Crawfish Stuffing

Sure to become a holiday favourite of mine, this recipe marries two seasonal eats: crawfish and stuffing. The shellfish, which when cooked on its own is known to yield very little for a rather hefty price tag, almost seems to “stretch” in this recipe, filling four whole tails or eight half tails and serving as the perfect accompaniment to a plate otherwise dominated by beef.

| INGREDIENTS | fills 4 whole tails or 8 half tails 
2 medium-sized crawfish tails, minced
2 TBSP butter
1 TSP finely chopped lemon rind
1 sprig of rosemary
.5 TSP of chopped sage
1/4 TSP of chopped oregano
1 cup onion
.5 cup chopped celery
6 TSP of sherry
3 TSP of fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup water
7oz packaged stuffing
salt + pepper to taste

| DIRECTIONS |
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat then stir in rosemary, sage, oregano, onion, celery and salt and pepper to taste. Add minced crawfish and pour in lemon juice and sherry, cooking until onion and celery are translucent and crawfish is white. About two minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. In a large pot bring chicken stock and water to a boil. Add stuffing, chopped lemon rind and the ingredients from the saucepan. Mix well and fluff stuffing. Fill tails and garnish with a small sprig of rosemary.