Crawfish Boil Recipe

One of our favorite things to do here in Louisiana is have a good old Crawfish Boil.  If you have never been a part of this Louisiana tradition, you need to figure out a way to get in on it!  Crawfish are tiny little "mud bugs."  That probably sounds gross to eat, but it is one of the most popular things to do down here in the South when they are in season.  (Just think of them as mini lobsters.)
In fact, we are so into Crawfish down here that you can find many Crawfish Festivals throughout the state.  These aren't small little festivals either, these are large festivals with thousands of people attending!  There are tons of booths with just about everything "Crawfish" you can imagine:  Crawfish Pie, Crawfish Enchiladas, Crawfish Etoufee, Crawfish Cheesecake, etc.  (I haven't seen Crawfish Ice Cream yet, but I am sure that someone has tried that, too.
We like to do our own Crawfish Boils.  In order to do that, there are a few ingredients you need to have on hand:

• A large boiling pot
• Gas cooker
• Large cooler to put the live crawfish in (on water)
• Salt (2 large canisters)
• Crab boil (1 gallon liquid and powder)
• sausage 
• onion
• lemon
• red potatoes
• bell peppers
• corn
• garlic (whole)
• jalepenos
• lots of water
• determined number of lbs. of live crawfish

Just remember, the amount of ingredients you will need will depend on the amount of crawfish you are cooking.  If you look below, we chopped up enough ingredients to do 3 batches of crawfish at our boil. Ingredients First you want to bring your water in your large pot to a boil.  This can take a while.  While waiting for it to boil, add your squeezed lemons into the water and your crab boil seasoning.  After your water comes to a boil, you can add your veggies and sausage and other ingredients to the water.
While you have that going, cleanse your crawfish.  Not everyone does this, but this is called a "purge".  Add water to you cooler with the live crawfish and dump in a lot of salt.  The salt causes them to "purge" everything and leave you with a nice clean little crawfish.
 
Once your sides have come to a boil and your crawfish have been purged, go ahead and dump (carefully) your crawfish in the boil.  Place a lid on to get things going.
It doesn't take long for the crawfish to boil, and once your water come up to a boil again with the crawfish in, it's time to turn the gas off.   Cooked Crawfish Once you have the as turned off and the lid back on, now is the time to soak.  Soaking them allows them to "soak" up the spice.  The longer you leave them in, the hotter and spicier they will get. (We like things spicy down here.) Once you have the soak done to your liking, it's time to grab one of those large trays and scoop them up!  Even the kids like to be a part of it!  Here is a onesie I made for Addy last year to wear to our local Crawfish Festival.  She had on a red little tutu skirt to match, too cute!  Little Crawfish Connoisseur Shirt If you have never tried a Crawfish, I have to warn you, they can become addictive!  If you are looking at this and are disgusted, I say "Hey, Don't Knock it Until You've Tried It!"
Thanks for hanging out with me today!  Jen