Good-bye Fresh Crawfish by Pepper Phillips

The hubby pulled the crawfish traps last week, so that means no more crawfish boils for the family this year.  Here are some photos from the last boil.

This is a sack of crawfish placed in a wheelbarrow to wash before cooking. When the very young grandkids are around they have to check out the activity inside the wheelbarrow. The bravest try to pick one up.  Easy to do if you grab them on both sides of the body behind their front claws. But you have to be careful that another crawfish doesn’t grab your fingers while you’re doing that.

Then the hubby and sons put the crawfish into wire baskets and lower them into boiling water. When they are cooked, they then put them in a mixture of crab boil in another steaming pot until the crawfish absorb those wonderful flavors. Then it’s onto the table.

My son had these special crawfish tables made. At the top left corner and bottom right corner you can see some lids, which come off to reveal a garbage can underneath. So you can throw the peelings away without fuss or muss.

I had to pose a picture because I couldn’t find what I wanted on the internet.

We serve the traditional corn-on-the-cob, boiled small new red potatoes, boiled eggs and a couple of garlic heads. Some people like to cook them in the crawfish boil water, but I prefer to do mine on the stove.

This is one of the large ones that my son held out for me. This is definitely a ‘select’…

So, it’s the last of the fresh crawfish. The season generally lasts from March to June in our area. But I have some crawfish meat in the freezer, so it’s not the last crawfish meal…that’s for sure!

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