Straight from Houma, LA, you guys were pretty spot on: STORING AND KEEPING YOUR LIVE CRAWFISH ALIVE You might have to keep your itty bitty Cajun buddies a day or two longer and are wondering how to do it. Well, here's the way to do it. Most people pick up their live crawfish on Saturday and cook Saturday or Sunday. Here are simple, easy to follow instructions on how to PROPERLY STORE your live crawfish for 1 to 3 days and have all of them still kickin' when it comes time to get things cookin'. Keep your live crawfish in the sack they come in, do not let them out. Keep the sack or sacks in a very LARGE ice chest, laying down so the sack is horizontal. Try not to crowd them. Do not store sack standing up. Do not let them out of the sack. Don't have a huge ice chest? Beg, borrow, buy or steal one from somebody. Place a soaking wet towel or t-shirt over the sack in the chest. Place an UN OPENED bag of cubed ice on top of the crawfish sack in the ice chest. Leave the lid up on the ice chest about one quarter to one half inch so they can get some air. Keep ice chest with live crawfish in it in total shade like in the garage, your shop or the carport. Keep away from heat sources and out of the reach of children, pets and wild animals. (This includes your drunk buddies.) Keep out of the sun (they don't need a tan) Sun will kill them. Keep out of the wind (they don't fly kites) Wind will dry out the gills and kill them. Keep out of the water (their swimming days are over ) You will drown them or suffocate them and this will kill them. Turn your crawfish sack over daily if you are keeping two days or more. Keep any ice water that ends up in the chest drained out.
Not at all. If you can chop stuff with a knife and stir stuff with a spoon you can make it. I can post my recipe when I get home if you want.
sure thanks. i have been vegetarian a few times in life. besides a really good steak, pho & tom yum. crawfish is probably my favorite all-around thing to eat when it's spicy those are the hard ones for me to give up.
Crawfish Etouffee 6 T of unsalted butter ¼ cup all-purpose flour 1 cup white onion, chopped ½ cup green bell pepper, chopped ½ cup celery, chopped 6 cloves minced garlic 2 bay leaves 2 sprigs fresh thyme or a couple of pinches of dry 2 t cayenne pepper (I like spicy so I always use more) 4 or so cranks of fresh ground black pepper dash cumin 1 t cajun seasoning (i.e. Tony C's) 1 t kosher salt 2 cups seafood or chicken broth (I used chicken last night because that's what I had) 1 T Worcestershire ¼ cup dry white wine ½ lemon, juiced 1½ lbs crawfish tails and fat 1 T chopped fresh parsley, plus extra for garnish ¼ cup sliced green onion (scallion) tops, plus extra for garnish White Rice, for serving Make a roux by melting butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat and stirring in the flour; cook and stir semi-constantly until caramel colored (about 15 minutes). I use a wire wisk but most anything will work. If it burns throw it out and start over. While this is going on, and remembering to stir the roux, chop the veggies Add the onion, bell pepper and celery; cook, stirring occasionally, until tender (10-15 minutes). Then, add the garlic and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute). Get the crawfish out of the fridge if you haven't already, you want them at room temp later. Add dry spices, stir, and cook for a minute Add the liquids, stirring as you go Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat to a medium-low simmer, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste about halfway and adjust seasoning (salt/cayenne/Tony C) as needed (see below). Start your white rice around halfway through as well (so they'll be done around the same time) If you want a thinner consistency at this point, add hot stock, if you want it thicker, keep cooking Add the crawfish tails, parsley and green onion; cook, stirring occasionally until crawfish are heated through (about 5 minutes) Serve on rice, garnish with parsley, green onion. Add hot sauce and a dash of lemon juice to taste, if you want. French bread is nice too. ***Depending on whether you use low-sodium stock or not, and your personal preference, you may need to adjust the salt level. I used low sodium last night and ended up throwing in a bit more This is also delicious served over broiled/sauteed/grilled fish. You can do this with shrimp, you can add lump crabmeat (which is ridiculously good).
