America I AM Pass It Down Cookbook (18 page)

HOW TO EAT BOILED CRAWFISH

The biggest part of the fun in a crawfish boil is the ritual of getting to the meat. Messy as it is, you’ll find folks high and low camped out at picnic tables, twisting off the heads and pulling out the tail for the sweet succulent meat. Here’s how to do it:

1.   Hold the front of the crawfish in one hand, and use your other hand to grab just above the tail.

2.   Twist the body so that the tail separates from the head.

3.   Suck on the head to get all the cooking juices—traditional but optional!

4.   Grasp the tail tightly and pull out the meat inside. Gobble it up and enjoy!

Did You Know?
Although they may look like shrimp, crawfish, or “crayfish” as they’re called in the North, are freshwater crustaceans that live in grassy, deep wetlands, where the water doesn’t freeze.

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The generally accepted rule of thumb for figuring out how much crawfish to throw in the pot is 5 pounds per person, along with 1 ear of corn and 1 or 2 small potatoes. Of course, if your folks have a bigger appetite, feel free to throw in more. Odds are they’ll sure enough be eaten. Use 1 gallon of water for every 2 pounds of crawfish you’re boiling.

Crawfish Étouffée

New Orleans, Louisiana

SERVES 4 TO 6

Justin Gaines, a chef in New Jersey, spent half a year training in New Orleans after he left the CIA. “While I was there, for months I was not allowed to make jambalaya, gumbo, étouffée, or even shrimp Creole because I wasn’t born there. I just had to watch.” Eventually, he got his chance and quickly mastered all the Cajun and Creole dishes, like this crawfish étouffée.

½ cup olive oil or vegetable oil
2 links of half-cooked andouille sausage, chopped small
1 green bell pepper, chopped small
2 stalks of celery, chopped small
1 medium red onion, chopped small
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
¼ teaspoon black pepper or to taste
3 teaspoons Creole seasoning (
page 233
)
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
½ cup of cup dry sherry
¼ cup white wine (Chardonnay)
1¼ cups tomato sauce
¾ cup canola oil
1 cup of flour
3 quarts of crawfish stock (hot)
½ pound of shrimp, cleaned and chopped
1 pound of crawfish tails
1 tomato, peeled and seeded
¼ cup heavy cream
½ stick unsalted butter
dash of hot sauce

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Crawfish, shrimp, or other shellfish stock is easy and quick to prepare. Just add 1 cup of heads and peelings to 2 cups of boiling water and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain and use. You can increase the volume at the same ratio.

In a stockpot, sauté diced andouille in olive oil, brown lightly. Add all vegetables except tomatoes, sweat and season with salt, black pepper, and Creole seasoning for 5–7 minutes.

Add chopped garlic, raise heat to medium-high, cook for 2 minutes, and add the sherry. Cook until sherry is almost totally evaporated and add the white wine. Cook until the wine is almost totally evaporated and add the tomato sauce.

In another medium saucepan, heat the canola oil and whisk in the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon to make a light roux, 5–10 minutes.

Add the roux to the stockpot. Add the crawfish stock in thirds and whisk well to break up any lumps. Season with Creole seasoning.

Bring the mixture to a boil. Drop to a simmer for about 45 minutes, or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Season with Creole seasoning and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Add shrimp, crawfish, chopped tomatoes, cream, butter, and a dash of hot sauce to finish. Cool completely and refrigerate overnight. Serve reheated the next day with steamed rice.

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To peel and seed a tomato—also called tomato concassé—use a sharp paring knife. Score the tomato on the bottom in an X. Have a bowl ready with 1 cup of ice and 1 cup of water. Bring a pot of water to a boil and drop the tomato in for 30 seconds, then drop it in the ice water.Remove the tomato from the water after 15 seconds and the skin will peel away easily. Slice in half and gently remove seeds with a spoon. Chop as desired.

Love Letter Shrimp & Grits

Warwick, Rhode Island

SERVES 4

Robyn Frye counts herself as “one who God has smiled on,” overcoming 18 years of addiction and multiple jail stints. In addition to hoping she is an example to others that someone can come back from life on the edge, one of the other ways she loves to give back in gratitude for getting her life on track is to cook dishes like her Love Letter Shrimp for family and friends.

2 pounds jumbo shrimp, shelled and deveined
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 pound thick-cut bacon
1 teaspoon Old Bay Seafood Seasoning
½ cup Antebellum Barbecue Sauce (
page 235
) or your favorite sauce
chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to broil.

Using a small knife, slice the shrimp along its underside so that it opens out like a butterfly. Do not slice all the way through.

Take 1 tablespoon of the shredded mozzarella and place it inside the shrimp.

Wrap the stuffed shrimp with a slice of bacon. Insert a wooden skewer from the tail of shrimp through to the top meaty part. Your shrimp should look like the letter “C” on the skewer. Continue this process until the skewers are full.

Add the Old Bay Seasoning to the barbecue sauce and stir well. Brush the skewered shrimp with the barbeque sauce mixture.

Spray the broiling pan lightly with cooking spray or rub with a leftover piece of bacon so it’s well greased. Place shrimp in oven and broil until the bacon wrapping is crisp, about 15 minutes. Watch carefully to ensure the shrimp do not burn.

Remove the shrimp and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Serve the shrimp over a bowl of grits (
page 176
) and garnish with chopped parsley.

Pass It Down Classic Variation: Charleston Style Shrimp & Grits

SERVES 4

Shrimp and grits is a dish now associated with Charleston, South Carolina, but before it hit the restaurant scene it was a simple everyday dish among the low country people who made good use of what was plentiful in the waters and lands that surrounded them. No one had more creative and delicious ways to prepare this bounty than the Gullah/Geechee people.

Here is a version of the classic shrimp and grits that was and is often prepared in Gullah/ Geechee homes.

4 slices of thick-cut bacon, chopped
1½ pounds shrimp, peeled and cleaned
3 scallions, minced
1 tablespoon, minced parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large, ripe tomato, chopped
½ teaspoon Creole seasoning (
page 233
)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or 2 dashes of Tabasco sauce, or to taste
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat a large fry pan and add the bacon. Fry until cooked well, but not crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain all but about 2 teaspoons of the bacon grease.

Add the shrimp and scallions, and stir well. Just as shrimp begins to turn pink add the parsley and garlic. Cook for 30 seconds and then add the tomatoes and cook 1 minute more.

Stir in the Creole spice mixture, cayenne, or Tabasco and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over grits.

African Americans remained integral to all aspects of food production throughout America long after slavery was abolished. In areas that were rich in oysters and clams, African Americans did most of the harvesting and shucking. Just as in food advertising, their hard-labor contributions were often the source of entertainment and humor for white society.

Did You Know?
This lyric sheet from 1905 depicts a stereotypical “cheerful” black oysterman as an Uncle Remus character working tongs on a boat in the Chesapeake Bay, an area world-renowned for its oysters at that time. The song tells the tale of a lackadaisical fisherman who enjoys lazy days on the water, digging and hauling oysters by hand, untroubled by the faster, steel skipjack boats that harvested oysters by dredging, effectively putting hand-harvesters out of business. Today, the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry is practically non-existent because of overfishing and other adverse environmental impacts.