Friday Night Feast: Hot & Juicy Crawfish with Beer

Whether you refer to them as crawfish, crayfish or craw-daddies, these 3 to 5 inch crustaceans, the small fresh water version of a lobster, make a perfect picnic dinner with friends when paired with cold beer. For dark beer lovers I suggest Samuel Smith Imperial Stout - strong in taste, may be a little overwhelming for crawfish, but still good. For girls who like something nice and soft - Italian Ale is a perfect match. Contessa Italian Pale Ale is my favorite, it is bit fruity and very smooth.

I give you my recipe for hot and juicy boiled crawfish, but you can use your imagination in adding spices or seasonings to the boiling water. People in New Orleans use everything from cayenne pepper, garlic, lemons, thyme, onions, to prepared blends of seasonings. After cooking crawfish, remove the heads from the tail section and then, grasping the crawfish behind the claws, turn them stomach side up and twist the tail section. The shell will break, and the sand vein can be pulled out easily.



Serves about 4-5 people

Note: Butter, lemon, salt, and additional Cajun seasoning are all great condiments for a crawfish boil.

Ingredients:

• 2 gallons of wager
• 5 pounds of live crawfish (washed and cleaned)
• 1 lemon, cut in half
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 7-8 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1/2 cup or more if you like very spicy Cajun Crawfish Boil Seasoning (Louisiana, Zatarain’s)
• 5 Tbsp. salt
• cayenne pepper to taste

Directions:

Bring water to a boil in a large pot with onion, garlic, Cajun seasoning and lemon. Add crawfish, cover pot and bring to a boil again; cook about 15 minutes after water reaches second boil.

Remove crawfish and sprinkle salt and cayenne pepper over boiled crawfish. Serve warm or at room temperature and provide picks or small forks to extract the crawfish meat.

Note: Corn on the cob and yang unpeopled potatoes may be added just before adding crawfish.