One of the great joys of my life is cooking seafood with Tybee Island native Bonnie Gaster. Seafood is literally in her blood, and her culinary instincts when it comes to fish or shellfish are just about flawless.

This past weekend there was plenty of joy to be had in Bonnie’s kitchen. She came home loaded down with fresh Georgia white shrimp, live soft-shell crabs, and a huge bag of lively, still kicking mudbugs (a.k.a. crawfish) that she had scored from Bowie’s Seafood on Tybee, a market that regularly has them trucked in from Louisiana.

The crawfish she purged for half an hour in salt water and then poached to perfection in lightly seasoned water. While we warmed our appetites with those, dipping them into a rich, lightly caramelized lemon butter, and on an artichoke I had steamed in white wine, garlic, and herbs, Bonnie deftly cleaned the soft shells with a big pair of kitchen shears, cutting out the lungs and part of the “face.”

She quickly but gently sautéed them in butter that barely whispered of garlic. We put them away with thick chunks of crusty bread, salad dressed Italian style with just wine vinegar and good olive oil, and a nice, crisp Sauvignon Blanc, all seasoned with a perfect Tybee sea breeze.

God sure was smiling on us that night.

The following evening, we got started with the shrimp, perfectly poached, chilled, and dipped into Bonnie’s wow-now cocktail sauce, while she put together a stellar linguine with the picked crawfish tails left from the night before. I could have helped, I guess, but it was much better to sit back and enjoy a master at work.

She started by melting copious amounts of butter in a big, heavy skillet and gently infused it with chopped garlic and lemon zest over a low flame. Then she added a handful each of parsley and sliced green onions and let that simmer while we went out onto the porch to watch the sun set over the marsh.

Just before the linguine came out of its cooking water, she threw more parsley and green onion into the skillet, and finally added the picked crawfish tails with their rich, burnished gold fat, tossing until they were just warmed through. I would have added a little hot pepper, but this wasn’t my pot to stir.

Those little mudbugs were even better than they had been the night before.

Crawfish, Tybee Style

In most of the Cajun recipes for crawfish, the critters are poached in heavily seasoned water, and then left to soak in that water so that the seasoning is absorbed into them. Unfortunately, this popular method always overcooks them and leaves the delicate flesh tough, dry and tasting mainly of hot pepper.

Bonnie sensibly lets them poach just long enough to turn bright red and curl, no more than five minutes, then she drains and seasons them lightly with the boiling spices. They’re still hot enough to absorb some of the seasoning, but not enough to keep on cooking. She uses a custom boiling spice blend that is mixed by a friend on Tybee, but you can use a commercial blend such as Savannah Spice Company or Old Bay.

Serves 6 to 8

10 pounds live crawfish

Salt

Seafood Boiling Spice

Lemon Butter (recipe follows)

1. Bonnie always purges the crawfish in a tub of salt water for about an hour. While they’re flipping around in that, bring about 10 to 12 quarts water to a boil in a large pot. Season with salt and a liberal sprinkling of seafood seasoning. Drain and add the crawfish, cover, and cook until they’re just bright red and their tails are curled, about 5 minutes. Immediately drain them and transfer to a large, shallow bowl or another pot (not the same one they cooked in—it’s still holding too much heat).

2. Sprinkle liberally with seasoning, and toss until well coated. Let sit about 5 minutes before serving with Lemon Butter

3. To pick crawfish, gently twist and pull the tail from the head, bringing all the tail meat with it. Break the flipper fins at the joint where they connect to the tail and pull them off. The vein should come out with them. Scoop the yellow fat out of the head and enjoy it on the spot or reserve it to use for part of the fat in the individual recipe.

Lemon Butter

The secret to this butter is to use only the zest of the lemon, and let it lightly caramelize in the butter. Don’t use a Microplane to zest the lemon; it will grate the zest too fine. The best tool for the job is a bar zester. I use unsalted butter and add salt to taste, since most salted butter is a little too salty for this.

Makes 1 cup

½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter

The zest of 1 lemon, removed in fine strips with a bar zester

Salt

1. Melt the butter over low heat. Add the zest and let it warm until the zest is lightly caramelized and the butter is richly lemony.

2. Add salt to taste and let it dissolve. Keep warm.

Bonnie’s Linguine with Crawfish

I did have some hand in this; Bonnie was thinking cream sauce, but I steered her toward butter. Once she was headed in that direction, the rest was all her own genius.

Serves 4 to 6

4 ounces (8 tablespoons unsalted butter)

2 large, or 3 medium cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine

Zest of 1 lemon, removed in thin strips with a bar zester and chopped

½ cup sliced green onions

½ cup chopped parsley

Salt

3 cups picked crawfish tails, with fat

Crushed hot pepper flakes, optional

1 pound linguine, preferably egg pasta

1. Warm the butter over medium low heat in a large skillet. Add the garlic and lemon zest and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Do not let the garlic and zest brown. Add 1/3 of the green onions and parsley and continue simmering another 5 minutes.

2. Bring 4 quarts water to a rolling boil. Add a small handful of salt and stir in the pasta. Cook until al dente, about 4 to 5 minutes for fresh pasta, about 10 for dried factory pasta.

3. Just before taking up the pasta, add the remaining onions, parsley, and crawfish tails with their fat to the skillet and toss until they are just heated through. If you like, you may add hot pepper flakes to taste, but keep in mind that too much will smother the sweet taste of the crawfish.

4. When the pasta is done, drain and add it to the skillet. Toss until thoroughly coated and well-mixed. Taste and adjust the seasonings, toss once more, and serve.