Food

Tas? Turkish food? I love that place but only been to the one near the British Museum.

Christ, cannibalistic and aggressive, and now fucking plague carrying? What kind of monster are we up against here??

Delicious monsters when boiled in Old Bay with corn and potatoes then shucked and eaten with hot sauce and ice cold beer. My kind of monster.

aye - same owners different site.

I've been looking into crayfish catching/trapping recently as 1) I like the idea of catching/killing my own food, and 2) they are an aggressive pest that is killing off indigenous species and destroying the banks of our rivers and canals, and 3) they are tasty.

To be legal you have to have a license to trap them, which is granted by the Environment Agency (EA). If you're using traps then you'll need to make sure they meet certain criteria (otter and water vole proof for one), and you'll want to check them at least once every 24 hours as they will happily eat each other if there is no other food about.

You also have to be quite specific on the license application about where you'll be fishing and what type of/how many traps you'll be using. The reason for this is that the invasive Red Signal crayfish carry a "crayfish plague" that they are immune to but kills the native crayfish. So you have to be careful to ensure you minimise the risk of contaminating clean waterways with the "plague".

At the end of your license period you are required to fill out a form to inform the EA of the numbers you've been catching.

It's also illegal to keep live crayfish thought I think you'll be OK carrying them from the River to the cook pot.

This is interesting. I'd be totally into doing pop up crawfish boils though, sounds like a bloody great idea.

Gumbo last night was a roaring success, I just did Andouille and Chicken, really simple once the prep is done.

Cajun Rub for the chicken and then added to pot was also delicious and was something along the lines of..

4TBSP Paprika
1TBSP Smoked Paprika
1TBSP Garlic Powder
2TSP Thyme
2TSP Onion Powder
2TSP Salt
1/2TSP Cayenne
1.5TSP Oregano
2TSP Black Pepper

I also added 1 Tbsp of Filé about 20 minutes before the end. Results aren't particularly pretty, but fuck me it was tasty.

Oh dracula you're effing killing me with the cajun food posts. If you post some crawfish etouffee I just may have to buy flights to see the parents.

Heh, feelin the man's pain. Looks good drac!

Might have to do some Red Beans and Rice next Monday!

Is there anywhere you can buy crayfish in the shells? I've bought frozen ones in ikea which were pretty awesome but not as good as the fresh ones you can get in sweden

I just emailed about a bulk order for summer. Maybe we can do a LFGSS Boil.

^ That sounds ace.

I've been looking into crayfish catching/trapping recently as 1) I like the idea of catching/killing my own food, and 2) they are an aggressive pest that is killing off indigenous species and destroying the banks of our rivers and canals, and 3) they are tasty.

To be legal you have to have a license to trap them, which is granted by the Environment Agency (EA). If you're using traps then you'll need to make sure they meet certain criteria (otter and water vole proof for one), and you'll want to check them at least once every 24 hours as they will happily eat each other if there is no other food about.

You also have to be quite specific on the license application about where you'll be fishing and what type of/how many traps you'll be using. The reason for this is that the invasive Red Signal crayfish carry a "crayfish plague" that they are immune to but kills the native crayfish. So you have to be careful to ensure you minimise the risk of contaminating clean waterways with the "plague".

At the end of your license period you are required to fill out a form to inform the EA of the numbers you've been catching.

It's also illegal to keep live crayfish though I think you'll be OK carrying them from the River to the cook pot.

Some friends of mine's place back's out onto a small river. We catch them there...some big 'uns. If you're gonna do it its advisable to let them sit around in clean water for a bit (24 hrs) to flush out. So you might have to break the law a little bit to get your munch on.

I would LOVE to go crayfishing... If anyone's up for it, let's do it!

List! :)

Are we in "season"? is there a season?

Yes, you need to purge them as they're dirrrty

I LOOOOOOOVE purging...

1. TS
   
2. mands
   

1. TS
   
2. mands
   
3. Tenners
   

Might be a bit early for 'em. Three of you could always go for a spit roast and reconvene in a month or two?

Sorry.

I once saw craysifh on hampstead heath near a pond. It had walked over to the past and was trying to fight people with the big pincers

Sorry.

I know dude. I'll say it again. Sorry.

Never happened, miserable day flat hunting and traipsing around town in the spitting rain, finally got to the market as they were closing, cold, wet and desperate for a warm bath. Had a burger from Motherflipper, ok, it's a burger, how good can they be?

Damn shame, I run Spit&Roast... be sure to shout if you make it down sometime soon...

So... I heard back, 50KG of Crawfish would be about 300quid. But would be enough for us to do 4 really big boils easily, and feed probably 50 people throughout the day. Could be a fun thing to end a ride eating, amirite?

^+1

^+2

Damn shame, I run Spit&Roast... be sure to shout if you make it down sometime soon...

Dude that's exactly what we wanted! Only had half chickens left or something. If I do make it ill make my identity known. South Londons a bit of a mission for us so your visit to north east is appreciated

Are we in "season"? is there a season?

Yes, you need to purge them as they're dirrrty
I've read that they are more active from March to September/October when it's a bit warmer. But I've also read that it's less of an issue in the South of England.

I've also heard conflicting stories about purification. Some people go straight from the river to the pot and others leave them in a bucket/the bath.

I've been told they will cut through nets if you try to keep them for too long but a plastic dustbin with small holes drilled (to allow for water circulation) in a pond etc works well.

None of the above is based on experience, unfortunately.

As an aside, if you want to eat crayfish for environmental reasons then you need to make sure you are taking out the smaller ones as well as the monsters. The larger crayfish will prey on the smaller ones which helps to keep the population in check (a female can lay 300-500 eggs a year, IIRC) so if you remove the bigger ones then you just create "space" for the smaller ones to expand into.

This PDF is quite interesting as it illustrates the issue they pose simply by their sheer numbers.