Crawfish: Tasty creatures

By Staff
THE BOILING SEASON Susan Deen of Meridian looks on as her order of 4 pounds of live crawfish is weighed at Specialty Seafoods. Crawfish are becoming more popular now that the weather is changing.
By Penny Randall / staff writer
March 19, 2003
If you've been craving crawfish, then the time is here.
Seafood shops in Meridian are packed with customers wanting the small, tasty fresh water shellfish that resembles the much larger, salt water lobster.
Susan Deen of Meridian was the first in line on Friday at Specialty Seafoods in North Hills to purchase 4 pounds of live crawfish just hours after they were plucked from the waters of Louisiana.
Specialty Seafoods owner Bryan Watts said crawfish requests have been coming in more frequently now that the weather is getting warmer and people are returning to outside activities.
Watts, who gets shipments of live crawfish twice a week from the south central Louisiana city of Lawtell, said the best time to eat crawfish is mid-February through July.
At other seafood shops in Meridian, requests for crawfish also have risen.
Gulf Coast Seafood &Produce, 3822 Eighth St., sells hot boiled crawfish for $2.49 a pound. And Seafood Haven, 111 Highway 19 N., sells hot boiled crawfish for $2.35 a pound.
When it comes to boiling crawfish, here are a few tips:
Get a large tub or two large foam ice chests and fill with water and salt. Add live crawfish. The salt water will purge them of impurities, making them ready to boil.
You can boil more than crawfish. Toss in new potatoes, celery, raw mushrooms and hot sausage; they'll soak up the seasoned water, giving you a spicy side dish.
After you boil the crawfish, soak them in the seasoned water. But be careful. Crawfish that soak more than 20 minutes may become too hot to eat; you'll need several gallons of ice water nearby to wash them down.
Crawfish recipe
Crawfish Boil
1 40- to 45-pound sack live crawfish
Crab boil mix (includes salt, cayenne pepper and other spices)
10 gallons fresh water
4 lemons, halved
2 oranges, halved
1 stalk celery
4 cloves garlic
4 onions, halved
3 pounds small new potatoes, scrubbed, skin on
12 ears corn, shucked and halved
1 pound raw mushrooms
2 pounds smoked sausage
Fill a washtub or ice chest with water and 2 cups of salt, stir, and place the crawfish in the mix. The salt water will purge the crawfish and make them ready to boil.
Purge them for 5-10 minutes.
While that's happening, pour the 10 gallons of water into a 60- to 80-quart pot. Add crab boil mix, oranges, celery, garlic, onions, lemon, corn, mushrooms and sausage. Let the water come to a rolling boil.
In a basket insert, place the potatoes and crawfish. Place the basket in the water, bring back to a rolling boil and then immediately cut off the fire. Let crawfish, potatoes and other items soak 15-20 minutes. The longer they soak, the spicier they will become.
Pull out the basket, drain, and dump the basket's contents onto a newspaper-lined table and eat.