Shawn’s Roadhouse served up an authentic Louisiana Crawfish Boil with the help of Gaiennie Lumber.
One of our favorite events each month at TimberTown Austin is Shawn Allen’s Roadhouse, which is a “meat” and greet where we provide free food grilled or smoked on a Kamado Joe ceramic grill. These grills deliver moister meats and a wood-fire flavor, but there’s one thing a Kamado Joe can’t do: boil water. So when we wanted to serve up an authentic crawfish boil we went to the experts: Louisiana-based lumber distributor Gaiennie Lumber.
Gaiennie (pronounced “gan-yay”) not only provides us with premium Composite Decking brands Azek and TimberTech, they can provide the biggest and best crawfish straight from their homebase in Opelousas, LA. They brought almost 300 lbs. of farm-raised crawfish along with the corn, potatoes, onions, and sausage for a true Cajun experience.
Going straight to the source, Gaiennie was able to get bigger and fresher crawfish than you can buy anywhere in Central Texas. I sat down with a seasoned crawfish-eater who said these were the best crawfish he’d ever had, and his family is from Louisiana! The key to a delicious crawfish is freshness and seasoning. Gaiennie purchased the crawfish that week and brought them all live within a day so they were as fresh as they come, then poured on delicious – and spicy – local Cajun seasonings.
As a native Michigander, I had never eaten crawfish, or “crayfish” as they say up north, so I decided to give them a try and loaded up a pan filled with 4 lbs. of crawfish, sausage, corn, and potatoes. After a few times, I got the hang of pulling off the tail and getting to the meat, I even sucked out the juices from the head. Like the other crawfish-lovers in attendance, I finished off my pan and went back for more!
It was no surprise we had one of our biggest Shawn’s Roadhouse turnouts of the year; the crawfish boil was such a success we may have to make it an annual event.
A special thank you to Gaiennie Lumber for helping us bring a little Cajun flavor to the Texas Hill Country.
