Crawfish Boulettes & Creole Tarter Sauce

Goodness gracious, this is good folks

Boulettes, which means little balls in French, are little breaded and fried balls consisting of meat or seafood dressing. They are a scrumptious snack, appetizer or side dish. We like them with a creamy Creole Tarter Sauce like the one given below. It is a really good dipping sauce with this type of appetizer. Many times we add boulettes to seafood or crawfish bisque and they are delicious heated in a brown roux-based or tomato gravy and served over white rice.

Crawfish Boulettes

1 pound crawfish tails, preferably with fat
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped bell pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1 cup bread crumbs from about 5 slices of toasted French bread
1-2 tablespoons Cajun or Creole seasoning to taste
4 eggs divided in half, beaten separately
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Cracker meal, corn meal or Panko for breading
Solid vegetable oil (if frying)

Process the crawfish tails together with the next seven ingredients by pulsing in a food processor. Do not puree. Place in a large bowl and add the Creole seasoning, two of the beaten eggs, Worcestershire, hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Shape into boulettes, dip into remaining beaten egg, roll in breading medium and fry in 360 degree F. oil until golden brown.

Note: These are great baked in a 350 degree F. oven for about 20 minutes or until the outer coating is golden brown. If you prefer, instead of crawfish, use shrimp, crabmeat or fish.

Creole Tartar Sauce
a great Aïoli for fish and seafood too

1 egg or 1/4 cup pasteurized eggs
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp each chopped parsley leaves & chopped green onions
1 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp Creole or whole-grain mustard
1 tsp Kosher Salt

in a food processor, puree the egg, garlic, lemon juice, parsley, and green onions for 15 seconds. With the processor running, pour the oil through the feed tube in a slow, steady stream. Add the cayenne, mustard, and salt and pulse once or twice to blend. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour before using. Use within 24 hours.