Cajun Crawfish Pie
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Frozen Crawfish
Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to buy frozen crawfish? Just imagine of we had a steady, dependable, reasonably inexpensive supply of them year round. Sadly, that's not the case. While they aren't quite as good as the fresh version, sometimes our only choice is to buy frozen crawfish. Think of it this way: isn't a cake with just a little bit less icing still better than no cake and no icing? In other words, oh well.
We can use frozen crawfish tails for every recipe, except the boiled one. They are processed in plants across Louisiana (stay away from the ones that are processed in China!) by workers that literally work their tails off. I once knew a large family of Vietnamese-Americans that would travel to a plant near Breaux Bridge every weekend during the season. I believe that there were nine members of that family that would work 14 hour days on the weekends. They would peel so many of them to be turned into frozen crawfish that they would come back on Mondays with cuts ALL over their hands. They could barely even open them from the swelling. These guys truly knew what it meant to work for a buck, since they are only paid according to how many pounds of tail meat they produce.
Frozen crawfish are generally sold by the pound. They normally come in one pound packages, and the costs for these can vary wildly depending on the time of the year and the region of the country that you are in. If you are in a region where you can't find them (Yankee!), you can even order them online from many companies right here in Louisiana. I found one site that had them listed for $17 per pound. Just do a Google search for "frozen Louisiana crawfish" and you will see plenty of online suppliers. Whenever you do buy frozen crawfish, just make sure that you read the package. If it says "China" or any other name that you can't pronounce in English, complain to the owner and remind him that he is supporting Communism when a superior American product is readily available.
You can also freeze your leftover crawfish from a boil. Whenever we have a crawfish boil and there are any left over (very rare), we all sit around and peel every one of them to throw into the freezer. I like to keep all of the fat and juice in them and freeze it that way, by not washing them off. A friend of mine swears that they will freeze better, or taste better in the end actually, if you put enough water in the ziploc to cover them before putting it in the freezer. I can't say that this really makes a difference, but he sure can cook a lot better than me, so maybe he's on to something.