Crawfish Etouffee

I know I have eaten crawfish before Russ and I started dating, but I really can’t remember where or when or any details about it. Since Russ and I started dating I have eaten a lot more crawfish. We have had them at festivals, at home, and I am pretty sure we have eaten them at every Cajun restaurant in Birmingham. For the past two years we have had a small crawfish boil at our house, however, this year with both Russ and I turning 30 we decided to do a little bigger crawfish boil and make it a joint birthday party too. My parents hosted it at their house, Russ’ parents’ brought the drinks, we invited friends and family, and Russ boiled a lot of crawfish. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed lots of yummy crawfish!

One of the things I love about having a crawfish boil is leftover crawfish. We ended up with quite a few leftover crawfish this year which I was really excited about… until Russ and I had to peel them all… Since we were hosting The Bachelor (now Bachelorette) at our house on Monday I decided to make crawfish etouffee for dinner. I have made it once before and used a recipe of Emeril’s that I found on the Food Network site. I didn’t have a lot of time to look around at other recipes, so I decided to use it again.

To make the etouffee you start by making the roux. You melt the butter and the whisk the flour in and continue stirring until it is a warm peanut butter color. Then you add the chopped celery, onion, green pepper, garlic, bay leaves, and fresh thyme to it. Mix this together and let it cook until the vegetables have softened. Next add the stock, tomatoes, salt, crushed red pepper, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce and bring it to a boil. For my stock I actually cooked a few shrimp (peel on) to add to the etouffee in case anyone didn’t care for crawfish. So, the water I cooked the shrimp in I let cool a little and used it as my stock. If I hadn’t had any shrimp or fish stock then I would have used chicken stock and I think it would have worked just fine. Once you bring it to a boil you skim the surface and then reduce the heat and let it simmer with the lid on for about 30 minutes. Be sure and stir it every now and then. Next add the crawfish (and / or shrimp), lemon juice, green onions, and parsley and let it cook for about 20 minutes uncovered and stirring periodically. Last add the remaining butter and stir to combine. Serve over white, steamed rice.

This is a great way to use leftover crawfish and while there is a fair amount of chopping and it does cook for a while you can do other things while it is cooking making it not too labor intensive of a meal. I love the texture of etouffee with all the chopped veggies and the little crawfish tails and the flavor from all the spices and the kick from the hot sauce. This recipe definitely has some heat to it, but once you put it over the rice it really does take some of the heat away. I put several bottles of hot sauce out on the table, so that those who like it even hotter could add more to their liking. This was a yummy meal and I look forward to using the rest of the crawfish that we froze in the near future. Russ rates the etouffee a 9.