Crawfish Etouffee

During a recent trip to New Orleans, La, (NOLA) I discovered I REALLY liked Crawfish Etouffee.  I have always loved boiled crawfish - suck the heads and eat the tails!  YUM!  It was this first trip, of many to come, to NOLA that introduced me to etouffee. 

Etoufee is a spicy Cajun stew made with crawfish, seafood, or chicken with vegetables and uses a roux.   A roux is the thickening agent of the stew, and is typically made with butter and flour.  Tomatoes are not used in an etouffee as that would then make it a creole.

Although FRESH crawfish tails would have been nice, I was fortunate to get these frozen tails.  They'll do just fine!

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp dry sherry
• 4 tbsp flour
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1/2  bell pepper, chopped
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups vegetable stock 
• 1 8oz bottle clam juice
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 4 dashes Texas Pete or your brand
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 lbs crawfish tails
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 cup green onions, chopped

Chop all your ingredients ahead of time.  Make sure you have everything you need before you begin cooking.

DIRECTIONS:

Melt the butter in a dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Whisk in flour, stirring constantly.  Do this for a few minutes until medium or golden brown roux is achieved.

Add onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic to the roux.  Sauté these vegetables until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes.

    Add sherry and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any bits stuck to the bottom.  Add the stock, clam juice, bay leaves, and thyme, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, hot sauce, and Worcestershire and stir well. 

Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add crawfish tails, lemon juice, green onions and parsley, then stir, cover, simmer 5 more minutes. 

 Serve in bowls over rice.

 ENJOY!