dish is even better when refrigerated for several hours or overnight and reheated before serving. If you are already an experienced Cajun cook, please excuse the level of detail in this recipe.
"Maquechoux", pronounced mock shoe, is a Cajun word for a smothered dish made with fresh corn.
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