It is May and that means Crawfish are in season down South. It is one of these things we just do down here and if you’ve never had crawfish before I hope you’ll get a chance to experience it one day.
This past weekend I cooked a sack of crawfish along with an assortment of vegetables in the mix and they turned out fantastic. Well, I thought they were fantastic but some of my friends thought they were on the tad spicy side. Oh well, you can’t please everyone right?
Too me the vegetables are just as important part of a crawfish boil as the crawfish and they make for a great filler and believe it or not they absorb a lot of the spices.
In this batch I had potatoes, corn, mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus, and onion. It turns into a beautiful arrangement of reds, green and yellow in the pot. Of course you can’t forget the sausage. I typically use Conechuh Sausage in mine but I also had some green onion sausage I picked up as a filler (Conechuh is expensive). All in all it was a good time even though it is a lot of work.
Updated: 5/13/2009
It seems my choice of vegetables in my crawfish has some puzzled some so let me clarify how I cook it. Let’s start with the mushrooms. I use a whole pack of mushrooms per pot, sometimes two (i usually get them from Sam’s Club). The trick is to not overcook them and the only way to do that is to put them in after the heat is turned off. The mushrooms are always a favorite. They are juicy, a little spicy and carry a lot of flavor. After the crawfish come to a boil for 5 minutes, the heat is turned off and then I add in the mushrooms, stirring them in while the crawfish soak.
For the asparagus and broccoli I wait about 5 minutes before putting them in. I’ve also used cauliflower. I’ll warn you again, the broccoli will be hot (as in pepper hot, so will cauliflower).
Born and bred in Louisiana and I’ve done plenty of research for http://www.Crawfish.com and have much experience with boiling crawfish. I’ve heard of some even stranger things being put in a crawfish boil. Like artichoke or even ham.
Actually the are firm. They don’t need to cook but about 10 minutes and they are ready. I cook my crawfish 2->20. Two minutes boil, 20 minutes soak. So after about 7 minutes of soaking I throw in the mushrooms. Wait a few minutes and then hit the pot with the broccoli.
Dude, that looks great! I was just thinking last weekend that it was about time for a crawfish boil. My mouth is watering now. I know what I’m doing this weekend!
How do the broccoli and mushrooms turn out? Are they mushy or firm? My family just uses corn and redskin potatoes, maybe with some smoked sausage on the side. Man, that’s one of the things I miss the most. I grew up in the New Orleans area and moved to SE Michigan about 8 years ago. You sure don’t find good seafood in these parts! Looks great!
Broccolli in a crawfish boil? Now I have seen it all.