Very colorful and peculiar dish - boiled crawfish. This is a great appetizer for beer, they are good and as an independent dish. But they need a certain dexterity when preparing them. How to cook crawfish on your own? Let's find out all the subtleties of this process.
Choosing crawfish
Half of the case consists in the correct choice of cancers. They are good from May to October, but in the autumn they are considered the most delicious.
An unavoidable condition in the preparation of cancers is that they must necessarily be alive. If you did not catch them with your own hand, but buy it on the market or in a specialized store, then do not take dead individuals for anything. This threatens serious poisoning.
Preparation for cooking
If possible, the crayfish should be the same size. Wash the crayfish thoroughly before preparation. This should be done under running water. To rinse the abdomen, the space between the paws, use a brush to properly wash off dirt, sand and silt. Bear in mind that the cancer will resist and try to clap your claws. Hold it firmly over the middle part of the shell on the sides, so it can not reach you. And the hiss and clattering with claws will only be an empty threat. But you need to rinse it thoroughly. This will largely depend on the taste of the future dish.
Wash washed crayfish in a bucket of cold water, prepared in advance. All the washed crayfish in the water for about an hour and a half. So they are infused before cooking.
How to properly cook crawfish, how long
For cooking, select a large saucepan. The distance from the edge of the water to the edge of the saucepan should be at least 15 centimeters. Otherwise, from cooking crawfish you will have a duel with the fleeing arthropods.
For cooking crawfish is laid already in boiling water, which is added all the spices and salt. If you are afraid of becoming trapped in the clutches of crayfish claws, then when repositioning from a bucket to a pan use improvised means. A towel is suitable for this. Cancer will grab hold of him, and in the meantime you will shift it into boiling water. But it is better to take them in turn for the middle part of the trunk from above.
Lay crayfish in boiling salted water with spices, cook them for 10-20 minutes. The cooking time depends on the size of the crayfish. The main thing - do not allow them to digest.
Once the crabs are welded, remove them from the heat and leave to infuse for 5-10 minutes. After that, they can be laid out on a dish. Lay them can be just a slide, or the leaves of green, as your fantasy tells you.
Several recipes for preparing cancers
There are several ways to cook crawfish. They differ from each other in the composition of added spices and spices. The most accessible and common of them is cooking crayfish in salt water with spices. As soon as the water boils, before adding crayfish, add salt in large quantities. Since the crabs are cooked in a shell and a short time, it is very difficult to over-salve them. Add to your taste peas of pepper, stalks and umbrellas of dill, bay leaf. As soon as this brine boils, put the prepared crayfish there and cook for 10-20 minutes, based on their size. The composition of spices and spices you can also adjust to your liking.
Another recipe for boiled crawfish. In the water add a bulb, cut into 2 or 4 parts, stems and dill umbrella, a large amount of salt. It for cooking crayfish leaves about a handful for one liter of water. Add pepper, bay leaf, currant leaves. As soon as the broth boils, put the crayfish there and cook it according to the usual recipe. It is also necessary to let the crabs brew after cooking for 5-10 minutes, taking off the pan from the fire.
A method for cooking cancers in beer is common. It differs from the above-described recipes only in that you replace half the water with beer or kvass. Crayfish will not be less delicious.
Very unusual taste they get when cooking in white wine. To do this, take one part of the wine and two parts of the water. We prepare crayfish in the previous ways. Once they are infused after cooking, remove them from the pan and prepare a special sauce. Broth the crayfish, strain it, give it a boil, put the flour there until the desired consistency and another teaspoon of butter. Stir the oil and remove from heat. Then you need to add another spoonful of oil. The sauce is ready. It is served in the sauce bowl separately, and you can immediately pour them crayfish on a platter.
Another interesting recipe is the preparation of crayfish in cucumber brine. Begin to cook crayfish as usual until the appearance of mild redness. It's about 5 to 7 minutes. Then pour out the water and add cucumber brine, a few spoons of sour cream and cook them in this mixture. The brine can be served separately as a sauce for crayfish.
The original variant of cooking crayfish in milk. With this method washed crayfish should be soaked not in water, but in milk for about two hours. Then this milk is poured into a saucepan, where the crayfish will cook and cook them until ready.
There are many more original recipes. But if you learned how to cook crayfish in the usual way in salt water, then any of them will be available to you.