Étouffée Recipe:
2 lbs crawfish tails with the fat
6 tbs butter for roux + 1 tbs for later
6 tbs flour
1 green bell pepper diced
1 red bell pepper diced
1 small jalapeno pepper, cleaned and minced
1 and ½ cups diced white onion
5-6 celery stalks diced
6 large cloves of garlic, minced
½ cup chopped scallions plus more for garnish
½ cup chopped fresh flat parsley
2 bay leaves
Fresh thyme (about 3 sprigs worth)
Fresh marjoram (about 3 springs worth)
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with juice, good quality
3 cups seafood stock
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Hot sauce to taste
The juice of one small lemon
Get all your vegetables prepped and ready to go. Start with your roux. I did everything in a large Dutch oven. Melt your butter over gentle heat until it starts to bubble whisk in the flour until a thick paste forms. Bring the heat up to medium and keep whisking that roux! Don’t let it burn or it’s ruined. How dark you get your roux is a personal preference. Etouffee often involves a blond roux rather than some of the very dark ones you might see in gumbo in New Orleans, for example. I took my roux a shade past peanut butter color, probably around number 7 or 8 on this chart, for reference.
Add onions, celery, peppers, garlic, bay leaves, marjoram and thyme and cook until vegetables are soft, about 8 minutes. Add stock, tomatoes, salt, red pepper, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce and simmer. Cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure there is no sticking. The texture depends on preference--I like mine to be kind of the thickness you might see in a beef stew--thick enough to coat a spoon but not so thick that it doesn't flow easily. Some people like their étouffée thicker and if that's the case for you, I suggest making a bit more roux and that should take care of it.
Add crawfish tails and fat, lemon juice, green onions, and parsley and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add remaining 1 tbs butter and stir to combine well. Serve over rice and top with scallions and/or parsley if you like.
Makes 6-8 servings depending on how hungry you are.
Chinese crawfish really do ruin the dish. You can buy tails of Louisiana crawfish but there's no way they're that cheap. Generally Chinese seafood substitutions aren't that bad but the crawfish truly do taste completely different- in addition the fat included tends to be less flavorful and that's a major part of the dish. Spend the money on good crawfish. It probably costs me $60-70 (tails are usually $15/lb or so) for a pot of etoufee but it's worth it.
Btw ensure the label says Louisiana- don't just look at the name. The Chinese ones are often sold under cajun-ish sounding names. For instance "Bernard's" is a popular Chinese brand last I checked.
