It’s time to get your Mardi Gras on this year with some new, taste bud award winning food!

  Losing ideas for a scrumptious entrée you want to make for the family? To start off, since seafood is most often related to Mardi Gras, try making Louisiana Blue Crab Stuffed Flounder on February 9th and get your whole family’s’ bellies filled. It is a great meal to have a family over and can make up to six servings. This meal is packed with different flavors and spices ranging from thyme, to black pepper, and around to bell peppers.

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter

1 cup diced yellow onion

1 cup diced celery

1 cup diced green bell pepper

½ cup diced red bell pepper

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup sliced green onion

1¾ teaspoons salt, divided

¾ teaspoon ground black pepper, divided

¾ teaspoon dried thyme leaves

½ teaspoon dry ground mustard

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1½ cups shellfish stock

8 ounces Louisiana crabmeat, picked free of shells

¼ (16-ounce) loaf stale French bread, diced and toasted

½ cup bread crumbs

6 (8- to 10-ounce) fillets fresh flounder, skinned and deboned

6 long bamboo skewers, soaked in water 30 minutes

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup corn flour

¼ cup clarified butter

Lemon Butter Sauce, recipe follows

Garnish: microgreens

  To jump right into it, in an oven, melt the butter over a medium heat. Add onion, celery, bell peppers, garlic, green onion, 3 fourths of a teaspoon of salt, a fourth of a teaspoon of black pepper, thyme leaves, ground mustard, and cayenne pepper. Let the blend of flavors to cook until it has softened; keep it cooking from 5 to 8 minutes. Next, add shellfish stock and bring the container filled with the ingredients already used to a boil. Be sure to reduce the product by half.

  Add crabmeat and French bread and stir until thickening. If the stuffing so far is still too wet, generously add breadcrumbs to increase thickening. As a result, the texture should be somewhat moist and firm. Set the stuffing aside to cool down. Heat your oven to 400°.

  On a separate work surface, place the flounder fillet down, smooth side up. Spoon a half cup in the middle of the fillet. Roll the fillet tightly around the stuffing, while retaining the stuffing inside. Have the fillet skewered diagonally, piercing the top and bottom of the fillet. Repeat this with the other fillets.

  Season the fillets with the extra 1 teaspoon of salt and half teaspoon of black pepper. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and corn flour. In a nonstick skillet, add the clarified butter and cook it over medium heat. Drench the fillets is the flour mixture. Softly place the fillet in the pan and cook until it’s golden brown, often taking up to 3-5 minutes. When time, flip the fillets and cook further for 3 minutes. Put the cooked fillets in the oven and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. And with that, after oven baking the fillets, serve them and feel free to add any garnish including cilantro. Although the process might be long, the end result will be sure to bring smiles from your family.

  Enjoy the Mardi Gras time of the year and gather the family over this festive dish. For more great ideas for Mardi Gras recipes, don’t hesitate to go and check out these other delicious recipes. Also, a special kudos to Louisianacookin.com for their recipe for Louisiana Blue Stuffed Crab Flounder.