Crawfish etouffee to delight Your Family & Dazzle Your Guests!

in #food7 years ago

In this post I'll share my recipe for a true Louisiana classic: Crawfish etoufee.

You will need these ingredients:

2 lbs. crawfiah tails, cleaned
2 strips thick cut smoked bacon, cooked and chopped fine
1 bell pepper chopped
2 yellow onions chopped
2 bunches green onion, roots removed and chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
1 15 oz. can chopped tomatoes
1 cup wine
1/2 bottle Shiner Bock or other dark beer
6 cups shellfish stock
1 stick butter
8 tablespoons white flour
1 tablespoon each dried thyme and basil
1-2 dried bay leaves ( one if large, two if small)
1 heaping teaspoon Old Bay
2 tablespoons Tabasco Sauce or Slap Ya Mama, or similar seasoning to taste
3 tablespoons ground File'
2 heaping tablespoons crushed garlic

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Over the years I've adjusted this recipe considerably from what I started with and I can tell you for sure that while if you follow this version to the letter you will achieve great results, in order to really cook this, you will need to make it your own.
What that means is adjusting the ingredients to suit your own taste as I have done...but always bearing in mind that the real key to success here is that no one flavor overpowers the rest and all the ingredients are in balance. I have looked at any number of recipes and watched videos from all sorts of cooks and there is one thing for certain: no two people cook their etoufee exactly the same and so there are many roads to this mountaintop. This recipe is the way I do it, more or less and if you want to try some things differently, I encourage you to do exactly that.
This one takes time and there really are no short cuts so make sure you have the day to prepare it or do it over a few days refrigerating your work each night until ready to serve, I've done it both ways and either method works fine.

Prepare your Trinity before you make the roux:

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I like to make my stock ahead of time as well, a smoked turkey neck & tail give the stock a unique flavor.

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Once your vegetables have been prepped, use the butter and flour to make a roux cooking it until it is the color of chocolate. I prefer using my Dutch Oven for this recipe.

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Once the roux has reached the correct color, add the trinity and stir the vegetables in. Begin adding stock to the pan, and let it cook until it reaches a shiny gloss, stirring frequently. Use a stock from whatever shellfish you may have, crawfish, oyster, shrimp, crab, clam or a combination all work well.

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Add the bacon, thyme, basil, bay leaf, Old Bay, file, garlic, Tabasco sauce, wine and beer and begin reducing the etoufee.

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When it has sufficiently reduced ( again this is a matter of the cook's preference, some like it thinner, others prefer it thick) add the crawfish and continue cooking just until the pot is heated through.

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Remove from the heat and let stand 15-20 min. until ready to serve. If you have the time, make this one day, refrigerate it overnight & warmt it up the next day to impress the people at your table. Ladle generous portions of the etoufee over cooked rice, serve with some garlic bread and wine or dark beer and let the good times roll!

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I hope you enjoyed this post, please upvote & follow & i'll do the same. 7-3's!

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So the trinity, onions peppers and celery. We heard some catalonians say they do onions celery and dried tomatoes, and here all along I thought it was onions carrots and celery.

Do you know about these things?

I know a little about this. My understanding is that the contents of "the trinity" varies depending on which culture is using it. Here is a quote from Wikipedia: "The holy trinity is the Cajun and Louisiana Creole variant of mirepoix; traditional mirepoix is two parts onions, one part carrots, and one part celery, whereas the holy trinity is typically equal measures of the three ingredients or two parts onions, one part celery, and one part green bell pepper." I can tell you that different cooks use different proportions of the ingredients. My trinity is 2 parts onion, 1 part bell pepper & 1/2 part celery.

I used to start almost with onions garlic and celery. Not sold on the carrots for me, I'll give the green pepper a try. Any difference between red green hot or hatch?

When it's your kitchen, it's your rules mon ami! You can use whatever bell pepper you like, I almost always stick with green but I'll use red or yellow if I some handy.

I just picked up some hatch peppers. Ripping off some gringo restaurant in LA, I made potato tacos for a crowd. Some hatch peppers left over. When it cools off next week, I'll try a roux for potato soup with this your coonass idea.

Post some photos I 'd like to know how it works out! 7-3's! The Kid.

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THX for the resteem, very much appreciated!

kumusta kane1369! :) it looks so good. yum yum! :P Im following u and upvoted now.

THX For the reply, crawfish etoufee is a favorite of mine!

please follow, voting and reply me

followed & up-voted, THX!

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