Mama Mulate is a principal character in my murder mystery Big Easy.  She is a practicing voodoo mambo, but also a professor at Tulane University where she teaches English literature.  She drives a vintage Bugeye Sprite, loves jazz, the blues, and running naked around the house.

       Mama has an old home in a New Orleans working class neighbourhood.  You only have to see the proliferation of flowers and greenery in her front yard to know that she has a passion for gardening.  Her back yard is no different.  A lazy stone path winds through Mama’s flowers, arbors and herb patches, and a cherub fountain gurgles gently beneath a giant spreading oak tree.

       She also grows gourds, vegetables and mirlitons, a green, pear-shaped fruit found in abundance in South Louisiana.  They crawl up the fence by the dozens in Mama Mulate’s backyard.  There are hundreds of ways to prepare this fruit, usually like a vegetable such as squash, but Mama especially likes this particular variation.

                        ¦ 8 mirlitons

                        ¦ 1/4 cup liquid crab boil

                        ¦ 2 large onions, chopped

                        ¦ 6 tablespoons butter

                        ¦ 1-cup of extra virgin olive oil

                        ¦ 1-cup cheap white wine

                        ¦ 1-tablespoon lemon juice

                        ¦ 1-teaspoon paprika

                        ¦ 1-teaspoon salt

                        ¦ 2 eggs, well beaten

                        ¦ 2 sprigs thyme

                        ¦ 2 cups bread crumbs

                        ¦ 2 cloves garlic, minced

                        ¦ 1-pound crawfish tails

                        ¦ 1-teaspoon black pepper

                        ¦ 1-teaspoon white pepper

                        ¦ 2 teaspoons chopped parsley

Simmer mirlitons about one to 1 ½ hours in salted water, or until tender.  Remove from water, drain, and half.  Remove the seed and scoop out pulp with a spoon. Reserve the shells.  Chop the pulp and add breadcrumbs.  Sauté chopped onions, garlic, and crawfish in crab boil, butter, wine, lemon juice and olive oil over medium heat until tender. Stir in pulp, salt, paprika and pepper.  Stir often and cook for about 5 minutes.  Add beaten eggs, parsley, and thyme.  Mix thoroughly.  Scoop the dressing back into the individual shells, top with breadcrumbs and dot with butter.  Bake the mirlitons in a 375-degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until hot and then enjoy.

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