Crawfish Boil
We've been wanting to bring a little of the ol' south up to Chicago for a few years now. With the team off the road, we finally took the necessary steps to have a traditional crawfish boil in my backyard this past weekend. Preparation started last weekend when I attended two back to back boils to learn the tricks of the process. I learned that there is a bit of an underground crawfish boil scene here in the windy city. On any given weekend during crawfish season (which can start as early as February and run as late as August) there are crawfish boils around the city at bars and restaurants that one can eat the Cajun critters to the hearts' content. I was lucky enough to learn from some well seasoned pros who own the bar Toons on Southport. We started around 2 PM in the afternoon, and went through 120 lbs of crawfish! It was quite a day, and I highly recommend trying out your own boil.
It's a great way to spend the day!
-Vince
Vince checks on his kettle
Ston, Budney, Williams, Browning, & Iwinski discuss the finer things in life
Robbie sucks head
Jake tempts fate
The process from start to finish:
- Get your hands on a large 50-60 gallon pot, propane burner, paddle for stirring, a few coolers, and some good beverages, as well as potatoes, corn, garlic, mushroom, onion, oranges, lemons, sausage, spices, and of course, live crawfish. We ordered 120 lbs through lacrawfish.com, and the spices came free with the order
- The crawfish were living in a pond in Louisiana at 4 PM Friday afternoon, and were waiting for pick-up at O'hare Airport on Saturday morning, alive and ready to be the guests of honor at our party
- Start by 'purging' the crawfish, running cold water over them for a good 15-20 minutes to get all the mud off them. After all, they are called 'mud bugs'. Make sure they are well drained as you don't want to
drown them.
- Next fill the pot 1/2 way with water, add your spices, and bring to a boil.
- Next add potatoes, and boil for 10 minutes
- Next add the rest of the ingredients including the crawfish. Bring to a boil for just a couple minutes, then turn off the gas and let soak for 20- 25 minutes. The longer the soak, the more the spices soak into the goods.
- Finally, throw all the ingredients into a cooler or similar container, cover with squeeze butter and spices, shake, scoop out, peel, and EAT!
