Crawfish Etoufee

Ok, so I want to declare myself (with Emeril Lagasse's help) the new crawfish etoufee queen. I had some frozen crawfish, about 12 oz. worth, and I wanted to do something different (for me) with it. So I started searching. Here's what I came up with, and let me tell you, it was yummy!

1 stick (or 4 oz.) of butter -- I actually used Smart Balance Light.
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 a medium yellow onion (about a cup), chopped
1 small bell pepper
1/4-1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped celery (optional--I omitted this)
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
1/2 cup dry sherry
1 1/2 cups shrimp/chicken stock or water
1 lb. crawfish tails
Cooked long grain rice
Tony's
Hot Sauce
Worcestershire sauce

Ok, so here's what I did, with some small addendums:
Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large-ish pot. Add the flour and cook, making a light colored roux. (I added 2 tbsp at first, but when I had a bit too much liquid later I added another tbsp. or so. I got a little impatient so my roux was really light. It could stand to cook to a light brown/tan color.)
Add the vegetables (onions, bell pepper and celery...which I didn't use), garlic, bay leaves and salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the sherry to deglaze pan and cook another 2 to 3 minutes. (NOTE: I accidentally overdid the sherry -- it said add 2 tbsp. and I put in about a half a cup, hence the extra flour. But somewhere in between these amounts would be about perfect.)
Then add stock and crawfish tails and bring to a boil. (I couldn't find seafood stock, so I used about 3/4 cup of chicken broth and another 3/4 cup of water. Also, as it was boiling, I added a liberal amount of Tony's -- didn't think you could make anything Cajun without it! -- and about 2 tbsp. of Louisiana Hot Sauce. Then I added a couple dashes of Worcestershrie sauce.)
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring, and then turn heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes or more to thicken.
Emeril's also calls for parsley, but I'll be honest. I never put parsley in anything that calls for it. Other than color, I really don't see what it adds to the dish. I never miss it.
I served it over brown rice because, well, I didn't have white rice and I kind of like the brown.
It also calls for lemon juice right at the end, but I forgot about that (which is disappointing, because I bought the lemons). I bet it would add a little something, but I didn't really miss it.

Anyway, I know that sounds confusing, but I just kind of went off Emeril's recipe from foodnetwork.com and added my own to it as I went. So far, so very good!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

yum! can you come to california and make me some? i can't even find frozen chinese crawfish here! :(

Krys930 said...

Have you tried Walmart? I know it's crazy, but that's where I got my frozen crawfish.