Crayfish Recipes?

[thedeadsea]

How do we cook these things, there are tons of them in Vermilion?

Thanks,

Steve

[Coach Dog]

Boil them and dip the tails in butter w/ garlic. Or if you have enough of them you can make jumbalaya or something cajun. Make sure there are no eggs/babies attached to the tails as it will gross you out. Trust me.

[Harmonica Bear]

For some reason I thought our crawfish up here weren't the same as what they have in naw'leans. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong. But I'd think you can just boil with Old Bay Seasoning until done, then just pinch the tail, eat the meat and suck the heads.

[Coach Dog]

They are different, much different. The ones from the south are way better tasting and waaaay bigger.

[LABS4ME]

I had heard that the Rusty Crawfish (exotic) that is in Vermillion were better to eat than our native variety. I know they are WAAAY bigger.

I'm pretty sure we have them in Cass now... we've caught them walleye fishing and they are probably 3x the size of the native crawdads. Only had crayfish once and they were from a cajun restaurant... they were decent, just a lot of work for a morsel of meat.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Coach Dog]

LABS,

They are indeed a lot of work to eat, but very excellent, especially while washing them down with a couple cold ones. I've been to New Orleans to experience the real deal and I love them.

I am a bit disappointed in you (not really) that you do not have some sort of awesome recipe like you do for everything else. You should work on that! LOL

[LABS4ME]

Maybe I'll have to throw some in my Jambalaya next time...! Are they ever available locally at a specialty store? I've never been fortunate enough (? ) to have to try to cook with them. Never had any available. I really think the ones I had the one time were over boiled... they were as I said decent (flavor), but not exceptional and a little rubbery. I'd like to experience a good crawfish sometime as I do love sea food.

It's probably a lot like eating Blue Crab in Annapolis... a lot of work, good flavor (especially with a good cold beer) and an incredible social event! My buddy lives out there and took me out to 'throw crabs' once... It's aliken to eating peanuts in the "olden days" at The Ground Round... Crab shells all over the floor and empty beer glasses on all the tables! It is about the 'social' experience not the 'meal' experience.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Tom Linderholm]

Tons of cray's in Leech as well. Might be where they came from to get in Cass. Believe it or not there are people out there that trap our northern craw daddies and sell them down south. So the ones you have eaten down south could very well have been from your home waters.

I would certainly suggest Jambalaya, also they go great in fish boils or gumbo, fried, steamed, sauteed.

Getting a little Bubba Gump there

[Coach Dog]

There's a season in the south (March and April) for them and they actually farm them in these gigantic ponds. They're red color down there. They drag them out with nets by the ton. It's pretty wild.

[thedeadsea]

Thanks for all the replies, is there a certain amount of time you would boil them for? I am thinking I would use my turkey cooker. Also I have the steamer unit, would that be better than boiling?

Steve

[iland99]

"Crawfish boils", as they are called in Houston, are more of a social event than a meal. The place I used to work at down there would have a big crawfish boil every year. They'd boil the crawfish in some Cajun seasoning (Old Bay maybe?). Then they'd drain the water and dump the whole pile of crawdads in the middle of the picnic table. You'd sit down, roll up your sleeves, and go to town! No plates, no utensils, just dig in. It was a lot of fun. Oh, and probably the most important ingredient to any good crawfish boil is BEER, and lots of it!

Also, if you were lazy, you could buy frozen crawdad tails pre-packaged at any grocery store down there. Great in gumbo or jumbalaya. I would guess you could find the same thing around here with a little legwork, maybe you'd have to have it special ordered.

[Coach Dog]

I've bought frozen crawfish tails at Super Wal-Mart. There's also a company called Fabian's Seafood out of Texas I think that sets up at gas stations and public spots about once per month in the west metro. Waay easier and better tasting.

[TTfromBlaine]

try going to louisiana fish fry (Contact Us Please) you know what and look for cray fish mix called etoufee spelling?? you can put pretty much anything you want in it as far as shrimp lobster what ever but man it's gooood .. it's served over a bed of good rice with garlic bread used to eat it all the time when I was down there. in fact I better order me up some more

P.S. I think the crawdads down south go thru a process called purgeing to clean the innards out prior to boiling.

TOM

[Rlinn]

I grew up in Southern Alabama [LA]. Crayfish are very tasty. To boil them, get a pot of salty water [old Bay is a Northern thing, optional], to a boil, dump the crayfish in LIVE and bring it back to a boil, shut it off and wait 15 minutes, dump them out and run under cool water. Then grab a 6 pack and a seat and start cleaning. How to clean them: Snap off the head and save the big pincher claws [they are a pain but if big enough worth it]. Pull off the tail fins. Pull the shell open from the underneath. Pull the tail meat out. Pull a strip on the back off [mud line] and toss it away. Rinse with cold water when you get a pile. If they are tough, you boiled them too long. I make Crayfish Creole out of mine, yum!!! Just use a Shrimp Creole recipe.

[New Yankee]

Ah, a man from LA (Lower Alabama)! Hunted many years in Wilcox County. Guys, just do a google search for Crawfish Boils and you'll get what you need. They do need to be purged after rinsing them a few times - a big wash tub, ice chest or small kiddy pool works well.

Stir a box of salt in the water, then add the mudbugs and let them soak for 3 or 4 minutes - if you look REALLY close, you'll see the little buggers puke. That'll make them taste much better.

I've always used crab boil for seasoning the water, add new potatoes, corn and sausage and let them cook on a low boil for 10 minutes or so before you add the bugs, I prefer to keep them boiling for about 5 minutes then remove the basket and let them cool for a few before dumping the whole shebang out on the newpaper covered table.

You can order live crawfish shipped overnight, the cost isn't terrible but it ain't cheap either. I keep trying to get the boys at work to pitch in and we'd throw a boil, but you know youse Northerners, uffta!

You can also order crawfish tails from the seafood counter - they come peeled and deviened,and are great in etuofee - google that as well and you come to a number of good receipes - etoufee, jambalaya and gumbo receipes are a matter of personal taste, so 'ya just gotta keep trying them

[crawdad]

Rlinn & Yankee know the stuff. I would add Zatarains crab boil to the spice suggestions, cut the boiling time by 5 and let them soak another 5 minutes in the boil. Don't want to overcook as already stated since you'll be cooking them again in something else. They really shrink. The purge trick is worth it to save a little bit of the 'head fat' attached to the tail, and avoiding the step of pulling the mud line. A little easier to clean when you have several hundred to go through. If you squeeze the end of the tail just right, sometimes you can get the intestine to come off with the shell. Claws are worth cleaning! Break them off, snap the 'thumb' piece off, use a fork prong through that hole to snap the rest open.

I use a turkey fryer with the basket loaded up with the crawdads after purging, wait till full boil, drop it in.

I only found one small native crawfish in my last visit to Fall in Winton out of 250-300 rustys, most nice size.

Trapping is another whole topic....maybe I could give you a hand