Crawfish Fritters with Spicy Comeback Sauce
Springtime is both crawfish season and festival season in Louisiana, which is why hot, crispy fritters stuffed with crawfish are a festival food mainstay. Wash them down with iced sweet tea or an ice-cold can of beer for the full festival-style experience.
Prep Time:
20 mins.
Cook Time:
24 mins.
Yield:
36 fritters
Ingredients
Spicy Comeback Sauce
- 1 cup Blue Plate® Mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup chili sauce or Sriracha sauce
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Fritters
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
- 1/4 cup finely chopped celery
- 1/4 finely chopped green bell pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning
- 1 pound crawfish tail meat
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 tablespoons Blue Plate® Mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- Chopped chives, for garnish
- Lemon wedges, for serving
Directions
- Make sauce: (Makes 1 3/4 cup) Combine mayonnaise, chili sauce, ketchup, lemon juice, Worcestershire, horseradish, garlic, smoked paprika, salt and pepper and mix well. Transfer to a resealable container and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving. Sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Preheat oven to 200℉.
- Fill a Dutch oven with about 4 inches vegetable oil and heat to 325℉.
- In a separate pan, melt the butter; when melted, add onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic and cook until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Add cayenne pepper, Creole seasoning and crawfish tail meat and cook for 2 minutes longer. Set the crawfish mixture aside to cool. When cooled, in the bowl of a food processor, pulse the crawfish mixture until just coarsely chopped.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cayenne pepper. In another small bowl whisk together milk, eggs, mayonnaise, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix well. Fold the crawfish mixture into the batter.
- Using a 1 1/2 tablespoon spring-loaded scoop, place scoops of the batter mixture into the hot oil, frying in batches until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove fritters with a slotted spoon and transfer to a wire rack fitted over a baking sheet. Transfer to oven to keep warm while frying remaining fritters.
- Garnish with chopped chives; serve with lemon wedges on the side and Spicy Comeback Sauce for dipping.
