Every crayfish lover knows how delicious and tender the dish is. It would seem difficult to spoil this product, which is not only a great appetizer for beer, but also a delicacy in itself. However, there are important rules and some culinary tricks that allow you to really cook delicious crayfish, to please yourself and your guests.
Pick your recipe
How to choose crayfish to make the dish tasty
If you want to cook crawfish deliciously, in no case do not buy asleep and even more so frozen specimens. Take only live arthropods - otherwise the dish will not work out succulent and tender enough. Crayfish should be active, their tail - strongly pressed to the body, shells - shiny and clean. Dead specimens must be completely eliminated - arthropods spoil faster than fish and meat!
Food lovers especially appreciate medium-sized crayfish. Fans of juicy “crayfish necks” are advised to choose females that have a wider barrel-shaped tail. In October-November, arthropods actively breed in the middle lane, and until the beginning of summer you will have a chance to buy cancers with delicious caviar. The male has a narrower tail, but large claws - this meat is also an excellent delicacy.
How to cook crayfish
Once purchased, the crayfish must be immediately placed in cold water upon arrival at home for 1 hour, then washed thoroughly with sand and silt. It is also advisable to brush the shells with a toothbrush, but do this very carefully: live and active arthropods can injure you with strong claws.
Bring the water to a boil and put in it to your taste bay leaf, allspice. To cook crawfish deliciously, add dry dill heads - this seasoning perfectly flavors the appetizer and completely interrupts the smack of mud. A little secret for cooks: note pour a tablespoon of sunflower oil into the pan, then boiled crayfish will shine.
Put table salt at the rate of about 5 tablespoons per 2 kg of raw materials. It is very important to take into account the thickness of the shells - if the crayfish have recently changed them and they are quite thin, less salt should be salted; thick chitin protection does not absorb seasonings well.
Throw crayfish into boiling water, grabbing each one firmly by the middle of the back. Boil the crayfish properly for 15 minutes until the shells turn red. After this, it is recommended to let the snack brew for 10 minutes in the broth under a tightly closed lid. Serve the crayfish to the table in small batches, according to the number of eaters. Leave the rest in the broth so that the snack does not cool. The warmed delicacy is not that pleasure.
To cook delicious crayfish: tips
- Immediately after cooking the crayfish, you can turn off the stove, put sour cream in the broth at the rate of 50 g for two arthropods. This will give the dish a special tenderness.
- Before boiling crayfish, keep them alive in milk for 5 minutes, but not more so that they fall asleep.
- Some patient gourmets with strong nerves before the cooking process for two days keep arthropods in the water and feed them with buckwheat porridge - the stomachs of the crayfish are cleaned, and the meat becomes much tastier.
- You can cook crayfish in a decoction of light beer, cream and cucumber pickle, taken in equal parts.
- Serve boiled crayfish for dear guests can be with fried bread rolls and sauce, in which eaters dipped pieces of meat. For gravy, mix in a glass of mayonnaise a tablespoon of black and red caviar, mustard (German and grains), chopped dill. Add chopped garlic (0.5 cloves), pepper, Tabasco sauce on the tip of the knife and let the gravy stand in the cold before use for 5-7 minutes.
- In a crayfish cooking broth, you can put a bunch of cilantro, sliced apples and bell pepper, cloves of garlic, as well as star anise and peppercorns.
