ISSUE 40, HOLIDAY GIFTS: Part 2: Soft Shelled Crawfish
The Italian Christmas Eve feast of fishes is a wonderful tradition, particularly when a group of people gather, each contingent contributing one of the seven items of shellfish or fish. It is particularly wonderful when someone brings something you’ve never sampled before. Such as soft shelled crawfish.
People in Louisiana know. It is one of the wonderful things that rarely makes it out of the state. It first came on my radar when I was talking about soft shelled shrimp, one of the things that plate freezers enable on the Gulf Coast. My friend Lance Nacio of Beau Marie Seafood supplies it to restaurants and customers. When I mention this to Chef Bob Perry from the University of Kentucky at a dinner we had at The Ordinary in Charleston, he mentioned that soft shelled shrimp was all well and good but soft shelled crawfish was what made one’s tongue quiver. After he alerted me to its existence, I kept running into signs reminding me what I needed. In summer I stopped by my favorite crossroads gas station in SC while driving back from Savannah and saw a jar of Dr. Juice’s Softshell Crawfish Fish Scent on the fishing supplies shelf.
Now Spring is the season for soft shelled crawfish, as it is for soft shelled crabs. But enterprising Louisiana shellfish brokers have stockpiled soft crawfish in their freezer warehouses. And for the holiday season, there are few things more s*p*e*c*i*a*l than a plate of deep fried soft shelled crawfish. Or crawfish tempura if you’d prefer a rice flour and beer batter
Once discarded as substandard by crawfish farmers, the attitude changed in the 1980s. In 1985 D. D. Culley published a report entitled Producing Soft Crawfish as part of the Louisiana Sea Grant Program. Since the 1990s it has been a regional delicacy of the Gulf Coast, particularly around Baton Rogue. The locals like them friend in a coating (cornmeal, cracker crumb, panko, or flour). But they can be prepared in a multitude of ways.
There are several sources for bulk buying (you want a couple of dozen at least). LTE Inc. has been longest in business. But I tend to start here: https://www.lacrawfish.com/Louisiana-Foods/Softshell-Crawfish-24