Crawfish Mirliton Chayote Soup Food

CRAWFISH MIRLITON (CHAYOTE) SOUP

Steps:

• Stir dried herbs into broth and set aside.
• Saute crawfish tails in butter until warm and cooked through.
• Drain butter and crawfish juice into a pot. Set crawfish aside for later.
• Add onions, garlic, cayenne, and crab boil to butter and cook over low heat until onions are soft.
• Add mirliton and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Pour broth into pot, cover, and simmer over low heat. 25 minutes for peeled mirliton, and 30 for unpeeled.
• Use a food processor or blender to puree soup.
• Return soup to low heat, and gradually add in crawfish tails. Stir until tails are brought up to the soup's temperature.

CRAWFISH MIRLITON CORN MACQUE CHOUX

Steps:

• Heat butter in medium saucepot. Add corn and saute for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock, onion, bell pepper, celery, and tomatoes. Turn heat up and cook until all of the chicken stock has evaporated. Add garlic, Cajun seasoning, salt, hot sauce, and heavy cream. Bring to a boil. Add mirlitons and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add crawfish tails and simmer for 10 minutes or until cream starts to reduce and thicken. Add parsley and green onions and stir to combine. Serve with rice, pasta, or polenta.

CREAM OF CHAYOTE SOUP

Steps:

• In a large soup pot over low heat, fry the bacon until almost all the fat is rendered, or melt the butter. Raise the heat to medium, add the onion, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the stock or water, bay leaves and potato and simmer until the potato slices are soft, about 20 minutes
• When the potato slices are soft, remove and discard the bay leaves and bacon. Add the chayotes and bring to a boil. Return the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, until the chayotes are soft, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender until smooth. As each batch is pureed, pour the puree through a sieve placed over a bowl, pressing with the back of a spoon to extract all the juices. Pour the puree back into the pot, add the cream or half-and-half and bring just to a boil. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
• Remove from the heat and ladle into warmed bowls. Slip a few lime slices into each bowl and serve hot.

SEAFOOD-STUFFED MIRLITON/CHAYOTE

Steps:

• Steam or boil the mirlitons until the flesh is just tender -- try not to overcook or the shell will fall apart. (Seven minutes in the microwave, 10 minutes in salted boiling water on the stovetop.) Cool slightly and scoop out the flesh, leaving a 1/4-inch shell. Set the flesh aside.
• Saute the onion, garlic, celery and parsley in the butter and olive oil over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes until very tender, adding chicken broth if the vegetables become dry and begin to stick. Add the squash and mash with a potato masher. Cook until squash liquid evaporates.
• Stir in the shrimp and crabmeat and cook until most shrimp are pink, about 2 minutes. Add enough bread crumbs to absorb any liquid in the mixture. Fill the mirliton shells with the mixture. Sprinkle with additional crumbs and dot generously with butter.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until topping is crisp and golden.

CHAYOTE SOUP

Steps:

• Dissolve the bouillon in the hot water.
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion, garlic, and red pepper in the butter until the onion is soft. Add the squash, 2 tablespoons cilantro, salt, and pepper and stir continually for 5 minutes. Stir in the bouillon mixture and 1 tablespoon cilantro; cover. Simmer about 20 minutes.
• Pour the mixture into a blender and puree until smooth. Pour into bowls and garnish with a sprig of cilantro to serve.

CHAYOTE SOUP

Steps:

• Cook scallions, garlic, and chile in butter in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add chayotes, salt, and 1 tablespoon cilantro and cook, stirring, 2 minutes. Add water and simmer, covered, until chayotes are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Stir in remaining tablespoon cilantro and purée soup in 2 batches in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Season with salt.

MIRLITON

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add mirliton, and boil until tender, about 45 minutes. Drain, cool, and peel. Cut in half, remove seeds, and cut into cubes.
• When the mirliton are almost done, bring another pot of water to a boil. Add shrimp, and cook for about 5 minutes, until pink. Drain shrimp, reserving the water for later. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry onion and garlic in the oil until soft. Transfer to a 9x13 inch baking dish. Add the shrimp, ham, and cubed mirliton. Beat the egg in a small dish with a tablespoon of the water from the shrimp; pour into the baking dish. Mix in the bread crumbs, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper until evenly blended. If it seems a little dry, add a little more water from the shrimp. You have the choice to freeze, refrigerate, or bake at this point. Sprinkle some more breadcrumbs on top if desired.
• Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown on top.