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Crawfish Boil - Louisiana Style
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Williams, Cynthia...
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La Belle Cuisine
Crawfish Crazy
"At last! It looks like
a good year to eat mudbugs."
The Times-Picayune, New
Orleans, Thursday March 06, 2003
By Marcelle Bienvenu
“There are lots of
smiley faces on crawfish farmers these days. This year the
crawfish industry is
looking forward to one of the best seasons in quite a
while.
‘And it's about time,’
says one local farmer.
Two years ago crawfish
were so scarce that the people in Breaux Bridge feared
they wouldn't have enough
to go around at their annual Crawfish Festival,
held every first full weekend in
May. Last year there were crawfish, but not
nearly
enough to satisfy the market.
Thus, the price was sky high.
‘But this year should
be a good season for both pond crawfish and Atchafalaya
Basin crawfish,’ says
Darrel Rivere, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Pro-
motion Board.
According to Rivere,
who was a crawfisherman for 23 years in Pierre Part, the
ponds have been a
little sluggish but are getting better. "And what with all the
snow in the Ohio
Valley, we should be getting a good amount of water in the
Basin in the next two
weeks. In January, the Mississippi River was very low,
but now the waters are
rising, a good sign for deep-water crawfish. When you
have lots of water, then
you can have a grand season for both pond and deep-
water crawfish," Rivere said.
Prices are holding pretty steady, he said, and will
probably drop when the
season peaks.
I did some checking
around St. Martinville and found peeled tails selling for
$8.99 a pound and a
12-ounce bag priced at $6.88. Live crawfish are a little
scarce, but after Mardi
Gras and when the bad weather is behind us, they
should be abundant.
During Lent, the 40-day
fasting and abstinence season for the Catholic com-
munity, crawfish will be in
high demand. When Holy Week (the week before
Easter Sunday) arrives, prices may
go up only because so many families tradi-
tionally have a crawfish boil on Good
Friday. It's that old supply and demand
thing.
There once was a time
when crawfish season ran from March to July, but now consumers begin looking for
crawfish in November. ‘Hopefully the season will
last until July,’ Rivere said
of this year.
With this glowing
report, I look forward to a crawfish-eating marathon! In
January I had my first
batch of boiled crawfish, prepared by Victor Huckaby,
owner of Victor's
Cafeteria in New Iberia. Victor prepared them at his duck
camp near Gueydon,
where several of us gathered for the final goose hunt
of the season. It was a
chilly night, but we huddled under the shelter in
back of the camp, drank a few
beers and watched Victor do his magic.
There were five of us
at the table and we easily did in the 40 pounds of crawfish,
but you can usually
figure about five pounds of boiled crawfish per person.
Victor's Boiled
Crawfish
Serves 8
8 gallons water
14 ounces liquid crab
boil
2 cups cayenne pepper
12 lemons, halved
12 medium-size red
potatoes
12 medium-size yellow
onions
40 pounds live
crawfish, washed
down and drained
Seasoning blend, such
as Tony Chachere's
Original Creole Seasoning
Salt
Combine the water, six
ounces of the liquid boil, 1 cup of the cayenne,
half of the lemons, all of
the potatoes and half of the onions in a large
boiling pot. Bring to a boil and
cook until the potatoes and onions are
tender. Remove them and set aside.
Add the remaining cup
of cayenne and the remaining lemons. Quarter
the remaining onions and add to the
pot. Bring to a boil. Add the craw-
fish, cover, and at the first sign of steam
rising from the pot, time the
cooking
for three minutes, then remove from the
heat. Drain. Layer
the crawfish
with generous amounts of salt and seasoning
blend in an
ice chest. Shake
the ice chest to disperse the seasonings evenly.
Let sit
for 5 to 10 minutes.
DO NOT CLOSE THE LID OF THE ICE CHEST
AS THE
CRAWFISH WILL CONTINUE TO COOK. Serve with the
reserved potatoes and
onions, and
lots of cold beer.
"A couple of mornings
ago, I found myself having a 'big girl' breakfast
(two eggs over easy, buttered
grits, toast and bacon) at Victor's. He joined
me and told me
about his crawfish
stuffed bell peppers."
Victor's
Crawfish-Stuffed Bell Peppers
Makes 10
10 medium-size green
bell peppers
1 1/2 pounds small
shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 stick butter or
margarine
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped green
bell peppers
1/4 cup chopped red
bell peppers
1 1/2 pounds peeled
crawfish tails
2 teaspoons cornstarch
dissolved in
1/2 cup reserved stock
Creole seasoning mix,
to taste
1/4 teaspoon sweet
paprika
2 cups (about) cooked
long-grain white rice
1 tablespoon chopped
fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped
green onion tops
Dried fine bread crumbs
Cut about one-half inch
off the stem end of the peppers. Blanch them
in boiling, salted water until
slightly soft, one to two minutes.
Remove from the heat,
drain and set aside to cool. Boil the shrimp in
one quart of boiling, salted
water until they turn pink, about one minute.
Strain and reserve the stock.
Puree the shrimp in a
food processor and return to the stock. Set aside.
Heat the butter in a large,
heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onions,
celery, green bell peppers and red
bell peppers. Cook, stirring, until they
are soft and lightly golden, six to
seven minutes. Add the crawfish and
cook, stirring occasionally, for about three
minutes. Add the cornstarch
mixture and stir until the mixture thickens
slightly. (You can add another teaspoon of cornstarch if you want a thicker
mixture.) Add the paprika
and season to taste with the Creole seasoning mix.
Remove from the heat
and mix with the rice. Add more of the of the re-
served shrimp stock to make a
moist dressing. Add the parsley and green
onion tops.
Stuff the bell peppers
with the mixture and sprinkle the tops with a few
bread crumbs, and more paprika
if you wish. The peppers can be heated
in a large baking pan in an oven that has
been preheated to 350 degrees
for about 15 minutes. Serve warm.
"And here is my
sister-in-law's prize-winning
recipe for crawfish cornbread."
Crawfish Cornbread
Makes 8 to 10 servings
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped yellow
onions
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup shredded mild
cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped pickled
jalapeños
1 cup cream-style corn
1 pound peeled crawfish
tails, coarsely chopped
Preheat the oven to 375
degrees F. Lightly grease a baking pan. Combine
all the ingredients together in
a large bowl. Pour into the prepared pan and
bake until lightly browned, about
30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let sit for several minutes before cutting into
squares
to serve.
©2003
NOLA.com. Used with permission.
Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic,
and Can You Make a Roux? (Book 1):
A Cajun/Creole Family Album Cookbook
Featured Archive Recipes:
Crawfish Beignets with Spicy Tartar Sauce
Crawfish Boil (Emeril)
Crawfish Bread (Emeril)
Crawfish Enchiladas con Queso
(Paul Prudhomme)
Crawfish Étouffée (Emeril)
Crawfish Fettuccine (Lee Bailey)
Crawfish Maque Choux (Commander's Palace)
Crawfish Pie (Emeril)
Crawfish and Sausage Jambalaya(Emeril)
Creole Crawfish
Eggplant and Seafood au Gratin (Emeril)
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