Resolution Recap 2012: Appetizers Part 3

The final two appetizer recipes are seafood dips and both rated as "yums".  The first is a hot crawfish dip I found in Southern Living magazine.  I made this back when Brad was working at a local New Orleans style restaurant so access to crawfish was not an issue (hey, cook perks include a meal, doesn't mean it has to be cooked when it leaves the premises).  I only made a half version of the recipe, used fresh and thankfully already peeled crawfish tails, and subbed 1 cup minced shallot instead of using green onions and garlic.

Hot Crawfish Dip**
(30 minutes, Serves: 8-10)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 bunch green onions, sliced (about 1 cup)
• 1 small green bell pepper, diced
• 1 (1-lb.) package frozen cooked, peeled crawfish tails, thawed and undrained
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (4-oz.) jar diced pimiento, drained
• 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
• 1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• French bread baguette slices
• Garnishes: sliced green onion, chopped flat-leaf parsley

 

Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add green onions and bell pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until bell pepper is tender. Stir in crawfish and next 3 ingredients; cook, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cream cheese until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Serve with toasted French bread slices.

 

Note:  You'll need 6 to 7 pounds of cooked whole crawfish for 1 pound of hard-earned meat. Or sub in frozen, peeled crawfish tails.

--
The final appetizer recipe came from a request from Brad.  He had fried up some fish for us and we had two larger pieces of catfish leftover.  Since leftover fried fish is hard to reheat he asked me whether I could make a fish dip like what we used to get on trips to Florida.  We have enjoyed fish dips both in Amelia Island and in Key West.  So I did some Googling and came up with the following recipe from Grill Girl.  I simply removed the fried outside of the fish steaks and mashed up the cooked fish meat for use in this dip instead of getting smoked fish.  And since I was making from what I had on hand and knew the flavor I was trying to replicate I used cream cheese instead of neufchatel, regular mayo, jar jalapeno slices, and I don't like old bay so I mixed up a combination of garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, salt, black pepper, red pepper, and dash of worchestershire sauce instead (that is not a real old bay substitute just the flavors I thought was needed).  The smoked parika really added the smokey flavor I recall when having this dip in Florida.  But since you probably haven't had this in Florida I suggest you follow the recipe below versus trying to follow my modifications. Serve cold with crackers.

South Florida Smoked Fish Dip**

• 6-8 ounces smoked fish, skin remonved, meat chopped in coarsely (so as not to burn out the motor on your food processor!)
• 1/2 block neufchatel cream cheese (neufchatel is lower in fat and you can’t tell the difference in this recipe)
• 2 jalapenos
• juice of one lime
• 1 tablespoon old bay seasoning
• 1/4 cup light mayo (or less, depending on how wet your mixture is and how well it is blending)
• salt, pepper to taste

 

 Puree ingredients in a food processor until well blended.