Deacon Levy shares faith, crawfish king cake

February 19, 2021

It looks like a king cake, but when Deacon Gary Levy serves his crawfish king cake at parties alongside sweet king cakes, he writes this disclaimer: “You better shift your mind set, because what you are about to taste is savory, not sweet.”

Looks can be deceiving at first glance of this king cake. It is braided bread with the appearance of being iced with a sugary glaze and then dusted with colored sugar.

In actuality, it is a bread dough stuffed with cheesy crawfish étouffée, “iced” with a whipped cream-Parmesan/Romano cheese blend and dusted with colored shredded cheese.

“There is cheese in the icing – it is a wicked Alfredo sauce that, once reduced, looks like icing,” Deacon Levy said.

This king cake, prepared especially during the Lenten season, is always a big hit with family and friends.

“I started serving it to family first,” he said, sometime before Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Deacon Levy’s inspiration for this rich seafood delicacy was eating braided crawfish bread at the former Coffee Cottage on Metairie Road.

“John Caluda was an award-winning pastry chef and had this,” Deacon Levy said. “He made his pastry from scratch, but I took his idea and made it my own with a lot of shortcuts.”

The crawfish king cake is not difficult to make but requires defrosting the frozen bread dough. Other tips: Make a tight, not saucy, étouffée; if using frozen crawfish, add more seasoning, but use less seasoning with boiled crawfish.

Deacon Levy’s version also has more cheese than the original he tasted. In each of three cylindrical dough pieces, he stuffs cooled étouffée, then pinches it tight and then marries them by braiding and shaping into an oval king cake.

“Lately, you are seeing more savory king cakes,” he said, noting a boudin-filled cake he saw.

Family inspired faith

Deacon Levy hails from a big Catholic family that likes to cook. So, it is no surprise that cooking is one of his favorite pastimes.

“I’m one of six, so family events are huge,” said Deacon Levy, fifth of the children. “Mom is expecting great grandchild No. 25 this summer.”

When it came to faith, his parents were strong examples. Deacon Levy said his father was influenced by the Jesuits (he was Loyola’s dental program chair and a Manresa retreatant for 60 years). His mom was taught by the School Sisters of Notre Dame from Sacred Heart on Canal Street, and she also became close to the Cenacle nuns, who ran the Cenacle retreats that she attended for decades.

“At 97, she is trying to figure out how to get her 62nd retreat at the Cenacle,” Deacon Levy said. “I was formed my whole life because exposure to religious (men and women) in my home was always present.”

Deacon Levy entertained a religious vocation in high school – he was taught by the Christian Brothers at Christian Brothers School and then at De La Salle – but he met his wife Claudia, a Dominican student, as a teen when she was recruiting De La Salle students for the “Marriage of Figaro” libretto.

“We were the best thing out of that play,” he joked.

While dating, Deacon Levy said he told Claudia about his thoughts of the priesthood, but marriage and a veterinary career fit him best at the time. They wed in 1981 at St. Pius X Church, the year before his LSU Veterinary School graduation. Claudia is a CPA.

Like his parents, the Levys delved deeper in the Catholic faith early in their marriage. College friends invited them to an Engaged Encounter retreat, where they discovered how married couples pray for and support Catholic engaged couples. Now, 35 years later, they remain mentors for Engaged Encounter weekends in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Even with COVID-19, the weekends have continued using safety protocols.

“The lesson learned there is if you are involved with a community of people walking the talk, it keeps you grounded,” he said.

King cake, faith connections

Deacon Levy sees several religious analogies he could use on Catholic engaged Encounter weekends as he makes his crawfish king cake.

™ The intertwining of the dough: “This is the way your marriage is supposed to be – the two of you and God.”

™ The king cake: The whole tradition starts the celebration of the Epiphany or King’s Day.

“You have to be so penitential in Lent, but in New Orleans we eat things like this,” he said. “If I am going to be truly sacrificing, it’s going to be a box of macaroni and cheese and can of tuna.”

Deacon Levy offers this caveat for those preparing the crawfish king cake on a Friday during Lent: Fast all day and eat the king cake as your main meal with a salad.

Happy to be a deacon

While he never became a priest, eight years ago he began discerning a vocation to the permanent diaconate when Claudia mentioned a new discernment gathering. It’s a five-year process to become a deacon, he said, and the wives have to be totally on board since they attend the classes.

The timing was right. His three children were out of the house and married with careers and their own children; he has a veterinary practice partner and he had Claudia’s support. He was ordained in 2018.

Of all his diaconate duties, Deacon Levy said baptisms are his favorite. He has baptized several of his grandchildren and even children of his daughters’ friends.

“It’s such a time of joy,” he said. “To be able to be with the family as that child enters the faith is all gift.”

Deacon Levy said having a strong faith life is critical.

“It’s where your focus needs to be – not in this life, but the next,” he said. “It’s about this life from the standpoint of service.”

cbordelon@clarionherald.org

Gammy’s seafood gumbo

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cooking oil (divided)
2 (12-ounce) boxes frozen cut okra or
1½ pounds fresh, cut in ½ inch slices
2 large yellow onions, diced
1 bunch green onions, whites and green separated.
1 (6-ounce) can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons parsley
¼ teaspoon thyme
2 quarts shrimp stock
4-5 small crabs, 2 pounds peeled shrimp
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Sauté okra on medium high heat in 1/3 cup of oil until “slime” is almost gone. Add diced yellow onions and white portions of green onions. Sauté 10 minutes over medium heat until onions are translucent. Move vegetables aside and add the flour. Stir flour a few minutes until lightly browned and incorporate the remaining ²∕³ cup oil to make your roux. Cook to medium-dark brown.

Add tomato sauce, parsley, thyme and green onion tops, and mix vegetables and roux together. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes, then add shrimp stock and crabs. Bring to a boil. Add shrimp and turn off heat. Best eaten the next day. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over white rice.

Crawfish king cake

(makes 2 large cakes)

Bread and Stuffing:

Frozen bread dough (usually comes in 3 loaves.)

2 pounds crawfish tails (chop about ½ pound into smaller pieces)

2 cups pre-chopped Creole seasoning (onions, bell pepper, garlic, parsley) from produce aisle

(or chop 1 onion, ½ bell pepper, 3 cloves garlic, 1 bunch parsley)

1 bunch of green onions

6 tablespoons butter or margarine

3 tablespoons Creole seasoning (Emeril’s, Tony Chachere’s or similar)

½ cup Parmesan cheese

2 cups shredded Colby Jack, American, Cheddar or similar cheese blend

Icing:

1 pint (2 cups) whipping cream

1 cup parmesan/Romano grated cheese blend

Sprinkles:

½ cup each color (purple, green and gold) finely grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkles. Use food coloring directions to create colors. Mix with back of spoon or toothpick to distribute color evenly.

Directions

Thaw frozen dough according to package instructions. (I do it overnight in the refrigerator.)

Put whipping cream in a small saucepan and cook carefully over low heat (It will boil over easily on any higher heat! A real mess!) until reduced in half to 1 cup. Take off heat and stir in cheeses until blended. Cool and chill to thicken.
Sauté vegetables (except green onion tops) in butter over medium heat for 10 minutes or until soft. Add crawfish tails, green onion tops, Creole seasoning and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and add cheeses. Blend and allow to cool.
Preheat oven at 350 degrees.
Cut 3 loaves of dough lengthwise into 6 strips. Taking 3 strips per king cake, roll and stretch each strip to about 2 feet in length each. Flatten each strip to about 3 inches wide by 24 inches long. Spoon cooled crawfish cheese mixture down center of strip, being careful not to overfill. Pinch edges over top of filling to make an enclosed tube. Repeat with two other strips.
On a large baking sheet, braid the three filled strips and form an oval. Let rise for 60 to 90 minutes in a warm, draft-free place. Bake in preheated, 350-degree oven for 25-28 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. Ice with icing and sprinkled colored cheeses a la king cake.

One of my favorite appetizers is from from my sister Diane Levy Centanni

OYSTER BOATS

24 small pistolettes

3 dozen oysters (chopped)

16-ounce container fresh chopped seasoning mix

1 T chopped garlic

2 T chopped parsley

1 1/2 sticks butter

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 - 2 cups milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Dash Tabasco

DIRECTIONS:

Slice top (long ways) off pistolettes. Reserve slices as "sails" for the “'boats.” Hollow out inside of pistolettes and reserve crumbs. Place pistolletes and slices on baking sheet - bake in 200-degree oven for 30 minutes until toasted well. Reserve pistolettes and slices for later use.

Melt butter in large pot add seasonings and garlic to butter and sauté on low fire for 10 minutes. Add oysters to mixture and cook on low fire for 10 minutes.Slowly add flour stirring constantly, mixture will be thick.Slowly add the milk a little at a time stirring constantly until mixture is thick. (May not need all the milk.) Add parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Spoon mixture into hollow pistolettes. Place on baking sheet and put a bread slice in center of pistolettes like a sail. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 20 minutes. Serve immediately.