Crawfish Boil

This is my Dad’s recipe.  He liked the combination of the citrus and the liquid and powdered crab boil.  We like it, too!  

Ingredients:

• 5 onions, cut in half
• 5 lemons, cut in half
• 5 oranges, cut in half
• 5 heads of garlic, top cut off
• 1 C. Zatarain's liquid crab boil, concentrated
• 1 sack size container (4.5 lbs.) Zatarain's powdered crab boil
• 2 C. salt
• 3 lbs. new potatoes
• 30 - 40 lbs. crawfish
• 1 lb. smoked sausage, cut into bite size pieces
• 12 mini ears of corn, frozen
• 1 lb. of Crimini or button mushrooms
• 10 lbs. ice
• Cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. Place the crawfish in a cooler and fill with fresh water, allow the crawfish to sit in the water for a few minutes while you prepare the boiling pot.
2. Fill the boiling pot with water, half-full.  Allow the water to come to a full boil while you squeeze the lemons and oranges into the water.
3. Drop the onions, garlic, liquid crab boil, powdered crab boil, salt, and potatoes into the pot.
4. Drain the water from the cooler, if it is murky; rinse the crawfish again with fresh water.  If the water is clear, the crawfish are ready for the pot.
5. Once the water comes to a boil, allow the potatoes to boil for 15 minutes, and then add the crawfish and the sausage.
6. Allow the water to come back to a boil and then cut the heat.
7. Add the frozen corn, mushrooms and the ice.  Put the cover on the pot and allow the crawfish to sit for at least 25 minutes, and then fish a few out of the pot to test their texture and spicy level.
8. If they are difficult to peel, they may need a little more time, if they aren’t spicy enough, you can add some cayenne pepper to the water at this time, maybe ½ C.
9. Drain the ingredients and serve hot!

Tips and Tricks:

• We use 4 boiling bags: one for the veggies and citrus, one for the potatoes, and one for the sausage, and one for the corn and mushrooms.  It makes it easy to pull the bags out of the pot and makes it easy to keep things separated.
• You will need about 4 lbs. of crawfish per person.
• If you are boiling more than 30 – 40 lbs. of crawfish, you can use the same water for the second boil.  We use the same recipe, but keep in mind the crawfish are usually salter and spicier on round two.