Left over Craw Dads, what can I make out of em?

My neighbors made a huge batch of Craw Dads. They were great, and yes I suck the heads!...but, now there are pleanty left. I thought about some gumbo but how do you seperate the shells if you boil the heads? Or... any other ideas?
joe

Make a remoulade with the tails.

2 stalks celery, diced fine 
1 cup Italian parsley, chopped fine  
1 bunch of green onions, chopped fine 
2 T good strong Dijon type mustard (Creole mustard if you can find it) 
2 T prepared horseradish or more to taste 
1 T paprika 
½ t cayenne 
Salt 
1 cup canola oil 

Do not emulsify. Mix and pour over tails. Marinate for a while. That's good eatin.

quote:

Originally posted by essvee

Make a remoulade with the tails.

2 stalks celery, diced fine 
1 cup Italian parsley, chopped fine  
1 bunch of green onions, chopped fine 
2 T good strong Dijon type mustard (Creole mustard if you can find it) 
2 T prepared horseradish or more to taste 
1 T paprika 
½ t cayenne 
Salt 
1 cup canola oil 

Do not emulsify. Mix and pour over tails. Marinate for a while. That's good eatin.

That sounds good enough to go out ond buy some shrimp.

Make abt's, the stuffed jalapeno peppers with the meat and use the pineapple cream cheese.

All this sounds good! I am still going to boil the heads and make something with the juice I get..... unless anyone has an idea of something else to do with the heads..... and no... i'm not going to throw them away. It's my fav part of the craw dad!
Joe

quote:

Originally posted by PapaJoe8

All this sounds good! I am still going to boil the heads and make something with the juice I get..... unless anyone has an idea of something else to do with the heads..... and no... i'm not going to throw them away. It's my fav part of the craw dad!
Joe

I would simmer the heads and use the stock and incorporate it into an Alfredo sauce with the crawfish added at the last minute to warm them through.

they make kille4 omelets too!!!---and a sandwich filling---ala tuna salad/chicken salad----and they work in egg rolls too!!

I agree with grey, make a stock from the heads and shells for a soup or reduce and freeze into cubes as buillion for stew etc. Use the meat as you would shrimp, salad, dip, poppers/abt's etc..

Sounds like you might want to make crawfish bisque. I'd do a search, maybe check recipes under gumbopages.com.

I would also suggest checking foodfest.neworleans.com/rec, there are several crawfish recipes, look for Crawfish Nomica. This is local food writer Tom Fitzmorris' version of the popular dish in NO called Crawfish Monica. Very simple, butter, green onions, cream, creole seasoning over pasta. Tom takes the original reipe a little further by adding garlic, tarragon, and cognac or brandy, which is a favorite of mine.

Well... it was a disaster!!!! I boiled the heads, to long maybe, and the water turned black! Real ucky looking. It was the black stuff coming out of the heads. I dumped it. I did save the tails and froze them unshelled in a ziplock w/ some water.
joe

Sucking the heads isn't a problem, but the head gunk soup is "ucky?" Is this a case of not wanting to see the sausage being made?

Vayo con Queso

quote:

Originally posted by PapaJoe8

Well... it was a disaster!!!! I boiled the heads, to long maybe, and the water turned black! Real ucky looking. It was the black stuff coming out of the heads. I dumped it. I did save the tails and froze them unshelled in a ziplock w/ some water.
joe

Pappa, quick, check yourself in, as you sucked that black stuff in, Ebola?

You don't really want left over crawdads. let me give you an address you can send them to. I will dispose of them properly.......

PJ, I realize it's a lttle late, but by coincidence, I just came from a food demonstration of Crawfish Bisque by NO Chef John Besh's Restaurant August (he whooped Mario on Iron Chef America last week). This is a version of the old style of actually stuffing the heads, but it was still great (maybe for your next batch).

Restaurant August Crawfish Bisque

2 lbs boiled crawfish
4 oz olive oil
4 oz flour
2 onions, medium chopped
1 carrot, medium chopped
1 celery stalk, cut in 2-3" chunks
1 fennel stalk
2 TBS tomato paste
1/2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes Tabasco
3 garlic cloves, smashed
4 peppercorns
4 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
juice from 2 lemons
1/2 TBS Creole spice
2 TBS Madeira
3 gallons water

Peel crawfish,and set aside crawfish tail meat, reserving peelings and heads. Use a large knife or meat mallet to rough cut or crush crawfish heads. In a wide braising skillet, saute the crawfish heads and peelings until bright red. Dust in flour and stir briskly until heads are coated. Add onions, celery, carrot, and fennel and allow them to sweat down. Add tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, peppercorns, thyme, bay leaves, creole spices, and garlic. Deglaze with Madeira. Add water and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Allow to cook for one hour, while continuing to skim any foam that rises to the top. Puree in blender, and strain through a fine sieve. Bring to a boil and adjust seasonings. Before serving, stir in a small amount of heavy cream or Madiera to your taste.

Return crawfish tails to the mixture.

** Optional - add a dollop of Herbsaint fennel cream (a mixture of whipped cream, fennel, and a little Herbsaint).

Try something similar to a shrimp melt.

shell the tails
cut into small pieces 3/8 inch
mix in some mayo
old bay?
scallions?
cayenne pepper?
salt and pepper to taste


put on bread(make open faced sandwiches)

cover with sliced swiss cheese

bake at 400 degrees untill cheese starts to brown

Regards,

Mitch

Gumbo all the way! It's supposed to be dark!

So llechef, did I mess up by throwing away that black juce I made by boiling the heads? If I did, shoot! I will be mad at myself.
Joe

quote:

Originally posted by PapaJoe8

My neighbors made a huge batch of Craw Dads. They were great, and yes I suck the heads!...but, now there are pleanty left. I thought about some gumbo but how do you seperate the shells if you boil the heads? Or... any other ideas?
joe

How did y'all manage THAT miracle??? No matter how much we make, we NEVER have leftover seafood!

quote:

Originally posted by PapaJoe8

So llechef, did I mess up by throwing away that black juce I made by boiling the heads? If I did, shoot! I will be mad at myself.
Joe

Well, you slightly messed up if you were going to make gumbo because the roux is dark and the crawdad stock was dark so it wouldn't matter. We catch fresh shrimp and I make a stock out of the heads and it's also very dark. (I suck the heads too!).
So now that you have NO stock I would suggest that you make a nice crawdad etouffee over pasta or a jambalaya.
Don't be worried if your shellfish stock comes out dark. The other day I boiled up some crab shells, it's dark too. Made a crab bisque.......added butter and flour, the stock, some heavy cream and crabmeat......there you have crab bisque!

Ok llee, I guess my question is, how long do you let stuff boil, and how black do you let the juice get? I let it simmer and boil for like 2 hours. That juice was REAL black! I can get some shrimp heads and boil them for my gumbo. There may even be some frozen whole mud bugs still left somewhere in the neighborhood. How we ended up with the left overs is that enough was cooked for about 50 folks but only about 30 showed up. Happens every year.

Oh. all of the recipes for the tails sound great. Thanks!
Joe