Your birthday dinner... (Page 4)

the bear - 2013-05-08 8:03 AM

geauxtri - 2013-05-07 3:14 PM

switch - 2013-05-07 8:00 AM

geauxtri - 2013-05-06 11:04 PM

switch - 2013-05-06 5:33 PM

the bear - 2013-05-06 6:19 PM

geauxtri - 2013-05-06 5:20 PM

Comet - 2013-05-06 4:08 PM

geauxtri - 2013-05-06 6:00 PM BOILED CRAWFISH!!!  And a Frozen Daquiri!!

Yeah, my family back home in La has been killing me w/ pic's of crawfish boils

(and they've been really good! I've had my fair share already ) 

CURSE YOU!!!!

Their airfare ain't cheap, but I'll have my live crawbabies in the pot this Saturday!  Mwa-hahahaha!!!

Boiled a sack last Saturday, mamabear made stew with the leftovers on Sunday. Price has come down a bit since Easter.

 

My birthday's not until November. 

Curse all of you!  There's no good way for an Iowa girl to get this without significant travel:/  I have experienced the greatness, and it sounds so freakin' good right now.

www.lacrawfish.com  (Fed-ex same day live)

If this coonass can get her crawfish in Utah, I'm sure you can get them to Iowa.
And you can even order them cooked, if you don't have a jet burner and a large pot. 
Personally, I look forward to boiling them myself (and am excited to eat and pick them from my new Tabasco platters!)

And John, I can't wait to have crawfish omelets on Mother's Day!!!  (my favorite boil left over, w/ potatoes of course)

Well I'm gonna do this--thanks for the link.  My kids have never experienced the greatness, and I think they'd dig it.  I have never cooked them myself so I hope I don't screw it up.  Good recipes my Southern friends?

If you're going to boil them yourself here are a few La Common Sense tips (and a few personal)
Common Sense:
1) If they're not purged, purge them.  If you're not sure if they've been purged, purge them.  Just put them in an ice chest, poor some salt over them, hose 'em down, swish the ice chest around and drain.
2) Don't put your potatoes in right away w/ your crawfish (they will soak up all the seasoning)
3)  Let the crawfish soak after boiling to absorb more of the seasoning

Personal Tip:
1) Don't use liquid boil (it messes w/ some ppls innerds   )
2) Use Zatarain's powder or bags (my mom hates the bags b/c they can burst and make a mess, I don't mind)
3)  I like corn and potatoes w/ mine (boil red potatoes near end of crawfish cooking)
4) Some people add all sorts of things to their boil mix... Ive seen orange juice concentrate, lemons, onions (my mom LOVES onions in hers), artichokes, celery, mushrooms, etc....  IF you eat it, you can boil it.

Oh, and the kids love to add hotdogs and/or sausages.

For the kids.... have crawfish wars and we've become accustomed to "pardoning" a crawfish and naming him Clovis each year.  He usually lives in the fridge and on the countertop for a few weeks.  We take him out and read Clovis the Crawfish storybooks at night

If you don't have a boiling set-up you can use a turkey fryer.  As well, I typically buy small knit laundry bags to boil the veggies in so they don't sit and soak for so long.

Actually, you should boil your potatoes for about ten minutes before you add the crawfish in order for them to cook. They do get seasoned but do not soak up all the seasoning by any means. How long do you boil your crawfish if you don't add the potatoes until the end?

My method: Start with potatoes (and onions and garlic), boil for ten, add crawfish, boil for seven, soak for ten. If you want corn, add in the last three minutes that the crawfish are boiling.

And I do use liquid (with the powder, sometimes with the bags). No innerd messing.

I like poking holes (ice pick) in green bean cans and throwing them in there. SO delicious, spicy salty. 

That's a new one on me!. But not a fan of the green bean myself, though.

I have boiled artichokes and mushrooms with mine, lemons when I have them. I've seen people boil oranges. Usually add a pound of smoked sausage, some say the grease makes peeling easier but I'm skeptical.

OK, help me out guys.  I just went to the lacrawfish site, and I have some questions.  What size crawfish should I get?  How many lbs/person do you get?

Larger better for crawfish in my opinion, but what we used to get from cajuncrawfish.com were huge.  It depends upon the crowd you are planning on having and if they will eat crawfish.  Some people are too damn uptight to get there fingers into anything.  The last few times, we have only done shrimp, because the people are to "scared/lazy/uptight/whiny/etc", so I spent the money on shrimp and have run out of shrimp every time.  The last time was just over 100 people and we bought about 30 lbs of shrimp. 20 lbs of andouille sausage, 5 dozen ears of fresh Iowa sweet corn cut into 3 pieces for boiling and 10 lbs of baby potatos.

We usually have some potato and corn left.   Never shrimp or andouille.

What are your choices for sizes? Edit: If I'm reading those price points correctly I'd go with "Select."

5-10 pounds per person, depending on the appetites and whether or not you want leftovers. Last weekend we boiled a sack (~40 pounds), fed 6 people and had enough left over for a good stew.