Recipe Live Crawfish to eat and to freeze.

[caseydog]

@CraigC
We frequently use Zateran's plus non iodized table salt. G wanted to try Louisiana New Orleans Style boil mix. More of a powder . Needed

I usually use Louisiana Brand crawfish boil in powder form. If I do 2 pots, I may make one extra-hot for the pepper-heads, with a bunch of cayenne. Otherwise, it is just water, my boil mix, red-potatoes, corn on the cob, and quartered lemons -- I think that's all.

Personally, the crawfish and taters work for me -- and some crusty french bread.

CD

 

[ElizabethB]

It is crawfish season.
We had a few errands to run Sunday. I told George I wanted boiled crawfish. Our favorite boiling joint opens at 5 p.m. We arrived at 5:30. The parking lot was full. Cars were parked on all of the side streets. That was a no go for me.
Monday we tried again. Got to the restaurant at 4:50. There were 50 to 60 people standing in line to get in - in the rain.
Another no go.
George mentioned another place that he heard had good crawfish. So we went there. They serve their crawfish mild, regular and hot. So we ordered regular.
Ridiculous.
To their credit the crawfish were cooked perfectly. The problem was the heat just for the sake of heat. An insult to the crawfish. Never again.
I can easily eat 5 lbs. I only ate half of my order. I did bring home the remainder. Washed them then peeled the tails and ate them in a salad. Better but still over seasoned. I like to taste the lovely, delicate flavor of the crawfish.
Heat for the sake of heat makes me crazy. I like pepper and peppers but only for flavor. I want to taste my food not the heat.
Sorry for the rant. It makes me mad when wonderful food is ruined with a heavy hand of pepper.

 

[medtran49]

We use leftover veges and sausage to make boil soup. The potatoes and onions get blitzed in the blender or FP, then heated up with some cream and chicken stock. The andouille gets chopped, the corn sliced off the cob, and then stirred into the soup.

The former SIL's aunt made a potato salad out of the leftovers, though I never had it. DD mentioned it once when we had done a boil and took her and the DGDs some of the veges (she likes mushrooms in the boil as well) and crawfish.

 

[ElizabethB]

Potato salad with the seasoned potatoes is wonderful. You could also grate the potatoes and make hash browns or potato cakes. Toss in a few chopped tails for extra flavor.

Boiled vegetable soup sounds wonderful. I would add a few tails and some of the fat from the heads.

Do you eat the fat? I do not suck the heads. I scoop the fat out with my finger. Rub a slice of buttered french bread with boiled garlic then spread fat on top. YUMMM.

Because of our weight issues I had them hold the potatoes.

At dinner last night the server brought a basket of assorted fresh baked bread and a plate of different flavored compound butter. I had him take it away. Poor George. He blanched at the sight of that wonderful bread and butter being taken away.

I am so mean.

 

[rascal]

It is crawfish season.
We had a few errands to run Sunday. I told George I wanted boiled crawfish. Our favorite boiling joint opens at 5 p.m. We arrived at 5:30. The parking lot was full. Cars were parked on all of the side streets. That was a no go for me.
Monday we tried again. Got to the restaurant at 4:50. There were 50 to 60 people standing in line to get in - in the rain.
Another no go.
George mentioned another place that he heard had good crawfish. So we went there. They serve their crawfish mild, regular and hot. So we ordered regular.
Ridiculous.
To their credit the crawfish were cooked perfectly. The problem was the heat just for the sake of heat. An insult to the crawfish. Never again.
I can easily eat 5 lbs. I only ate half of my order. I did bring home the remainder. Washed them then peeled the tails and ate them in a salad. Better but still over seasoned. I like to taste the lovely, delicate flavor of the crawfish.
Heat for the sake of heat makes me crazy. I like pepper and peppers but only for flavor. I want to taste my food not the heat.
Sorry for the rant. It makes me mad when wonderful food is ruined with a heavy hand of pepper.

I know exactly what you mean, I'm not big on heat, so I cook everything medium, you can always add more chillies. You can't take it away.

Russ

 

[medtran49]

I suck heads on and off, probably about half the time. Craig does pretty much all the time. I eat the fat with the mud bug. If we are taking the heads off to freeze, we discard the fat as it goes rancid much faster than the tail meat. I've thought about putting some tails in the soup, especially as garnish, but I always forget to keep a small amount out.

 

[ElizabethB]

medtran49
You can scoop the fat from the heads and freeze it. I use silicon candy molds. Freeze the fat then put it in vacuum bag. In the old days you could buy a lb. of fresh - not frozen crawfish tails that came with a container of fat. Don't waste that loveliness. Even in the freezer it will only keep about a month. Worth the effort. Perfect etouffee is made with the fat.

 

[CraigC]

No local available, no problem. Just ordered 30 pounds of XL WC crawfish from Kyle Leblanc seafood in Raceland, LA. Will pick up at Ft. Lauderdale international on Friday. Doing the boil on Saturday.

 

[rascal]

No local available, no problem. Just ordered 30 pounds of XL WC crawfish from Kyle Leblanc seafood in Raceland, LA. Will pick up at Ft. Lauderdale international on Friday. Doing the boil on Saturday.

I watched a thing on tv a while ago, crawfish farm delivering live with in 24 hrs. I was impressed.
Put some pics up please. I'm more than interested in these.

Russ

 

[Mountain Cat]

I miss crawfish this year. Not driving two hours to get them ... it's not essential travel and would only be worth it if I could combine it with other purposes or social visits.

 

[CraigC]

I miss crawfish this year. Not driving two hours to get them ... it's not essential travel and would only be worth it if I could combine it with other purposes or social visits.

Local places aren't carrying them at a reasonable price and that is how we always used to buy them.

 

[Mountain Cat]

Local places aren't carrying them at a reasonable price and that is how we always used to buy them.

And the thing about the place I used to buy them in CT -- they noted last year that they weren't moving very fast and were considering discontinuing. So I bought two or three pounds that week, and another couple pounds two weeks later. I'd actually marked my calendar for this year, but of course...

Since it was my old stomping grounds, I always do (did?) a lot of other things when I get back down to Danbury CT - try to meet a friend for lunch, hit some other specialty stores, go to a book club meeting, get Indian food, check in with my bank (more coins to change over to real money, which service they're not providing now).

Last time I was there, I even picked up half a lamb for the freezer. Not needing more of that for awhile, though.

 

[rascal]

And the thing about the place I used to buy them in CT -- they noted last year that they weren't moving very fast and were considering discontinuing. So I bought two or three pounds that week, and another couple pounds two weeks later. I'd actually marked my calendar for this year, but of course...

Since it was my old stomping grounds, I always do (did?) a lot of other things when I get back down to Danbury CT - try to meet a friend for lunch, hit some other specialty stores, go to a book club meeting, get Indian food, check in with my bank (more coins to change over to real money, which service they're not providing now).

Last time I was there, I even picked up half a lamb for the freezer. Not needing more of that for awhile, though.

What's half a lamb worth. Our lamb is cheapest it's ever been in years. $9 kg frozen. Legs work out @$20 for a decent size. Daughter bought one the other day.

Russ

 

[medtran49]

Okay ElizabethB , I saved several tablespoons of fat, though Craig didn't. Please post your recipe for etouffee that uses it (or at least give me an idea since you probably don't use a recipe) because the way I make it doesn't use the fat.

Craig has other pictures to post, but this was one of the biggest ones, and there were quite a few around its size. A few small ones, but the giant ones far outnumbered the smaller ones. Was actually able to get a good bit of claw meat, as well as tail meat. Keep in mind its tail was arced up and not flat, so it was actually closer to 7.5 to 7.75 pushed flat.

 

[CraigC]

Too tired to mess with pictures last night. So here they are. Something I have never run into before, they were purged before shipment as when I went to purge them the water ran clear on the first rinse.

Fresh out of the pot with steam rising in the cooler.

Clearer view.

The vege. I only had one stick of andouille left.

Dinner plate!

When we are done eating, we normally separate the heads from the tails, divide the tails into 1 pound packages and freeze the packages for picking when we go to use the tail meat. This time we picked all the tail meat and will divide, vacuum seal and freeze today. After I clean up and put away my cooking equipment, I'll be making a trip to Restaurant Depot to get some boneless pork butt to prep for Tasso and Andouille making next weekend.