Recipe Live Crawfish to eat and to freeze.

ElizabethB

ElizabethB

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A dear friend has a hobby crawfish pond. He does not sell them . He gives them away to friends and family . This morning he called G and offered a sack of crawfish
Yippee! Much more than we can eat. Blanched all but 10 lbs. Those will be peeled, the fat reserved and frozen for later use
The remaining 10 lbs. will be boiled in heavily seasoned water and we will scarf down those sweet, tender mud bugs.
We boil the water, add seasoning (lots) Add a laundry bag of veggies
Quartered onions , pods of garlic, carrots, mushrooms, celery and lemons
When the veggies are cooked the are put in an ice chest to keep hot. Add additional seasoning. Bring water to a boil then immerse the basket of crawfish. Bring back to a boil
Remove crawfish to a cooler.
Cover an outdoor table with cardboard or newspaper. Dump the crawfish and veggies on the table and eat
G likes a dipping sauce of mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, horseradish and Cajun Power Garlic sauce. I like my crawfish plain or dipped in melted butter.
Most of the crawfish have been blanched to peel and freeze. The bag of veggies is in the pot. Once the veggies are cooked the remaining crawfish will be cooked and devoured.
Then the work begins. Peeling the blanched crawfish and bagging them for freezing
Oh - I have a six pack of beer in the fridge. The only time I drink beer is with boiled seafood
We are most blessed with fresh seafood
Our climate sucks but the trade off is amazing, fresh seafood. NOTE: I just finished my first beer
More to come
 
Hopefully I'll be doing some soon! What is your go to dry spice blend or do you use liquid concentrate?
 
@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 less additional salt.
You can always experiment with your own mix of herbs and spices.
Every person in Louisiana has their own recipe and all claim that their recipe is the best.
A couple of notes.
Many people believe that crawfish needs to be purged in salt water. NOT
Crawfish naturally purge through their gills. A slow, natural process. Adding salt does not speed up the process. It only kills the crawfish and is a waste of salt. Wash the crawfish with water until water runs clear. Put in an ice chest
Cover with the wet sack and a sprinkle of ice or small bottles or water . Open the drain plug.
We cook our vegetables first in a large laundry bag. The veggies are tossed into a small ice chest to keep hot.
After cooking the vegetables we add a little more salt. A 1/4 container of non iodized Table salt.
When the water returns to a boil immerse basket of crawfish. By the time the water returns to a boil the crawfish ane almost done. A minute or three @ boil and they are done. Lift the basket out of the water and drain. I do NOT believe in soaking . Results in mushy meat.
BTW - I hope you always buy Louisiana crawfish. Crawfish is a major industry. Asian crawfish have a huge negative impact on our local farmers and processors.
There is little or no control over the processing or quality of Asian crawfish
The tails may be larger but water is added.
Support U.S. farmers and processors.
 
I love crawfish. The last few weeks down at my old food shopping location in Connecticut, they've had crawfish for sale. Since I've been down there, yes, I've picked some up. Simmered them and ate, mostly the tails - but I will suck on the bodies and if the claws are relatively large, I'm not going to waste that meat, either.

I wish I could find them up here in western MA. Alas...

These are sourced form Louisiana. I have cooked them in the past using a home made crawfish broil similar to Old Bay's brand.

I picked up some this past Friday, and plan to finish eating the last of them later today. I thought about saving the shells and such for a seafood broth, but frankly right now I don't have the room to store it. (I just finished making lamb/beef bone broth, which is setting up in my fridge.)
 
@Mountain Cat
For many years outside of Louisiana crawfish were considered trash and not appreciated.
in south Louisiana crawfish farming is big business. we even have a crawfish festival in Breaux Bridge Louisiana
I can imagine that finding live Lousiana crawfish in your neck of the woods is difficult and expensive
I do hope that you purchase Louisiana crawfish and not imported Asian crawfish. Asian crawfish are a bane to the local farmers. In addition there are no quality regulations or restrictions on child labor.
Enjoy your mud bugs
 
Be careful about buying frozen tail meat. We found some once at the restaurant supply place that had Breaux Bridge predominantly on the front. It was a REALLY good price, which sort of raised questions to me. Thank goodness I flipped the package over. Yeah, it was packaged in Breaux Bridge, but was a product of China.
 
medtran49 said:
Be careful about buying frozen tail meat. We found some once at the restaurant supply place that had Breaux Bridge predominantly on the front. It was a REALLY good price, which sort of raised questions to me. Thank goodness I flipped the package over. Yeah, it was packaged in Breaux Bridge, but was a product of China.
Click to expand...

I'm also careful about shrimp. Similar reasons.
 
The sacks of crawfish are now available at our local Restaurant Depot. If I don't have to work Saturday I'll do a boil.
 
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Louisiana crawfish season off to a good start. Our local Restaurant Depot is already carrying them live in 30# +/- sacks. Next Tuesday is Fat Tuesday and that means Mardi Gras! There should be lots of mud bugs available! Don't forget the King Cake.
 
Thanks for renovating this thread... I am noting I posted in mid-April about getting crawfish back in my old stomping ground, which since at this point I no longer own the old home there -- will give me a good date to go back down and get me some fresh crawfish to go cook! I doubt I'll find them hereabouts - so a good a reason as any to go back and get more!!!
 
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