I'm back, and I have a Crawfish Question

Joel Ferman

Sorry I have been AFK as of late..... long story, but our DSL got messed up and I had thanksgiving break and what not, but I am FINALLY back.[p]My roomate and I found crawfish for $2.98 for 3lbs, so we went crazy and bought all 9 boxes. Has anyone tried cooking crawfish on their egg? Does it make sense to use the egg, or would steaming work better?
Thanks guys,
-Joel

Chuck

<p />Joel Ferman,[p]Welcome back Joel good to see you posting again. I have never done crawfish but have done these King Crab legs. I did them direct at 275* for 12 minutes with a lot of alder smoke. They were very good and I will do them again. I would think you could do something similar with the crawfish. [p]Have a great day.[p]Chuck <><

YB

Joel Ferman,
This is a great recipe Stogie has for Jambalaya.You can use some of your Crawfish in it.Everything goes in the pot raw and man is it good.
Larry
[ul][li]Couzan BILLY'S Jambalaya[/ul]

Wise One

Joel Ferman, time to spend some more ofthat hard earned cash. You need to get you one of the "holey woks". Also called a seafood basket or shaker basket, it look like a wok but has 3/8" holes all through it. It allows heat and smoke to get into the basket and it is easy to toss them around in it. I use mine for shrimp (sophisticated cousin of the crawfish), scallops and vegetables. Clean and wash those crawfish, sprinkle liberally with a good spicy rub and then just put them on about 350 or so. It doesn't take that long (6-10 minutes) to cook but make sure they're done.[p]Another idea is to use Cat's simple Shrimp recipe and use crawfish instead:
Simple Spicy Shrimp by Cat
Here's a simple Jacques Pepin recipe I like:
Ingredients:
3 TBS honey mustard (mix enough honey into grainy mustard until it tastes sweet/hot)
2 TBS dark soy sauce
½ tsp Tabasco sauce
Directions:
Mix the above and stir into a pound of shelled shrimp.
When they're well coated, lift them out of the sauce and skewer.
Grill at 350-375 for 3-5 minutes per side.

Pig Sooie

Joel Ferman,[p]Glad to see you back---I always enjoyed the pictures you posted. I also enjoyed vicariously reliving my college years (1992-1996) through your posts.[p]I love my Egg but with crawfish, it's hard to beat just boiling those puppies with cajun seasonings, potatoes, corn cobs, etc. We'd drive 2-3 hours south of Little Rock and buy those things in North Louisiana for pretty cheap. Cook them up, then pour them into clean icechests sitting next to a couple kegs. Everybody takes what they want and throws them on some newspaper for "plates". It doesn't get much better than that. Of course, I don't know how eating crawfish in that manner would go over with you sophisticated California folks. Have fun. [p][p][p]

Shelby

Joel Ferman,
Being from south Louisiana, I've got plenty of thoughts on crawfish for you.
First question though: are they live; par boiled; just the tail meat or what? I'd be willing to bet, if you got crawfish at that price, they are Chinesse and par boiled.
I saw some at my local seafood market and they were freshly boiled at $2.98 per pound!
I think the only way to do crawfish in the shell is to boil them. Best thing at this point would be to season up a big pot of water and finish boiling them. Won't take long as they are probably mostly cooked already and all you're doing is warming and adding some flavor.
If you really want crawfish on the egg, I'd think you would want soft-shell crawfish, much like soft-shell crabs and cook those on the egg. I've only cooked soft-shell crawfish twice. They tried to market/promote them here in south LA a few years ago but at $15 per pound, that's a bit rich for me. (Which reminds me...I do have some soft shell crabs in the freezer.)
Any other questions on crawfish, just email.

Joel Ferman

Shelby,
You are right on the money! They are the chinese boiled ones, however they are already "cajun" flavored. Thanks for the advice, I think I am just going to boil them with some cayanne pepper.
-Joel

Shelby

Joel Ferman,
Chinese "cajun"...that I'd love to taste!

ravnhaus

Joel Ferman,
If they are the Chinese shelled tails in the bag just get yourself some bamboo skewers and slide them on. Baste with butter and throw on the grill for a few minutes per side. If you put the skewers in a seafood grill it makes it easy to flip. They ain't too bad although live ones boiled up is the best way to go.
[ul][li]Ravnhaus BBQ[/ul]