In this article, we will focus mostly on the art of how to cook crawfish. This is a process that includes many aspects inside this matter.
The crawfish are creatures that come from freshwater and they look like little lobsters. So that it would not come to any misunderstandings, we should point out from the start that the crawfish are recognized by many other names in different places in the United States.
For example, the crawfish also go by the name of crayfish (as is their most correct scientific name in English). Other names include crawdads, mountain or freshwater lobsters, yabbies, mudbugs, craydids, and others.
Some of the crawfish can be found in streams and brooks, and some others can live inside ditches and swamps. The crawfish usually do not thrive inside unclean, polluted waters, with some very rare exceptions.
Now, let’s dive deep into the subject and learn together – how to cook crawfish?
Preparing crawfish belongs to the seafood boil. There are many ways to make an easy crawfish boil.
When is The Best Time of The Year to Prepare Crawfish?
While preparing crawfish is available throughout the whole year, they are tinier than usual in January. On another note, it is somewhat tougher to peel them in June. That’s why the best time of the year to make crawfish would be from the end of January till the end of May.
How to Cook Crawfish?
In order to prepare a crawfish, you are going to need: a large, 68 litres (60 quart) pot that contains a wire basket, propane tank, water, a wooden 91 cm (36 inches) spoon (paddle), a shorter burner, vegetables, Louisiana crawfish, fresh lemons, cold beer, smoked sausage, towels of paper, saltines, the best crawfish boil seasoning you can find, and newspapers where you can put on the crawfish.
How Much of Crawfish Do I Need to Purchase?
For example, if you are preparing crawfish for six people, you are going to need to buy around 13.6 kilograms of crawfish (or 30 pounds of it). This also depends on you and your guest, and you know how much of the crawfish your friends can handle to eat.
In order to prepare them with more ease, it is recommendable to buy crawfish of at least similar dimension. Otherwise, if they are disproportional, the cooking will be more difficult for you.
Make sure that you are buying clean crawfish, and are not greasy, otherwise, they are not the best you can find.
How to Purge Crawfish?
If you don’t want to bother with cleaning the crawfish, it is advisable to purchase them clean from the store.
On the other hand, the best way to purge the crawfish is to wash it methodically inside the bag. After that, open it, flood the crawfish inside a fresh water with the help of the container in the vessel. In order to cleanse the water, do this repeatedly for half a day.
Peeling a Crawfish
In order to peel the crawfish properly, you first need to take the head of it and hold it tight, while you’re holding the tail of it at the same time, doing each of these things using each hand for both tasks. Afterwards, you should smash the middle of the crawfish, and suck out the fluids from its head’s opening.
You next need to strip the first chunk of the shell about its tail, and the meat from inside the tail will come outside.
How Should I Serve The Crawfish?
If you want to serve the prepared crawfish to your guests properly, you first need to obtain a fabric (that you can later get rid of) fit for cleaning a plastic table.
Some nice cold beer goes well along with eating the crawfish.
After you put down the newspapers on the table, place the container full with crawfish in the middle of it, along with some saltines besides them. Also, put some paper towels, together with sticks of butter and a knife for the purpose (one which doesn’t contain salt) at average room temperature inside the plates.
If you wonder what to put in a crawfish boil, salt would be one of the good ideas on your list.
Make sure that you provide your environment with a garbage can. Also, make sure there’s a container where you will be able to place the leftovers from the crawfish.
What Should I do With The Remains of The Crawfish?
If you and your guests didn’t eat all of the crawfish, you have many options to utilize the leftovers from them.
For example, you can peel them, and put some of the crawfish in a pie. Ask around, or check online for some crawfish pie recipes. Another uses that you can find for them would be in salads, bread with some melted cheese, etc. Also, you should definitely try and make some etouffee, a Cajun spicy stew that contains seafood and veggies. This is exactly where you can utilize at least some of the crawfish remains.
Rest of the ingredients that are left uneaten should also not be wasted, but instead they need to be put for some other good use.
Conclusion
We are certain that we covered the whole area of how to cook crawfish in a solid manner, and you are finding this article very helpful.
The process of cooking crawfish needs to be analyzed to the tiniest detail. This should be done if you want to make sure that you, and your family, friends, or other guests are satisfied and well-fed with some delicious crawfish.
In this text, we talked about many aspects of preparing the crawfish. For example, one should know when is the best season for cooking crawfish. While it can be done throughout the whole year, we pointed out that the period from the end of January till the end of May would be the best for this purpose.
Last but not least, if you need some more help, do not be hesitant to ask. There are cooking experts that may always be of help to you.
