CRAWFISH is about the one Cajun Dish I make with Crawfish...there ARE Crawfish here in California - especially around Isleton in the Sacramento River Delta...but they are all over the Mississippi Delta all year...especially in the Spring....

Some words about CRAWFISH....

First of all, Crawfish Tails are all I've ever used, so someone, or an on-line site, can teach you how to clean and shell and prepare them if they are fresh. I've never had any fresh that I can recall, but maybe I did when I was a little kid visiting my grandparents in Southwestern Louisiana, but I can't remember...

Then, this is not quite the season to buy and to cook them. Seasonally, you can eat them year round, but the shells are harder and they're not so plump and 'rich' from around early fall through winter. They're best from early March through late summer, I understand... The only time I've ever prepared them in was around Mardi Gras, which is startin' up around now. So, here is my favorite recipe, using just the Tails, which can be fresh, but are usually frozen around California parts, if you can find them at all!!!!

CRAWFISH STEW

Make a Roux with 1/4 cup oil and 1/2 cup flour until nut brown. Saute three chopped large yellow onions, one green bell pepper, and one bunch of green onions - all chopped pretty fine. Stir in the roux and add one cup of water flavored with a dash of red pepper, a teaspoon of oregano; a half teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of file' sassafras, salt, and ample pepper - mince up about three cloves of garlic or more and add that too - some people add minced mushrooms to a Crawfish Stew, too....add in the crawfish tails, whole, at this point...cook over a low heat, just simmering, for about forty-five minutes. keep adding water if you think it's getting dry, since you want to get it all saucey....now, pour it over fluffy, hot long grain rice.

It's delicious. Really Delicious....

Here's its Poem:

CRAWFISH

Kylie and I went to fish
For Crawfish in a little pond
A stick and string and hotdog bait
An' hopes of catchin' dinner

But this was California an'
Them Crawfish were a little small
With tiny tails - not 'fat' at'all
So we had empty buckets

Still and all, it's fun to be
With a kid beneath the trees
Trying to fish Crawfish
On lazy sunny Springtime days

An' you know, if I had my way:
I'd fish beside kids every day
An' never long for much time more
Than fishin' Crawfish on those ponds
Those California Springs...
Those lazy days of Spring....