I blame Forrest Gump for my obsession with the shrimp grounds of the Gulf of Mexico, or at least that’s the best I could come up with on the fly after we’d arrived in Grand Isle and checked into the dirtiest, most dilapidated motel I’ve ever subjected Sabrina to. For a while after we got into the room she refused to sit on any of the furniture, let alone lie down on the bed.
This barrier island is truly the end of the line- as far south of New Orleans as you can get and as it was already late, and we’d prepaid online there seemed to be little option but to stay the one night. Visions of watching the sun set in the gulf with a glass of chilled wine in hand evaporated and the best we could do was visit the State Park beach with a couple of cans of Budweiser and a gaggle of Russian tourists for company (the coastline did possess a remarkable similarity to the Baltic).
To give you an idea of just how wretched Sabrina was feeling, you need to know that we had come south from a night’s stay at Madewood, a classic foursquare, Greek Revival antebellum mansion fronted by massive Corinthian columns.
We had dressed for dinner, had drinks in the library with the other guests who (and this never seems to happen when you’re thrust into company with no escape), were uniformly delightful. A candlelit meal at the long dining table with fascinating, civilized conversation was followed by coffee and brandy in the drawing room. There had been an English girl of exactly our daughter’s age who she’d befriended during the meal so they’d gone off to explore together while Sabrina and I had taken our brandies for a stroll in the park-like grounds under a full moon and Spanish-moss-laden cypress trees. The following morning, we had been gently woken up by a maid bearing a silver tray with a freshly made pot of tea before a full breakfast in the dining room- and so on and so forth, until the torture of comparison became just unbearable.
Heading north up Louisiana Highway 1 after a fitful night of (thankfully imaginary) bed bug itches, we passed what looked like the nation’s entire shrimp fleet at anchor while on the lookout for a Crawfish Boil (it was Easter week, the start of the Louisiana Crawfish season) and happily ate our messy fill at a little roadside shack backing onto Bayou Lafourche.
Crawfish Boil: Serves Five to Six
Please don’t wait for the annual Crawfish season. You can enjoy this recipe any time of the year by substituting jumbo shrimp for the Crawfish.
2tsp whole peppercorns
2tsp coriander seeds
2 whole cloves
2 tsp whole allspice
¼ lb salt
3 gallons water
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dry mustard
3 bay leaves
5 lbs crawfish
Place the peppercorns, coriander, cloves and allspice in a spice grinder and grind until fine. Fill a very large stock pot with the water, add the freshly ground spices, salt, garlic powder, cayenne, paprika, onion powder, thyme, oregano, mustard and bay leaves. Cover and bring to the boil on high heat.
Clean the crawfish carefully, removing all the mud and debris by doing this in several changes of water (6-8 times should suffice). Once the seasoned water comes to a boil, add the crawfish, cook for 3 minutes and then turn off the heat. Allow to sit for 10 minutes, then drain and serve. Most people like to add corn on the cob and new potatoes to the boil, but I prefer it on its own.
Can't wait to try this one!