Louisiana Crawfish Boil is a feast! Usually prepared for special occasions, and when you want to have a large gathering of family and friends over to share this sumptuous meal. It features the little “mud lobsters” (crawfish) as the primary meat ingredient. Traditionally, Louisiana Crawfish Boil is spread out on a large picnic table covered with used newspapers, and eaten with your hands.

Louisiana Crawfish Boil Recipe-

Ingredients:

• 2 large whole bulbs of garlic, unpeeled
• 5 bay leaves
• 2) 3 oz. packages dry crab boil seasoning
• 2 tbsp. liquid shrimp and crab boil seasoning
• Freshly ground coarse sea salt and black peppercorns, to taste
• 3 large oranges, halved
• 3 large lemons, halved
• 2 large fresh whole artichokes, tough outer leaves discarded
• 15 small to medium sized whole red potatoes, rinsed
• 28 oz. canned and cut baby corns
• 2 large onions, large sliced
• 32 oz. whole white button mushrooms, rinsed
• 8 oz. fresh green beans, ends trimmed
• 3 packages (39 oz.) smoked Creole Andouille Cajun style sausage, chopped into ½” to ¾” thick slices
• 50 – 60 crawfish, get live if you can, but fresh frozen will also do.

Directions:

1. Using the largest cooking pot you have, fill it one third the way full with water.
2. Toss in the bay leaves, both the liquid and dry crab boil seasonings, the whole garlic bulbs, oranges, lemons, artichokes, and potatoes.
3. Next grind in the sea salt and black pepper, do a taste test for how much, depending on your saltiness preferences.
4. Turn the heat up to high, and bring everything to a rolling boil, then turn the heat down to just a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes.
5. Now add in the green beans, mushrooms, onions and corn, and stir well together, then allow to cook for another 15 minutes.
6. Next add in the sliced sausage, stir well, and cook for another 5 minutes.
7. Now add in the crawfish, turn the heat back up until the mixture is boiling, then reduce the heat again to just a simmer, and cook about another 5 minutes (maybe a minute more if you are using frozen crawfish). You will know when to stop cooking when the crawfish shells turn bright red and the tails can be easily pulled out. Take a crawfish out and test how well cooked it is by peeling it, which should be easy. You do not want to overcook crayfish, because the will get tough and not be as tasty.
8. Strain the mixture through a large sieve or colander, and serve while good and hot.
9. To present your Louisiana Crawfish Boil in traditional Creole style, cover a picnic table with newspapers or an old tablecloth (the plasticized “picnic style” tablecloths work well for this). Spread your Crawfish Boil out on top. Have everyone wash their hands, and they all can grab what they want and either toss the morsels directly in their mouths or mound them together onto a plate. If that’s just a little too “ethnic” for you, then you can provide several serving tongs and a stack of plates on the table; everyone can then load up all the yummy edibles they want onto their plates.

---