Let's Talk BBQ
Other Cooking Equipment => Other cooking Eqipment => Other cookers => Topic started by: tnjimbob on April 08, 2014, 12:56:12 PM
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...for MUDBUGS!!!!! (kudos to The Zombies for a great song)
When you have a craving, sometimes you gotta satisfy it. I lived in south Mississippi for a few years, and that was close enough to Cajun country that I learned to love crawfish, both cooking & eating them. I have had a hankering for some crawfish for a while now, and I found a local supplier that brings them straight from a farm in Louisiana.
A friend & I were discussing this year's upcoming BBQ competition season and I decided to cook some crawfish on a nice Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Took some pics to prove they weren't unicorn crawfish. ;)
I like to leave them in the sack they came in because they are easier to rinse & purge.
(http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab48/tnjimbob/mudbugsinsack_zps8acd1d60.jpg)
That's a big 'un.
(http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab48/tnjimbob/mudbugontable_zps727646b1.jpg)
Got the pot to a good rolling boil with some seasonings, salt & onions, then boiled the crawfish for a few minutes before cutting the heat. Let them soak up the spices for about 20 minutes. Next time, I will let them soak even longer and use more crawfish boil. I forgot to get some smoked sausage, and I will add that next time too.
(http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab48/tnjimbob/mudbugsinpot_zps2775e2f5.jpg)
Dumped them onto newspapers, and proceeded to dig in. The corn, taters & onions were awesome. Spicy and delicious.
(http://i848.photobucket.com/albums/ab48/tnjimbob/mudbugsdone_zps0353adaa.jpg)
I plan to cook some more very soon before the season ends. The quality gets better and the prices have gotten cheaper, so in a week or two I will cook more.
Laissez le bon temps rouler!
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wow, that all looks fantastic.
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Why was I not invited! ;)
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Never had a crawfish boil before. Need to do something about that. Looks great!
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Was thinking the same thing the other day...
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Mmmmm that looks awesome, tnjimbob!!
Did a mudbug boil a couple of summers ago with James-- but we don't have local sources for them, so we had to go slogging through streambeds in the middle of the night to catch them ourselves. (Much to my chagrin, James told me AFTERWARDS that you can just set traps and collect them any old time you want.)
He was too squeamish to just reach down to grab them from under the rocks while we were out collecting them, so making him pose with them was his 'punishment' for not telling me about the traps until 3am after we got back. :) He's being overly dramatic here, honestly I don't torture the poor man in real life... (much.)
(http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/katrinarounds/j_zps0c199362.jpg) (http://s965.photobucket.com/user/katrinarounds/media/j_zps0c199362.jpg.html)
They met a very tasty end though, and it was well worth the adventure of going crawfishin' in the wee hours of the morning.
(http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/katrinarounds/cf_zps323f43a1.jpg) (http://s965.photobucket.com/user/katrinarounds/media/cf_zps323f43a1.jpg.html)
Here on the Oregon coast, we usually put crab in this kind of pot boil. And I agree adding some sausage would have been a nice touch too. We had this for a few meals. James's son got an especially big kick out of being able to just dump it all out on the patio table and tuck in.
(http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/katrinarounds/boil_zpsee4db187.jpg) (http://s965.photobucket.com/user/katrinarounds/media/boil_zpsee4db187.jpg.html)
After teaching James and his son how to 'suck de heads', we got a little creative with the empty shells after we'd had our fill. I made a potato bug. :)
(http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae138/katrinarounds/potatomudbug_zps222584d7.jpg) (http://s965.photobucket.com/user/katrinarounds/media/potatomudbug_zps222584d7.jpg.html)
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Never had a crawfish boil before. Need to do something about that. Looks great!
OH, your missing out on one of life's little pleasures! Hard to beat a crawfish boil
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Kat - are you a displaced Cajun? ;D
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I think you must be right, Tee! I have a good friend that lives in Shreveport, and have spent some amazing time down there with him learning to cook and eat! :) It's probably best for my waistline that I don't live nearby such delicacies all the time! Spending 3 hours in oversized chest waders with a bucket and flashlight clenched between my teeth certainly made me savor every little bite of those mudbuggers!!
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Some good looking mudbugs! I had some last weekend at Crazy Cajun's restaurant here in town. A guy I know owns it and has good Cajun food. I had the half order, about 2 pounds, just enough for me. They weren't really large but very tasty. I can buy bags from him if I give him a few weeks notice and when the weather settles down a little more I want to have some friends over for a boil.
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Never had a crawfish boil before. Need to do something about that. Looks great!
me either. :(
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Sure looks like a treat
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If y'all have got snipes out there you can get back at him by taking him snipe huntin'. See
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Never had a bud bug but if one was put in front of me and someone showed me what to do, I would happily eat it ;D
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Looks delicious from my end.
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If y'all have got snipes out there you can get back at him by taking him snipe huntin'. See
Dee made a career out of "snipe hunting", AKA the Army. they sent him on a lot of "snipe hunts" in the middle of the night.
Art
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O M G . i miss this crawfish boil . it is one of my Favorite hot and spice food.
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Very cool!
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Never tried em... looks good though!
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Never had a crawfish boil before. Need to do something about that. Looks great!
OH, your missing out on one of life's little pleasures! Hard to beat a crawfish boil
You can say that again, a long table covered with newspaper and hot boiled crawfish, corn on the cob, and potatoes with a cold keg of beer at the end of the table. I'm in heaven. ;)
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When I was working for the phone company in the 80's, the economy in Louisiana was suffering due the oil business going down. As a result lots of LA folks at the company were being downsized and the phone company was centering a lot of it's regional staff in Birmingham. I took a job in supply chain management (warehousing) supporting 11 warehouses in 9 states. A large percentage of the folks in this regional staff support group were transplants from LA (I called them boat people, or refugees) that came to B'ham to keep a job. We had a grand ole time. They introduced me to the joys of cajun and creole cooking and most of all crawfish. At that time travel and spending budgets for us HQ folks were pretty wide open and we took a lot of trips to inspect the two warehouses in LA. Plus we had some good back yard parties. Hopefully the statute of limitations has run out, but more than once there were 30 or 40 pounds of live crawfish on the back of a truck coming from the warehouse in LA to the warehouse in Bham.
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Both boils look delicious!!! That's got to be some good eating and fun eating too!!! Don
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Those mud bug boils look might good. I've been to about 3 of those in my life and enjoyed every one of 'em. Also got to eat a platter full in NOLA a few years back...they actually fix 'em pretty good out there, too!
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Jeepers... another thread I missed. Love a good boil! And really enjoy a snipe hunt. Dee, you can come up for a snipe hunt anytime - we'll get some good pictures!