Love and Crawfish: Crawfish Boil and Crawfish Stew

Thank goodness for three-day weekends. They provide lots of time for prepping for a crawfish boil, hosting the crawfish boil, cleaning up from the crawfish boil, shelling the small amount of leftover crawfish, and cooking up a nice crawfish stew.







Hubby and I threw our second annual crawfish boil this weekend. The boil is the perfect opportunity for me to share one of my favorite Southern Louisiana customs with my SoCal friends. It also affords me the rare treat of fresh crawfish, which is one of the foods I miss the most from my homeland. 



After we and our guests plowed through nearly 60lbs of those spicy, red bugs, I was left with enough of them to yield about 2lbs of tail meat -- the perfect amount for a batch of crawfish stew.







Here's a pretty traditional version of crawfish stew, which is sometimes topped with chopped hard boiled eggs. This recipe, filled with love and crawfish, is a must-try!











Crawfish Stew

3/4 c roux (Mine was already prepared. See this post.)



1 c chopped onions

1 c green onions or onion tops, chopped

1 c bell pepper, chopped

1/2 c chopped celery, chopped

8 cloves garlic from the crawfish boil, smashed

or 2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp parsley, minced (1 Tbsp for cooking and 1 Tbsp for serving)

2 lbs crawfish tails

2 c seafood stock, chicken stock, or water

salt

pepper

Creole or Cajun seasoning

hot sauce

chopped hard boiled eggs, optional



 Heat a cast iron pot over medium heat.
Add the roux, stirring constantly until it is slightly darker than peanut butter.
Add the onions, green onions, peppers, celery, garlic, and 1 Tbsp of the parsley.
Season the mixture with a little salt and pepper.
Saute vegetables until softened, stirring constantly so as not to burn the roux.
Add 2 c of liquid, stirring vigorously to mix, bringing to a rolling boil.
Turn down the heat to a simmer, and then stir in the crawfish tails.


Season well with Creole/Cajun seasoning, hot sauce, salt and pepper.
Simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring often.



Serve over hot long grain rice.
Sprinkle with chopped egg (optional) and the remaining parsley.