Crawfish Étouffée

creole food just ain't pretty

DISH 33

new things: crawfish

I'm getting to the end of my Creole kick--at least for the time being. I had both shelled and in the shell crawfish/crayfish. I wanted to use the in the shell ones, but couldn't find a recipe for etouffee that called for the ones in the shell for anything other than garnish. I think I'll do a crawfish boil with the shell ones. I was to lazy to do a recipe that called for a dark roux, so I chose one that called for a white roux. Basically, just throwing in some flour and not darkening it at all.

It was pretty simple and straight forward. Here is how it went:
Crawfish Étouffée
serves 6
2 pounds cleaned crawfish tails
1/4 pound butter
1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
½ cup green bell pepper, chopped
½ cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp garlic, diced
2 bay leaves
1 cup flour
2 quarts fish stock
1 ounce sherry
1 cup green onions, chopped
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
hot sauce
2 cups white or brown rice
In a stock pot or dutch oven melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic and bay leaves. Sauté until vegetables are wilted, approximately 3-5 minutes. Add crawfish tails and tomato and blend well into mixture. Blend flour into the vegetable mixture to form a white roux. Slowly add fish stock or water, a little at a time, until sauce consistency is achieved. Continue adding more stock as necessary to retain consistency. Bring to a rolling boil, reduce to simmer and cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add sherry, green onions and parsley and cook an additional 5 minutes. Season to taste using salt and cayenne pepper. Serve over rice and add hot sauce for desired heat.

It was fine. I'm over the creole flavor for now. I think I'll like it better in a few weeks when I defrost it and try it again.

technorati tags [ugly food] [creole] [crawfish]