Cookin' ATVS Style: Crawfish Enchiladas

So my wife and I recently found ourselves with a solid 2.5 pounds of leftover crawfish tails after a recent boil, a week before we were due to go out of town, meaning that we had to find some things to cook that week.

A quick scanning through a couple of cookbooks and blog gave us the idea for some crawfish enchiladas, which seem pretty approps-ish for today.

This comes from Elizabeth's Edible Experience, and is based off the classic Paul Prudhomme recipe. Its super rich, but well...yeah it's worth it. Your stomach will be pretty well insulated from any beverages of which you will be imbibing.

Ingredients

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 cup canned green chiles, chopped
3/4 cup finely chopped green bell peppers
2.75 teaspoons of salt
2.75 teaspoons of white pepper
1.5 teaspoons ground red pepper (cayenne)
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1.5 cups heavy cream
1 cup dairy sour cream
2 lbs cups grated Monterey Jack cheese or other white (preferably non-processed) cheese (2 pounds)
2 pounds peeled crawfish tails
2/3 cup very finely chopped green onions
1/2 cup cooking oil
20 (6-inch) corn tortillas

Note: we halved the liquid and this still made more than enough sauce. I highly recommend using the extra sauce to make some awesome mac & cheese.

Instructions

1. Melt a half a stick of the butter in in a large skillet and add the onions, green chiles, bell peppers, minced garlic and the following proportions of the dry seasonings: 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 3/4 teaspoon of white pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper and 1/4 teaspoon of oregano. Sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often.

2. Stir in the cream and bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the sour cream and then beat with a metal whisk continuously until the sour cream dissolves. Then, add three cups of the cheese and stir until melted.

3. In a 4-quart saucepan melt the remaining half stick of butter and add the crawfish, green onions and the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of white pepper, 1 teaspoon of red pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of oregano. Sauté over medium heat for about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the cheese sauce to the crawfish mixture and stir well and simmer for 6-10 minutes.

4. This is where the recipe calls for you to fry up the tortillas lightly in the oil, but you can just plan zap them in the microwave for a few minutes.

5. Spoon a small amount of the mixture into each tortilla, roll it up and place, seam-side down in a large baking dish.

6. Cover the tortillas with the sauce, then sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes until the cheese melts. If you want, you can run it under a broiler for a couple minutes as well to get some nice brown crust on it.

This will easily feed 6-8 people, and again, you may wind up with leftover sauce.