Serves: 8
Total Calories: 249
Prep time: n/a
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes

20 pounds crawfish, fresh
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped parsley
2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup butter
8 stale hoagie buns, soaked in water
4 slices stale bread, crumbled
6 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped scallion tops
cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup hot cooked rice

Bring 2 quarts water to a boil, add crawfish, and 2 teaspoons salt. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain and save stock. Pull out middle tail fin and with it the intestinal vein of each crawfish. Pick fat and meat from tails and heads and save it. Keep head shells for stuffing. Return tail shells to stock, and add 1/2 cup celery and 1/4 cup parsley. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain. Chop crawfish meat and add half of it to this bisque. Remove from heat and cover to keep hot. Meanwhile sauté onion and remaining 1/2 cup celery and crawfish fat and butter in a heavy pot for 10 minutes. Combine drained soaked buns, crumbled bread, and eggs and stir into onion mixture. Add remaining chopped crawfish meat, remaining 1/4 cup parsley, scallion tops, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, a few grains of cayenne pepper, and black pepper. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Stuff crawfish heads with this mixture. To serve, put 5 stuffed crawfish heads and a few spoonfuls of rice in each soup bowl. Pour bisque over each serving.

Author’s note: A little secret—boil rice in fish broth or even chicken broth in place of water.

Nutritional Facts:

Serves: 8
Total Calories: 249
Calories from Fat: 127

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Lyndon Baines Johnson & Claudia Alta Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson
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