Fried Crawfish Tails
A Louisiana favorite, crawfish tails are eaten boiled, fried, and cooked into many dishes. For this delicious variation, Willy Coln deep-fries the tails in a dark beer batter and serves them with spicy mayonnaise.
Ingredients
- Crawfish Tail Meat - 1 pound, peeled and deveined
- Sherry - 1/2 cup
- Flour - 1-1/2 cups
- Eggs - 2
- Pinch of salt
- Dark Beer - 12 ounces
- Dash of cayenne pepper, to taste
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Oil for deep frying
- Sauce
- Egg Yolks - 2
- Lemon Juice - 1 tablespoon
- Dry Mustard - 1/2 teaspoon
- Worcestershire Sauce - 1/4 teaspoon
- Dash of Tabasco - (alt. hot pepper sauce)
- Oil - 3/4 cup
- Hot Water - 1 tablespoon
- Sherry - 1 tablespoon
- Chives - 1 teaspoon, minced
- Ketchup - 1 teaspoon
- Dash of cayenne pepper, to taste
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions
To prepare the crawfish: Marinate the tails in the sherry for 1 hour, or longer. Mix 1 cup of the flour, eggs, salt, and cayenne until smooth and slowly add the beer to make batter. The consistency should be like cake batter. Heat the oil to 365 F in a deep fryer or deep saucepan. Drain the tails and roll in the remaining flour, shaking off the excess, and dip in the batter. Fry the tails in the hot oil until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon or wire skimmer and drain on paper towels.
To prepare the sauce: Beat the yolks with the lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco. Slowly drizzle in the oil while beating, forming mayonnaise base. Whisk in the hot water to stabilize the sauce. Fold in the remaining ingredients and adjust the seasoning.
To serve: Mound hot crawfish tails in a basket lined with napkins or on a platter. Pass the sauce on the side.
