Anyone cooked these beauties?

[Lehaut]

Bought them as a birthday treat.  Followed the cooking instructions given by the lady in the nearby fish shop (they catch them locally) up the river.  Wondered if others had tried them?

[Lori]

Never tried them.  Are they like Crayfish ?

 

[DaveLister]

Looks like Astacus astacus ( the European crayfish ). Make the most of them, they're under threat from the introduction of their American cousins.

[Lehaut]

They are in fact Louisiana Crayfish, taken from the Lac de Grande Lieu and other spots around the area.  We should be eating as many as possible as they are very detrimental to the local wild life.  The shop does not sell the European crayfish for this very reason.

[DaveLister]

4 minutes ago, Lehaut said:

They are in fact Louisiana Crayfish, taken from the Lac de Grande Lieu and other spots around the area.  We should be eating as many as possible as they are very detrimental to the local wild life.  The shop does not sell the European crayfish for this very reason.

I am very happy to stand corrected. Please eat some for me as well 😁

[Lori]

I had crayfish a long time ago.  The ones I had had very little 'meaty' bits and were mostly shell, making them a bit of a pain to eat.  Are yours better Lehaut ?

 

[Loiseau]

2 hours ago, Lehaut said:

They are in fact Louisiana Crayfish, taken from the Lac de Grand Lieu ….

Wow! I remember spotting one or two crawling through the lakeside grass there once, when I was having a stroll round that lake.

[Noisette]

A friend and I finally got around to fishing for the crayfish that live in the agrilac near my garden, last weekend. Previous experience had shown that the best bait is a dead ragondin. There used to be hundreds of écrevisse.

Not having a ragondin to hand, Eric tried dog biscuits 😁  We caught two 😂  As luck would have it, I caught a ragondin last Monday, so tried again....zilch!

The lac is too shallow now and needs dredging out. The herons that live in the overhanging poplars might also be picking off any that do remain.

Ah well, back to Leclerc prawns ....😋

[Lehaut]

22 hours ago, Lori said:

Are yours better Lehaut ?

No, exactly the same!!  Lot of effort for a little gain.  First time I have bought and cooked them.  Like to do something different for my birthday.  The suggestion by the fishmonger was steam them in a closed pan with olive oil in the bottom in their own juices.  Salt, pepper then add cream and flambé with  brandy.  The sauce was delicious.

[Lori]

Ahh, yes, I imagine that sauce was really good.  I think they'd be good for that type of thing.  Then, perhaps add the sauce as a complement to a nice piece of fish. 

To me, the crayfish just weren't worth the hassle.  However, for a sauce, I think they would be.

 

[ssomon]

They look similar to the gilgies found in W Australia. https://rivers.dwer.wa.gov.au/species/cherax-quinquecarinatus/

 We caught these in an inland stream by placing small pieces of meat on strings attached to sticks stuck into the bank.

After leaving these for half an hour or so we found one on almost every bait, about a dozen or more.

On returning home they were still alive, and we boiled them for a few minutes, as instructed by locals.

The stench was so bad that we didn't even consider eating them, and left them in peace thereafter.

[Lehaut]

22 hours ago, ssomon said:

The stench was so bad that we didn't even consider eating them, and left them in peace thereafter.

My desire to try the French version was somewhat inspired by the only other time I have been offered whole crayfish.  At a the summer ball, many years ago, in the NATO headquarters at Northwood UK the cooked version was offered on big platters in the centre of the tables.  I picked one up to try separating the tail and black ooze and an evil smell emanated from the "bestiole".  The whole lot were swiftly removed.