20 taif recipes

Monkey tails are frozen chocolate-dipped bananas on a stick, brushed with orange juice to prevent browning. A fun, easy no-bake treat kids can help make.

Southern pigs' tails and lima beans, slow-simmered with onion, garlic, and sweet bell peppers for deep pork-infused flavor. Old-school soul food stew where inexpensive pork cuts make rich, sticky broth.

Loaded vegetable oxtail soup with butter-browned tails, carrots, turnips or cabbage, celery, and a splash of sherry. A French-leaning broth fortified with thyme, bay, and beef stock for restaurant-style depth.

Thai-style stuffed tomatoes filled with seasoned ground pork, shrimp, peas, and corn, flavored with pounded garlic, peppercorns, coriander root, and fish sauce. Gently steamed until tender and fragrant.

Authentic crawfish bisque with stuffed crawfish heads, a dark roux, and ground crawfish tails simmered low and slow. The crown jewel of Cajun cooking, served over rice.

Buttery crawfish mashed potatoes with garlic, chives, and heavy cream folded with a pound of crawfish tails. A Louisiana-style side dish that can steal the spotlight from any main course.

Sauteed crawfish tails with honey in a fresh tomato-dill sauce, served over rice or pasta. A Southern-meets-Mediterranean crawfish dish with a sweet-savory twist.

Creamy crawfish pasta in a Dijon mustard cream sauce made from crawfish-soaked milk. Two pounds of tender tails over fresh pasta, Cajun-style and ready in an hour.

Cajun crawfish fettuccine in a rich cream sauce with onion, celery, scallions, and a kick of cayenne. A Louisiana-style pasta dinner ready in 25 minutes.

Cajun-style crawfish and corn soup built on a flamed brandy shell stock and a medium-brown roux. Rich, spicy, and loaded with sweet corn straight off the cob.

Authentic crawfish etouffee builds on a dark roux with the Cajun trinity, a small army of garlic, and Louisiana crawfish tails. Smothered over rice, this is true New Orleans comfort food.

Alligator Sausage & Crawfish Casserole: a one-pan Louisiana feast with crumbled gator sausage, smoked sausage, crawfish tails, and converted rice baked in tomatoes and creole seasoning.

McIlhenny's crawfish etouffee smothered in butter with the holy trinity, crawfish fat, Tabasco, and fresh lemon juice. A rich, roux-free Cajun classic that's even better the next day.

Classic Provencal fish stew from Toulon with assorted fish, mussels, and crawfish in a silky egg yolk-thickened broth. Fennel, leeks, and garlic croutons round out this elegant one-pot.

The legendary Dagwood Bumstead sandwich: a towering, impossible stack of ham, bacon, meatloaf, sausage, lobster, sardines, fried egg, cold spaghetti, and everything else in the fridge.

Italian sausage, shrimp, and lobster simmered in a wine-spiked tomato broth with vegetables and fusilli, then broiled under a bubbling cap of Jarlsberg cheese. This cheesy cioppino is San Francisco soul food with a gooey twist.