What to Cook This March

Week 365. Year 8. Tommy is 40. The crawfish are running and the driveway is set up and the neighborhood knows because the steam carries the invitation. Rémy at the burner, 40-year-old Tommy at the table with a beer, watching the boy who became a cook become a man who cooks. Luc (17) at LSU studying engineering. Colette (14) in high school, painting. The spring is the same spring — crawfish and azaleas and the particular heat of March in Louisiana — and the sameness is the prayer.

Made crawfish boil this week — the kind of food that fills the house with the smell of Louisiana and the knowledge that whoever walks through the door is walking into a home where the stove is on and the food is ready and the welcome is unconditional. The meal was the day. The day was the meal. Both were good. The bayou runs on.

Year 8 of the same ritual deserves the same respect — nothing fussy, nothing out of season. March in Louisiana gives you exactly what you need if you pay attention, and what you need right now is a pot big enough for the whole street. This is the kind of cooking that fits the month: bold, communal, built on the particular ingredients that show up when the weather shifts and the bayou wakes back up. If you’re looking for a place to start, this is the one — everything on this list belongs to March the way crawfish belong to the driveway.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

10 lbs live crawfish, purged and rinsed
1 lb andouille sausage, sliced into 2-inch rounds
6 ears of corn, halved
1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes, whole
2 whole heads of garlic, halved crosswise
3 lemons, halved
1/2 cup Cajun or crab boil seasoning (such as Zatarain’s)
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper (adjust to heat preference)
2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
4 bay leaves
Water to fill pot (5 to 6 gallons)
Crusty French bread, for serving

Instructions

Fill and season the pot. Fill a large 60—80 qt outdoor boiling pot with 5 to 6 gallons of water. Add the Cajun seasoning, salt, cayenne, Old Bay, bay leaves, garlic, and squeezed lemon halves. Bring to a full rolling boil over a propane burner.
Boil the potatoes first. Add the red potatoes to the boiling seasoned water and cook for 10 minutes, until just beginning to soften.
Add sausage and corn. Add the andouille and corn to the pot. Return to a boil and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes.
Add the crawfish. Add the rinsed crawfish to the pot. Stir well to submerge. Return to a boil and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until the shells are bright red and the tails curl tightly.
Soak for flavor. Turn off the heat. Let everything soak in the seasoned water for 15 to 20 minutes — this is where the flavor gets into the crawfish. The longer the soak, the spicier the result.
Drain and serve. Drain the pot or use a basket to pull everything out. Spread directly onto a newspaper-lined table or into a large tray. Serve immediately with French bread.

Nutrition (per serving)

What to Cook This March — The Boil That Carries the Season Home