Cooking,cleaning,eating crawdads

[Empire]

When I was a kid we would catch crawfish from under rocks. After we had a bucketfull we would just pitch them into boiling water for a while, until they were red.

When done, we took them out of the water, pinched the tail off and ate the meat out of there. With a little melted butter they were pretty good!


I was out dove hunting a few years back near some rice fields. One of the irrigation ditches was full of water, and choked with crawfish. They were crawling all over the place by the hundreds. I asked one of the locals why he does not catch/eat them and he said they are contanimated with the agricultural insecticides used on the rice patties.

Good sturgeon bait I guess, but I would not want to get sick.

[metalmouth]

Kneedeep, I'd never heard about the purple onions or purging them with flour. Thanks for the info I'll be giving both of those a try.

MM

[metalmouth]

Diego, you rock buddy. I just picked up 4 new Frabill Cdaddy traps. I've got dads less than 20 miles from the kitchen. Can't wait to start sampling the bugs.
MM 8-) 8-)

[Diego916]

1/2 cup of rock salt (important)

1/2 cup of sugar (important)

Enough crayfish to be completely covered with the amount of water used.

Boil crayfish for 10 minutes then soak in the same water for 30 minutes. Sample the crayfish every now and then to check for salt content. Shell and eat with butter.



Crawfish Pasta

1 pound crawfish tail meat, boiled and peeled
1 stick butter (no margarine)
2-3 tbsp flour
1-pint heavy cream
2-8 green onions, chopped
2-10 cloves garlic, finely minced (I like closer to 10)
Creole seasoning, to taste
1 pound, cooked fresh pasta
Serves 4 adults

Melt butter in pot; add flour and stir constantly until you have a light to medium blonde roux. Add onions and garlic and sauté until tender and keep stirring.

Add the crawfish and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add half of the heavy cream and a couple of big pinches of the Creole seasoning to taste, continue to add the cream until your desired consistency is achieved.

Continue to cook over medium heat for another 5-10 minutes until the sauce thickens.

Pour sauce over pasta and serve immediately with lots of French bread and maybe some nice white wine.



Crawfish Etouffee

8 tbsp butter (1 stick, absolutely no margarine)
1-pound crawfish tail meat (with the fat if possible)
˝-1 medium white onion, finely minced
2-10 cloves garlic, finely minced
2-4 tbsp orange bell pepper, finely minced
˝ stalk celery, finely minced
Green onion tops, chopped
Fresh parsley
2 tbsp tomato paste
Creole seasoning, to taste
2-3 tbsp flour
1-2 cups of water
White cooking wine
Serves 2-4 adults

Melt the butter in a pot and add the flour make a light to medium blonde roux. Add onions, bell peppers, celery and garlic and sauté until tender and keep stirring.

Add tomato paste, wine and crawfish fat if available then stir in until well blended, add water a little bit at a time, stirring constantly until desired consistency is achieved then stir in Creole seasoning and cook over medium low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, add more water if it gets to thick.

Stir in crawfish meat and simmer for 5-10 minutes, be careful not to cook the crawfish too long or they will get a little tough.

Serve over fully cooked white or long grain brown rice then garnish it with the chopped green onion tops and parsley.



CRAYFISH THAI RED CURRY

serves 4
1lb crayfish tail meat -pre boiled
2 fresh chillis -sliced into circles
2 dried caynne peppers -crushed and roughly chopped
1 pint of double cream
1-2 tbsp of clear honey
1/2 stalk of lemon grass -finely chopped
4-8 cloves of garlic
stem of ginger -finely chopped
2-3 shallots -finely chopped
olive oil virgin or not is fine

1. Soften the lemon grass, ginger, garlic, shallots and chillis (including
the dried ones). In some olive oil in a wok or frying pan.

2. when softened add the crayfish and fry for 1-2 mins then add the cream
and honey and let it reduce by a quater.

3. server with rice or cous cous and oven roasted veg. Maybe peppers,
aubergines and courgettes.

Enjoy it couldn't be simpler.

[fishguts]

Mudbug where are you? You are wise in the ways of the this tasty crustaceon. [smiley=computer.gif] Come out, come out where ever you are.

[mtalley]

Where's Mudbug? He usually has a lot to say on this subject.

[fishguts]

All these recipes sound awesome, I can't wait to give it a try.

[levelwined]

Soak them in fresh water with a bunch of salt the salt helps flush thier mud vane out..Boil them in cajon crab boil with potato's and chunks of corn on the cob cover with tony saturey. Peel and eat with a case of beer... Cause if you did it rite your lips will be burning when your done.

[Farrier_Frank]

There is a never-ending list of receipts for cooking crawdads: You can boil them, fry them, and bake them... But if your want the best eating crawdads boil them up over the camp fire the day you catch them, dip them in a little drawn butter, and lay back and enjoy life. 8)

[metalmouth]

FG, It seem to clean out the Craws. You start with a mudbug that appears clean on the outside, but keep changing the water till the water is clear. I would say it is cleaning the Craw out of the debris it contains.
This recipe works good with any of the crab or shrimp boils. You can also use cayenne and any of the creole seasonings.
MM ;D