By Layla Khoury-Hanold for Meals Community Kitchen

Layla Khoury-Hanold is a contributor at Meals Community.

In the event you’ve ever been invited to a Louisiana crawfish boil for the primary time, you know the way daunting it’d really feel to be confronted with dismantling a pile of tiny crustaceans. It’s price studying eat crawfish, a delicacy that’s particularly in style in Louisiana. For an entire crawfish know-how, we tapped Alex Brennan-Martin, son of Ella Brennan, proprietor of famed New Orleans restaurant Commander’s Palace. Brennan-Martin additionally owns and operates Brennan’s of Houston, the place peak crawfish season choices embody crawfish enchiladas, crawfish truffles, and crawfish empanadas, plus an annual crawfish boil occasion within the courtyard.

Crawfish are small freshwater crustaceans that appear like small lobsters. They’re also referred to as crayfish, craydids, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mudbugs, baybugs or yabbies, relying on the area. Crawfish are discovered everywhere in the world, however the majority are harvested in Louisiana. Crawfish are usually boiled (or steamed); a crawfish boil is a conventional preparation through which crawfish are boiled in an enormous pot of seasoned water alongside new potatoes and ears of corn (generally andouille sausage can also be added; Brennan prefers so as to add extra greens akin to carrots, artichokes, Brussels sprouts or mushrooms).

Crawfish will also be added to gumbo or used to make crawfish bisque. Sautéed crawfish are added to Louisiana specialties akin to crawfish étouffée, a wealthy, flavorful gravy served over rice, or to crawfish bread, the place French bread is filled with crawfish, cheese and spices and baked until melty. Different examples of crawfish preparations embody Crawfish Dressing and Crawfish Fried Rice.

Crawfish are recognized for having a sweet-leaning taste profile. “I feel they’re sweeter than lobster, a bit like blue crab with a sweetness that comes via even after boiling,” Brennan says. “However nothing tastes fairly like crawfish.”

In keeping with Brennan, you must eat each a part of the crawfish besides the shells. “All of the meat is within the tail however the fats within the head is scrumptious. I hate it after I see people simply tossing them,” Brennan says. “I like to drag the meat from the tail with my tooth and a squeeze on the backside of the tail, then suck the top and eat all of it collectively.”

Sure, you must suck crawfish heads. As Brennan notes, the top accommodates all of the fats, which is sometimes called crawfish butter. Plus, the heads take in the seasoned, spicy broth as they cook dinner throughout a crawfish boil, so the heads comprise flavorful juices, too.

Maintain the top in a single hand and pinch the physique slightly below the top within the different hand, then gently twist and pull in a single movement to separate the 2.

Simply as you’d with shrimp, begin from the highest (head finish) and use your thumb to peel again the shell from the flesh till you will get a grip on the meat.

Whereas gripping the meat, pinch the tip of the tail together with your different hand, and gently wiggle and pull to take away the morsel of edible meat from the shell. For a sophisticated transfer, do as Brennan does and squeeze the underside of the tail and use your tooth to drag the meat from the tail (although he admits this technique took him years of follow and hundreds of kilos of crawfish to grasp).

Slowly suck the crawfish butter and spicy juices; flippantly pinch the top so that every one the juices don’t gush out too shortly. Brennan likes to eat the tail meat and suck the top to expertise all of the crawfish’s flavors and textures collectively.

51 Seafood Recipes That Scream ‘Summer time’

Wholesome Fish and Seafood Recipes

28 Satisfying Shrimp Recipes to Preserve in Your Again Pocket