Posted on 12/26/2004 8:29:16 PM PST by bayourod
You'd think that a country that has elevated snails and frogs to a delicacy wouldn't have a problem with some good ol' crawfish.
Yet France is struggling, not in the kitchen but out in the wild: Beaucoup crawfish are killing frogs, destroying sensitive wetland plants and generally wreaking environmental havoc.
The prolific Louisiana Red Swamp crawfish, which can lay up to 750 eggs at one time and can reproduce nine months of the year, is thought to have escaped into wetland areas of France in 1976. It's been downhill from there.
"The Louisiana crawfish eats all the aquatic plants in the marsh," said Jean-Marc Thirion, scientific adviser to Nature Environnement 17, an environmental group based in Charente-Maritime, a department on France's central Atlantic coast. "Without the aquatic plants, the water of the marsh is opaque and the sunlight can't pass through," making it difficult for aquatic life to survive.
The Louisiana crawfish is disrupting breeding areas for frogs and other amphibians, he said, as well as having more subtle effects on other wildlife.
"When the Louisiana crawfish is present in the amphibian laying site — pool, pond or marsh — we have observed different mutilations of amphibians: cut skin, leg amputations," he said. "When the Louisiana crawfish population is established after a few years in the same site, we note the extinction of amphibian species."
Even more troubling and far-reaching is the insidious revenge the crawfish is taking on its predators.
For instance, Thirion said, one scientist has reported malformed young in gray heron that have begun to feed exclusively on the crawfish.
Scientists in Spain have reported that astaxanthin, the reddish-orange pigment in the shell and body that gives the Louisiana crawfish its name, is turning the skin of baby white storks an orange color that could be disturbing to their parents, raising concerns about nesting success.
The pigment also is causing slight differences in the coloring of the legs and beaks of adult storks, scientists say. The vibrant colors of birds are used to attract the opposite sex, and the scientists are concerned that the differences could be affecting their long-term reproduction.
According to Catherine Souty-Grosset, a biologist at the University of Poitiers and a founding member of Craynet, a network of European aquatic crawfish researchers, the Louisiana crawfish has become the most dangerous of a handful of invasive species because it is spreading so rapidly.
It has been found all along France's Atlantic coast and throughout the basin of the Loire River, and is expected to spread along another half-dozen rivers in a few years.
Souty-Grosset says several proposals for exterminating the invader have drawbacks.
Chemicals able to kill the tough crawfish harm other species. Mechanical removal is labor-intensive and too expensive, and while commercial fishing seems to be catching on in Charente-Maritime, she said, transporting live crawfish out of the department is prohibited.
To comply with the law, put in place to prevent the spread of invasive crawfish, "the ideal solution is the transformation on the spot of crawfish into preserved products," she said.
Woooah, Baby lobsters.
Crawfish Etouffe
Ingredients:
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon thyme
1 tablespoon oregano
1 cup onions
1 cup bell peppers
1 stalk of celery
1 stalk of green Onions
1/4 cup fresh garlic
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
1 cup fresh tomatoes
2 lbs pealed crawfish tails
In a heavy 5 1/2 quart saucepan add 4 tablespoons of butter and melt over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, celery and cook until almost translucent; about 10 minutes, stirring often. Reduce heat to low and add the roux (see recipe below), stir until well blended. Stir in seasonings; salt, pepper, garlic salt, thyme, oregano, and cayenne pepper and add the fresh-tomatoes and crawfish tails. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add fresh garlic and fresh parsley stirring for one minute then cover and let simmer for five more minutes so seasonings can saturate. Salt to taste and serve!
The Roux
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
4 tablespoons oil or butter
1 cup seafood stock (liquid from boiled and strained crawfish, crab or other shellfish)
4 tablespoons of tomato paste
Start with 1 cup flour and 4 tablespoons oil/or butter and cook over low to medium heat until you have a light brown paste. Then add 1 cup seafood stock and 4 tablespoons of tomato paste. Add a few bay leaves. Let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Sacre Bleu!
What France needs is to import their natural predators: the South Louisiana Coonass.
They'll be glad to take care of France's crawfish problem - Ah gah-rone-tee you dat!
Bingo. Catch them and sell them to the US. These Frenchies are pretty darned stupid.
Crawfish love frog legs. Apparently Louisiana frogs are faster and smarter than French frogs.
Muslims can eat that dish Schwartzkopf invented for our enemies "Bovine Scatology Au Gratin"
What the hell is wrong with them? Crawdaddies rock! Mmmm, melted butter, lemon juice, ice cold beer....
Yeah, I would think the French would be eating those things as fast as they hatch. They are mighty good eatin with the right sauce and cold beer. The French might be wound too tight to handle the action from your friends though.
About four hours.
Forget the Jax beer, tasted like a French horse ate asparagus and pissed in your glass-two months ago!
That sounds REAL g-o-o-o-o-o-d.
More like revenge for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes
Boudreaux say: "Dot wot dem Frenchman get fo leavin' Louisiana."
No, Jax is actually worse than that! :) but do not tell Boudreax and Gautreaux.
That is pretty bad. ROTFLM*O
He is wearing the right color on his wrist:)
I'll send you a simpler and better tasting recipe; never made an etouffe with a roux, that is for a stew or bisque. No thyme , oregano or tomatoes either (getting my drift). It's all about crawfish and it's taste; coming to you soon.
Might be a double post, oops if so.
The French Curse in Louisiana is all those Cajuns who keep sending Democratic Cajuns to the U.S Senate.
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