Thru the tempting aroma of their best eacute;touffeacute;es and gumbos, and in the rusty, honeyed crust of rice that lines the jambalaya pot, this feisty tiny bottom feeder has earned its spot in culinary heaven. Occasionally we use them for fish bait, though for the most part we just step over them -- by the thousands. Judging by the recognition of my crayfish boil last week, I envision the protected standing the critters have enjoyed here will be ending shortly, because they are simply the best crayfish anybody has ever tried -- essentially, the sole good-tasting shellfish local to the Midwest.
As sweet and tender as lobster and tasting as clean as the lake from which they were pulled, the ruby-red crayfish shared the pot with spicy andouille sausage, new potatoes, corn and a couple of fistfuls of dill and spices. Crayfish are going to long summer days what shelling salted peanuts are going to the ballgame or cracking full nuts is to Xmas, more like grazing than sitting down to a correct dinner.
It's putzy work, but a crayfish boil is not just a meal, it's a party of a seasonal delicacy. Natural resources folks speculate that they came here as bait from Indiana and entered our lakes through the fisherman's practice of dumping their leftover bait back to the lake. Since that point, the Rusty invasion has increased the population of local crayfish several times over, repopulating at such a rate the Minnesota dep. of Natural Resources has classified them an exotic, invasive species. If fortunate enough to corner one, we'd hold sticks at its belly, provoking the poor small creature till, ultimately fed up, it drove us back with a wild madness of snapping. Related most closely to the lobster but with other members of the family including shrimp, langoustines, prickly lobsters and numerous other crawling crustaceans, crayfish taste a lot like their family and have no need for much embellishment. The steaming pile of red mudbugs isn't just provoking, but it also makes sure leftovers, which migrate happily into my salads, sandwiches and morning scrambles for the remainder of the week. Whilst my boil recipe pays respect to the Creoles, whose andouille sausage contributes both chile and pork ( always welcome ), I do inject a little Minnesota to the pot with heads of crown dill, an addition that hits a comforting, familiar note in the hearts of most Scandinavian Minnesotans. Not only are we able to throw minnow traps into the local lakes and drag up sufficient for lunch, but we are able to buy them off the dock of a northern trapper for just $2.50 a pound.
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