Thaw cooked crawfish in fridge. Grab crawfish body between fingers, with other hand pull tail to stretch, then twist till it snaps. When you remove the tail, the end will be covered in tomaly, a mustard you should save that helps flavor the etouffee.

Remove the peel on the tail by snipping the tail lengthwise in two with scissors. Easy.

I split my recipes in two batches when I first try new spicy ingredients, with fewer spices first, then cook the second batch. Lightly brown celery, onion, red bell pepper, creole seasoning and flour in butter, five minutes. Taste. Add crawfish tails, tomato puree and heavy cream, simmer till fragrant, taste, about 10 minutes. Add Tabasco sauce if desired. Stir in freshly chopped parsley. Serve over long grain white rice.

For the leftover shells,claws and heads, bring 5 cups water to boil with two lime halves, add crawfish, simmer till broth is fragrant and shells are soft. Save broth for making bisque soup. Cool crawfish parts, mix with enough lard to process in food processor to make puree. Save puree to make 5 pounds cat food.