For Your Next Crawfish Boil
Every year, beginning in February, an activity commences that as far as I know, happens nowhere on the planet, other than the North American South. What’s the activity you ask? Well, it is the time-honored tradition of the crawfish boil.
There is documentation that the American Indians of South Louisiana baited reeds with deer meat in order to catch the bayou crustaceans. But the legend continues.
In the mid-eighteenth century, the story says that Acadians, expelled from Nova Scotia, inhabited South Louisiana. But the Lobsters of the Atlantic missed the Acadians so badly that they took up a pilgrimage to find them. The journey was long and treacherous and the lobsters lost weight to the point that by the time they arrived in the bayous of the South, they were the size that we know them today. The Acadians were so happy to see them. They noticed their change in size and called them crawfish, then staged a huge celebration and took the opportunity to introduce the lobsters to the new seasonings they had learned of. Thus, the crawfish boil began and what was once a food preference for the poor and for the banished, now is arguably the biggest Southern early springtime tradition.
Old DBeazy likes a party probably more than the next guy, but he doesn’t eat the old mudbug in the boiled form. At almost every crawfish boil though, the beer, the corn, the sausage, the cauliflower, and the mushrooms tend to fill up the partiers, leaving a nice allotment of crawfish to be peeled and bagged for later. But there is the question, “what to do with these mudbugs once the party is over?” Old DBeazy has the answer. For the next crawfish boil, follow the recipe’ below to add another option for those who don’t eat crawfish in the boiled form.
Crawfish Cornbread
Ingredients
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon Creole or Cajun seasoning
6 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, finely diced
8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated
1 (12-ounce) bag frozen corn, thawed
2 pounds crawfish tail meat, finely chopped
1 (4-ounce) can diced jalapenos
Directions:
- Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- In a very large bowl, add seasoning and salt, then stir in cornmeal.
- Add eggs and oil and mix with a fork.
- Add cheese, corn, crawfish, peppers, and onion and stir.
- Spread the mixture into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 45 – 50 minutes until firm. (stick in a toothpick and if it comes out clean, it is ready)
- Let cornbread cool for 15 minutes, then slice and serve warm.