Why is it I always seem to be a day late and a dollar short? We had a blue moon last week. If I was a smart markerter, I would have figured out how to run this book on sale to celebrate the blue moon. I mean, since the title is BLUE MOON and all. Then again, it’s normally priced at $2.99, which isn’t much at all in this day and age. Anyway, my brain catching up the celestial stuff going on gives me an excuse to feature DJ and Antoine. He, of course, is a Cajun Wolf living in the bayous. DJ is a US Marshal. Fun times when they hook up. Here’s a pretty simple recipe that is loaded with creamy goodness.
CAJUN CRAB ALFREDO
Prep time: 5 Minutes
Cook time: 10 Minutes
Total time: 15 min*
Servings: 4
INGREDIENTS
8 oz bucatini pasta**
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
¾ cup heavy cream
¾ cup milk (can use whole, 2%, or 1%)
3 oz cream cheese (can use low fat)
1 cup freshly shredded Parmesan
½ heaping tbsp Cajun seasoning (Tony Chachere for me)
8 oz lump crab meat***
1 tbsp chives, minced (fresh is good but dried works in a pinch)
salt and pepper, to taste
LETS MAKE IT
MAKE THE PASTA
1 – Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente.
2 – Drain, and set aside.
MAKE THE SAUCE
1 – Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
2 – Add garlic, and saute about 30 seconds- 1 minute until fragrant.
3 – Add heavy cream, milk, cream cheese, parmesan, cajun seasoning, and a pinch of salt and pepper, to taste. Stir constantly until cheeses are melted and incorporated.
4 – Reduce heat to low, and simmer sauce for 5-6 mins, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened.
ADD THE CRAB
5 – Increase the heat back to medium, and add crab and chives to the sauce.
6 – Toss to coat, and cook another 2-3 minutes until the crab is heated through.
7 – Add pasta to the skillet, and toss until the pasta is coated in the sauce.
8 – Remove from heat. Serve!
TIPS
1 – If you don’t have bucatini, you could use any long cut of pasta like fettuccine, linguine, spaghetti, etc. (See my note below…)
2 – If I have the time and $$, I can highly recommend buying a wedge of Parmesan and shredding the cheese yourself. It will melt SO much better than the pre-bagged stuff. You get more bang for your buck, too. And because of the firm texture, you can shred/grate Parmesan on anything from a box grater to a microplane.
3 – If you don’t have fresh chives, you could substitute 1 tsp dried minced chives. Don’t use dried chives to garnish, though.
4 – Give the sauce a taste for seasoning after you add the crab. The amount of salt you’ll need will depend on if you’re using a salt free Cajun spice blend or not. Always start with just a pinch. You can add, but you can’t take away.
*It seems to always takes longer to get water to boil and pasta to cook than what recipes indicate. LOL
**Bucatini pasta is a thick spaghetti-like noodle with a hole in the center, like a skinny and long mini-macaroni. I have no clue where to find it.
***Lump crab can be expensive. The fake stuff works as does shrimp.
Surprisingly, this dish is light enough to serve in warm weather. Of course, it’s almost always warm weather down in the bayous of Louisiana, right? DJ is moer of a city girl–her last assignment was Las Vegas. This recipe is her attempt at marrying her love of Italian with his Cajun roots. I think Antoine might appreciate it if she would occasionally make it with mud puppies (ie. crawfish) but she draws the line there. (Me, too!) If you’d like to read about their adventures (there’s kidnapping, bad guys, good guys, a half-feral Wolf (aka Antoine) and a woman trying to find law, order, and justice in her assignment. Good times! Just click on one of the pics with the cover or the title. That will zoom you over to the landing page at Books2Read where you can find the on-line bookstore of your choice. BLUE MOON is one of the later books in the Moonstruck series, but I think you can read (mostly) as a standalone. Of course, you could always just grab all the books and read them first! (I suggest grabbing the three Moonstruck Genesis compendium books because they give you the first six books, plus extra chapters and novellas that aren’t published anywhere else. And it’s cheape that way…just sayin’…) You can find links for them here on my site. Happy eatin’, y’all!
Silver James 