Crawfish Étouffée

CRAWFISH TAILS SIMMERED IN A BUTTERY AND SPICY CAJUN BROTH WITH ONIONS AND SWEET BELL PEPPERS. SERVED WITH RICE, AND GARNISHED WITH LEMON AND ITALIAN PARSLEY.

Crawfish étouffée deserves special attention as one of Pea’s all-time favorite dishes. Despite half the name deriving from the French word meaning “to smother”, a few funky accents over the vowels, and the stick of butter in a first step that would make the French proud (although I hear their sticks are twice as big as ours), the crawfish étouffée was actually invented in Louisiana. Though to be fair, the étouffée has quite the culinary overlap with French cuisine, aside from the butter. The technique in making  étouffée is pretty similar to French stews, and it often begins with a butter roux, with or without vegetables or other ingredients, to which spices and a flavorful stock is added with the main protein to cook to a thick, rich consistency.

We won’t get into too many details about the differences between Cajun and Creole – suffice it to say that Creole recipes tend to have tomatoes, and Cajun doesn’t – or the differences between light and dark roux in cousin dishes like gumbo. The idea behind this recipe is to flavor everything to your taste, so the amounts in our recipe might not be the same in yours! And since this dish is from Louisiana, and not France, no one will bite if you don’t follow the instructions to the letter, either. – Boo

Servings: 4 (full courses)
Difficulty: 

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter
• Minced vegetables
  1 onion
  2 bell peppers
  4 cloves garlic
• 0.33 c flour
• Cajun spices
  2 ts smoked paprika
  1.5 ts cayenne pepper
  0.75 ts salt
  0.5 ts black pepper
  0.5 ts garlic powder
  0.5 ts onion powder
  1 ts dried oregano
  1 ts dried thyme
• 2 c chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 lb crawfish tail meat
• 2 tb chopped parsley
• Garnish
  lemon wedges
  chopped parsley

Directions:

1. In a pot or large pan, melt butter over medium heat.
2. Saute vegetables in butter until softened, 8-10 minutes.
3. Add flour and spices to coat vegetables, and toast over medium heat, 3 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock and bay leaves, and stir and simmer until thickened, 3-4 minutes.
5. Add crawfish to cook or warm through, 3-5 minutes.
6. Stir in parsley, optionally garnish, and serve with rice.