Crawfish Étouffée

Today’s dish was not really bred from want or cravings, but more from all the extra crawfish tails leftover from the cajun fettuccine.  Not that it’s a bad thing- ever since Peaches made Chicken Étouffée for our Mardi Gras potluck a few months ago, crawfish etouffée has been on my list of dishes to recreate at some future point because it was oh-so-delicious. The fettuccine just gave me a reason to do so.

I’ve heard from a few people on how they wished that one meal, made in excess, would magically turn its ingredients, or itself into other meals, theoretically yielding a whole week’s worth of dinners.   While I’ve struggled to figure out a way to make that happen on the reg, this one sort of happened accidentally. While the flavors are similar to the fettuccine from which it was borne, the substance of it is vastly different, moreso than just pasta versus rice.  And, much to my surprise, the onion/celery base of the étouffée really did make a world of difference flavor-wise.

I used Emeril’s recipe for this because, growing up under the BAM! umbrella, he is, in my head, the go-to for NOLA cuisine.  If you have another authority on this, feel free to send it my way.  Until then, we do it this way.

A few things:

I added tomatoes to mine. I’m not sure if this is authentic but to me, it just really needed tomatoes. So there we go there then.

I don’t like green peppers, so I did not add them, as is tradition.  If they don’t bother you, then add them in.

Citrus, obviously.

I used the same Cajun seasoning from last time. I bottled it, and it’s now a pantry staple.

I have been somewhat…starched out, so I ate mine more like a stew. Do as the real people do and eat it with rice.

In other, very exciting news, I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of my household…

Crawley.  Named after the esteemed family from Downton. It’s fitting, seeing as he tried to hijack my tea yesterday.  

Still, instafriends.  

Crawfish Etouffe

April 19, 2016

Servings: 4

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 30 min

Total: 34 min

Difficulty: Easy

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Traditional Louisiana crawfish Étouffée recipe with frozen crawfish tails, seasonings and vegetables.

By: Chrissy

Ingredients

• 2 TB unsalted butter
• 2 TB flour
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 ounces canned diced tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 TB cajun seasoning
• 1 cup shrimp stock, or leftover clam juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 lemon juiced
• 1 cup cooked crawfish tails
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• cooked white rice, for serving

Directions

• Step 1 Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the flour and cook until the flour is dark and cooked, about the color of peanut butter. Add the onions and celery, and saute until soft and golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the tomato, bay leaf, salt and seasoning. Reduce the heat to medium.
• Step 2 Add the shrimp stock to the mixture. Stir until the mixture thickens, about 4 minutes. Add the lemon juice, crawfish tails and parsley and cook for about 2 minutes until all is heated through.
• Step 3 Remove the bay leaves and serve over cooked white rice.
• Step 4 Adapted from Emeril.