No egg spring break gluttony, ode to @SGH

Legume

Not much to say, except it's foggy and couldn't fish much.  Got a wild hair and thought we would find some crawfish.  Well, they had oysters too.  Check.

Head to academy for a pot, shucking knives, etc.  We've eaten our share of both before but never prepared either.  Lots of liquid confidence and a call to a coonass friend and we're rolling.

We started with the oysters on the halfshell, then moved on to grilling them with a mixture of butter, lemon, garlic, pesto and topped with some granulated parm.  A sack of oysters is a ton when you've never shucked before.

Then we cooked the crawfish.  Lots of spice, lemons, potatoes, corn, mushrooms, carrots, onions. We stood in the pool and ate the crawfish.  Too good of a day.

Tinyfish

Let me be the first to say great cook.

SGH

Brother I don't even know where to begin. This is my kind of cook all the way around. The oysters alone gets my attention and respect. However the crawfish puts it over the top. Simple awesome brother. I reserve this seal of approval for truly special cooks. You have earned it brother.

theyolksonyou

Let me be the first to say, I hate you a little. No a lot. That rocks and I'm incredibly jelly. 

SGH

If and when time permits, will you share your crawfish recipe and technique? Myself and brother Nola are in a crawfish contest next week and need all the help we can get. Again, solid cook brother. I could eat until I was sick on that!!

SGH

Brother after seeing this, oysters will be the first thing that I cook when I get laid off.

Mattman3969

Dayumm Dude, that is fantastic looking grub!!

bluebird66

WOW!!

jcaspary

Awesome looks like a great day.  

piney

WONDERFUL!!

lkapigian

Nice!

Phatchris

This guy is wicked jealous over here 

johnmitchell

Just came across your post...Oh boy....Fantastic looking..Congrats.

SGH

piney said:

WONDERFUL!!

Agreed.

hapster

Wow... Awesome cook!

thegooddocta

Awesome cook, and love all the photos. My photography skills drop off sharply with an associated increase in uh... courage.

SGH

@nolaegghead
Check out the crawfish above brother.

buzd504

SGH said:

If and when time permits, will you share your crawfish recipe and technique? Myself and brother Nola are in a crawfish contest next week and need all the help we can get. Again, solid cook brother. I could eat until I was sick on that!!

I wish I could be there with you guys.  I can cook some solid crawfish.  The key is to not overcook them so they don't get mushy, and you have to time the cooking so the crawfish can still have a nice long soak.  I've found the best way to do that is not actually boil them - bring the pot to a boil, put in the crawfish, and as soon as the water comes to another rolling boil, cut the fire.  Once they've soaked for 30 minutes or so, they will be nicely cooked.

** this works for cooking about a sack or so - more elaborate cookers may require different timings.

SGH

@buzd504
Thanks for sharing the above brother. I have a cajun friend (Keith Delatte) who uses a method very similar to yours. No boil. His crawfish is excellent. I myself have not tried cooking them with the no boil method. But I'm going to give it try and see how it works. I'm presuming that this is a 2 part cook correct or no? Cook the potatoes, corn and mushrooms separately? Or add the crawfish at the end? Any tips is much appreciated.   

nolaegghead

SGH said:

@nolaegghead
Check out the crawfish above brother.

 Sweet!

@SGH I just turned in the paperwork for our team and checked out the setup.  They are assembling the tents right now.  There's a captain's meeting on Wed night that I'll go to. 

We need to get our booth set up Friday night.  If you can't make it, let me know and I'll pick up whatever you're bringing. 

We're still next to the Hooters girls.  I almost named the team "The Motorboat Men" but thought we might lose our location.  So we're "The Big Green Eggheads".  Not original, but honest.

SGH

nolaegghead said:
Not original, but honest.

Honesty is always the best policy. For the record, the "H" in SGH stands for Honest. 

buzd504

SGH said:

@buzd504
Thanks for sharing the above brother. I have a cajun friend (Keith Delatte) who uses a method very similar to yours. No boil. His crawfish is excellent. I myself have not tried cooking them with the no boil method. But I'm going to give it try and see how it works. I'm presuming that this is a 2 part cook correct or no? Cook the potatoes, corn and mushrooms separately? Or add the crawfish at the end? Any tips is much appreciated.   

I add my seasonings and all my potatoes, garlic, onion, celery, mushrooms at the beginning (make sure the basket is in the pot to hold the vegetables) so the boil absorbs the flavors of the vegetables (I also have a friend that will puree the onions and celery, but I haven't tried that yet).  Then the vegetables cook while you bring the water to a boil.  Once rolling, remove the basket, add the crawfish and return the basket to the pot.  Adding the crawfish will lower the temp of the water enough that it will take a while for the water to start rolling again.

Once it's up to a full boil, kill the fire.  That's when I add the frozen corn cobs - the corn will help lower the temp of the water to stop the crawfish from cooking.  It also helps to stir them from the bottom up to release the heat stored in the pot.  (Some advocate throwing a bag of ice in the boil, but I've never found that to be necessary).  Hosing off the outside of the pot to cool it off can help too, if it's practical.

Then the soak of the crawfish is critical.  At least 30 minutes is necessary, IMO, to round out the spices.

Note too, that I generally don't advocate reusing the water more than one extra time.  I find the spices burn and it becomes really difficult to manage salt levels. 

SGH

@buzd504
Brother if you don't mind, will you give me a call around 7:30pm. I should be home around then and would really like to ask you a few questions.  #228-627-5400. Name is Scottie. Thanks in advance.

buzd504

SGH said:

@buzd504
Brother if you don't mind, will you give me a call around 7:30pm. I should be home around then and would really like to ask you a few questions.  #228-627-5400. Name is Scottie. Thanks in advance.

Sure thing.

Legume

Thanks for all of the nice comments.  Had a blast, will definitely do this more.

@SGH, I'll shoot you a note later.

SGH

Legume said:

@SGH, I'll shoot you a note later.

Will be standing by brother.