Crawfish Etouffee

By natural_causes on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 23:31

Summary

Yield
Source	Kacoo Olinde
Prep Time	45 minutes
Country	US - Southern
Main Ingredient	Seafood/Fish
Meal	Entrees
Season	Any Time

Description

Being originally from the Deep South, I often crave some of the cajun and creole classics I grew up with. Here, in northwest Missouri, we have a severe deficit of restaurants that serve "authentic" dishes. There are cajun restaurants here, but the food is nothing like what you would actually get in New Orleans. I don't trust the freshness of the seafood here in the dead center of the country so I usually use frozen, wild-caught, peeled, and deveigned Louisiana mud-bugs. They taste almost as good and the prep time is reduced drastically.

This easy to prepare dish can be tasty with chicken & sausage, or shrimp. But crawfish seem to bring out something in the sauce that nothing else can.

As with many cajun/creole dishes, the leftovers seem even better the next day after the juices have had more time to swap.

Ingredients

2 lb crawfish tails
1 c oil
0.75 c Flour
1.5 c onion, chopped
0.25 c celery, chopped
0.33333333333333 c garlic, minced
0.66666666666667 c green peppers, chopped
0.25 c butter
0.5 c tomato paste
1 cn chicken broth
3 c water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp Tabasco

Instructions

Thaw crawfish tails overnight, if frozen.

The most important part of this dish is the proper preparation of the roux. In a wide pan, combine oil and flower. Over medium heat (less for those having never made roux), brown the flour until it's at least the color of peanut butter, strirring almost constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking. A burned roux is a ruined roux.

Once desired color is reached, add vegetables to the roux and sautee them for 5 minutes.

In a small pan, sautee tomato paste in butter for 5 mintutes then mix with roux and veg mixture. My mother never sauteed her tomato paste and I think it adds a wonderful and unmistakeable difference to the final flavor.

Pour in broth, water with melted bouillon cubes. Add salt, pepper, paprika, and Tabasco (1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper can be substituted, as I prefer, for 12 servings) and simmer covered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add crawfish tails in the last five minutes. Serve over rice.

Notes

When I prepare this dish, I use double paprika, 50% more onion, and cayenne pepper in lieu of Tobasco. Total preparation time is indicative of pre-peeled and deveigned crawfish.

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