Connecticut Crawfish Boil 2012

See that UPS truck? He's driving away from our house, having just brought us our favorite delivery of the year - live crawfish from Cajun Grocer in Lafayette, Louisiana. One of the things Amy misses most from her time in New Orleans is The Crawfish Boil. So, around her birthday every year, we splurge and have some delivered. This year, it was just for the two of us, so we got 15 pounds (hoping for a little extra for another dish).

It was a crisp, warm Saturday morning, and Amy was sitting on the front porch waiting (and not patiently, either!) for the brown truck to arrive. He carried the package over and said, "Whatcha got in here? Lobsters?" She answered, "Heck no! Live crawfish! We're doing it New Orleans style today!" He replied, joking, "What time should I come back?" She chuckled, he left, and Amy got to work.

Here is how they arrive - in an unassuming little white cooler. You can only imagine the culinary delight that is inside, namely, a plastic net-style sack full of live crawfish, some freezer packs to keep them cool and alive during shipping, Louisiana Fish Fry Co. Crawfish and Crab Seasoning, and a zip bag with the invoice and directions. Not that we needed those!

Here is our process, which was for 15 pounds of live crawfish.

First, we must clean/purge our crawfish:

Step One: Hose the crawfish sack with water thoroughly.

Step Two: Empty sack into cooler and rinse again.

Step Three: Sprinkle 16 ounces of table salt over the crawfish, then add enough water to cover the crawfish to purge them.

Step Four: Let stand for 10 minutes.

Step Five: Rinse crawfish thoroughly at least two more times.

Then, we must prepare The Boil.

This is a bit more exciting, so we'll give you more pictures.

Step One: Fill large pot with water, add the 16-ounce package of seasoning sent with the crawfish plus one cup additional seasoning (we happened to have on hand because we know we like 'em spicy!), and bring it to a rolling boil.

Step Two: While waiting for the water to boil, prepare some "other stuff" - we like to add a couple of quartered lemons, a few quartered red potatoes, a large onion (also quartered) and some spicy sausage - and throw it in the pot.

Step Three: Add the clean crawfish and boil them for only 5 minutes.

Step Four: Turn fire off and let crawfish soak for 1/2 hour. Try to be patient and do NOT eat anything! Save room for crawfish!

Step Five: Prepare your table by covering first with a couple of plastic trash bags laid flat, then with some newspapers, for no-fuss cleanup.



Step Six: Try one or two to make sure they are to your liking. The longer they soak, the spicier they will be, so maybe give them 5 more minutes, if you can wait that long...

Finally, at long last, the best part of all - we pinch 'da tails and suck 'da heads! With Abita beer to wash 'em down with and some Louisiana tunes on the stereo.

One heavenly hour later, we were elbow-deep in crawfish heads and shells, our bellies were full and our crawfish craving was (almost) satiated. The quality of the crawfish was excellent - they were just the right size and there were very few (maybe 3 or 4) that had died in transit. And the flavor! Unbelievable!

You can see we do have a stainless steel bowl with a few tails that didn't get eaten right away. (Those were mostly from Chris). Those are the ones meant for another dish. we'll fill you in on that one later.

The Aftermath