It’s almost Mardi Gras and I am missing home, thinking about etouffee. So I thought I would whip up my own version of this classic Cajun dish.
In Louisiana everyone has their own version of either a gumbo (which we will get to later) or etouffee recipe, or even both. Let me tell you they can vary to the extreme. My version incorporates what I believe to be the best of the best and from my experience, the truest to the tradition. I pieced it together from several recipes and techniques through endless trial and error. Much like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster. It’s Alive! I took a little bit of home cooking, family traditions and award winning restaurant recipes and combined them to make a very solid representation of a south Louisiana signature dish.
But again just like gumbo recipes, opinions, and a** holes, everybody has one. You can sub shrimp or crab meat for the crawfish if not available.
For the ultimate effect you should buy live domestic crawfish, boil them with all the seasoning and then harvest the tail meat to add to the etouffee. But for most this is not possible. So see if your grocer carries frozen crawfish tail meat. Domestic is better but if you have too, buy the imports, go ahead. OMG my mother would slap my mouth. But seriously you can find fresh / frozen Louisiana crawfish tail meat on the net.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/4 cup peanut oil
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup flour
- 3 yellow onions, chopped
- 6 stalks celery, chopped
- 1bell pepper,chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves (fresh if possible)
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme (whole)
- 2 cups fish or shrimp stock (make your own or use store bought)
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- Tabasco® sauce to taste
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 lbs crawfish tails, with the fat
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 cup chopped green onions
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- salt
- 2 cups cooked white rice
PREPARATION:
We need to talk roux first. I know, some think that etouffee should not include a roux or have a blonde roux but this is my version so we are starting with a dark roux. About the color of an old penny or dark mahogany. We are using butter and oil but the butter can scorch at high heats so sorry, we will need to cook this for a while.
Also, you must continually whisk the mixture or it will burn. In summary, don’t scorch the butter or burn the flour. Easy enough. Oh and be careful not to splash the roux onto your skin. They don’t call it Cajun napalm for nothing. OK here we go folks. It’s show time!
1. Heat the peanut oil, and 4 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy bottom iron skillet or stock pot over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, lower the heat to medium and SLOWLY add the flour incorporating a little bit at a time. Continue until all flour is incorporated. Continue to whisk until the desired color is achieved (dark mahogany). One more time, stir or whisk constantly. This will take a while, maybe as long as 30 – 45 minutes or longer. Please do not short cut this process as it is the base of the flavor and if you cook it too fast, well you know (burn city). If black specks form in the roux, it has burned and you must start over.
2. When your roux looks similar to the picture above, add the onions, peppers, celery and garlic and continue cooking for about 7 more minutes or until tender. Then add the stock, bay leaves, thyme, cayenne, some Tabasco, Worcestershire Sauce and a little salt and bring to a boil. Lower heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the crawfish tails along with any liquid in the packaging if using prepackage along and the parsley, lemon juice and green onions and cook for about another 15 minutes. Add the remaining butter and adjust to taste with more salt and Tabasco. Serve over hot rice.
Serves plenty
Heat Factor
I made some shrimp stew the other day that was really similar to etouffee but with a lighter roux basically and I made my own stock for it. It was really easy and tasted way better than any store bought stock I’ve had. I always just used store bought stock because I thought making it was complicated for some reason. Here’s one way to make it if anyone is interested:
-heads and shells from 1 lb shrimp (or just the shells if you can’t find shrimp with the heads on)
-3 cups water
-1 small yellow onion quartered (leave the skins on!)
-1 bay leaf
-1/2 tablespoon salt
Combine the above ingredients in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to medium. Let simmer, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes (depending on how concentrated you want it). Remove from heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer. Discard the peels and onions.
Great tip Adrian. Many people under estimate the marked improvement homemade stocks can have on a dish. My version is similar to yours except I add:
celery
garlic
peppercorns
thyme sprigs
and lemon slices
Mmmm sounds tasty! I’ll have to try that.
Looks like a great dinner idea. I love crawfish. I still remember my first time having them in New Orleans.
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Oh and one more thing, Terri, I found that Walmart had the cheapest frozen crawfish. It was twice as much for the exact same kind at HEB.
Yeah, as hard core Cajun as I am want to think I am, I get my frozen crawfish tail meat from the big W also. It is farm raised from China I think. Not exactly the same but what are you gonna do when the real deal is so far away
No problem! I made it again for some people and using a little bit less stock was a good thing. I used chicken stock because that’s all I could find until the day after I made it I saw seafood stock in a random area near the deli…not by the soups and other stocks. Also, when the recipe says to add the stock is when I added the liquid from the crawfish and then I added stock until i achieved the desired thickness.
Thanks for the tips Adrian—I plan on trying Fishmonger’s real soon! And since I plan on using frozen crawfish, I’ll back a little off the stock too. I’ll let you all know how it goes!
Mmmm I’m enjoying a bowl right now. I made your recipe two nights ago and I really like it! Next time I will add less stock because the frozen crawfish I used had a lot of liquid in it and I like thicker etouffee.
I added more cayenne and some Old Bay seasoning and it turned out good.
Thank you SO much!
Terri, you should go to Fishmonger’s in Plano. They have awesome etouffee! I’m sad because I live in San Marcos now and every time I’ve had crawfish etouffee (even in Austin) it has been nothing compared to that of Fishmonger’s… I miss that place
I’m nervous, but I really REALLY miss homestyle etouffee, and I’m sick of having to depend on Dallas’s Razoo’s knockoff, so I’m making my own. I’m lucky that the local grocery store DOES carry Louisiana crawfish tail meat frozen, so I’m going to try this out. I hope it goes ok. I think if I just follow it above to the “T” it’ll work out! Thanks for posting this!
Give it a try. It is invloved, but prep your ingredients, read through the recipe a few times, be patient with the roux and just enjoy the process. One other tip, it always taste better the next day.
Cajun Napalm – I never heard that term before – I love it!
I am a native Californian. I visited colleagues in Slidell and ate crawfish etouffee whenever I could. Crawfish is expensive in my area. Back home I make etouffee usually with leftover pork. Often I use lots of trinity so it’s mostly vegetable and sometimes I use a combination of olive oil and butter for the roux. (I guess that shows my Californian sensibilities.) However, the recipe above is essentially what I do and the results are always delicious. Everything tastes good prepared ettouffe!
This is an excellent recipe! Thanks so much. I made it last night for dinner… and had the leftovers for breakfast! Thanks again!
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Awesome, glad you liked it!