Crawfish Thermidor, Conch & Rice: A Bahamian Feast

Welcome to Olympic Feasts at The Schell Cafe!

During the 2012 London Games, we’ll celebrate with meals and stories from around the globe.
I’m honored to have friends sharing special recipes each day during the feast.

Today, we travel to the Bahama Islands where my friend Amy Boykin and her family live. The Boykin’s left Austin two years ago without much of a plan or idea of what they would do. They began teaching English to refugees. Two years later, the Boykin’s are busy serving through  The Living Stone Ministries, a mission they founded to serve the Haitian refugee community.

{The Boykin Family, Bahama Islands}

I have to admit I was a bit intimidated when asked to participate in this Olympic feast.  Partly because I hardly cook but mostly because I had no idea where I would come up with a picture of an authentically Bahamian meal!

But God’s timing is perfect and of course he provided the best solution to my Olympic sized ponderings with a woman who is the Paula Deen of Bahamian cooking inviting us and a team serving with us to their home for supper at the very moment this recipe was needed.

I am certain this was of divine proportions because this woman just also happens to be our Pastor’s wife, Candy Sweeting, who has a renowned reputation for her tireless perfection in all areas of hospitality.  Even her own husband can testify to this by his recent remarks which included still barely knowing how to operate a washing machine and just recently learning how to make sweet tea after 30 years of marriage!  Candy’s divine kindness is not only shown towards her husband but to family and friends and to strangers and travelers who pass through our island.  What is remarkable about this is that she is not the only person on Spanish Wells who shows such servanthood.  It is inherent to almost all of the people on this island with which we live. This I call love and it finally brings me to how great God’s plan is and how obedience always proves to go beyond what one can imagine or can hope for if only one will take the challenge to pursue the prize of Christ.

You might be thinking all of this because of a recipe?  And what the heck is crawfish?  (It is Bahamian lobster by the way.)  And I can say “YES!”  When God told our family to leave our American life for a life of uncertainty, we said “YES!”  And just like he promises in Hebrews 10:23 “…he is faithful that promised.”

Not only did God move us to an island centered amidst his beautiful creation where we can draw near to him and hear him but also he sent us to an island where hospitability shows Christ-like behavior.  Romans 12:13 simply states “Practice hospitality.”  And although I was born and bred “Texan” and know southern hospitality at its finest; the kind of hospitality I now experience is centered not on the entertainer but on the guest.  Love, sacrifice, servanthood and fellowship equate Godly hospitality.

It is amazing how catching these qualities are to city slicker like me.  God provided the footprint of what serving looks like in the never-ending hospitality we receive in our community.  Whether it is a delicious meal like this recipe or refuge in a friend’s home during Hurricane Irene; we have been the repeated recipients of Christ’s last commandment:  “To love your neighbor.”  This has provided a wonderful environment for our family to in turn show Christ’s love to others such as the Haitian communities we serve through our ministry: The Living Stone Ministry.

So in keeping with the Olympic spirit of the games, our family has adopted the words of Luke which are  “…finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”  (Acts 20:24)  And in doing we hope to claim victory as Paul did when he said…”I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  This is our families desire and our prayer for the peoples of the world and for ourselves in this Olympics and forevermore!

Crawfish Thermidor

Baked Corn

Mix all the ingredients together.  Pour into a greased casserole dish.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.  Top with crumbled ritz crackers or bread crumbs the last fifteen minutes of cooking.

Love,