THE REAL WAY TO CRAWFISH ETOUFFEE

THE REAL WAY TO CRAWFISH ETOUFFEE image

Yield 4 servings

Number Of Ingredients 16

1 lb. packaged Louisiana crawfish tails, soaking in 1.5 c. water
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lg. onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2-3 stalks celery*, diced
2 tbsp. oil (canola or veggie, tho I used olive once and it was pretty good)
2 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. flour
cayenne
white pepper
salt
garlic powder
3-4 scallions, chopped
rice
French bread

Steps:

Ok, so first thing's first do NOT wash off the juices from the crawfish tails! Don't even worry about the tails just yet. Leave em in the fridge for now. In a cast iron skillet, add oil and get it hot over a medium-low heat, then add your butter. Once the butter's melted and mixed up into the oil, add your flour, constantly keep the flour-oil moving, to avoid burning. So, after a few minutes of moving the roux around, it should come to that nice light tan color. Toss in your veggies and saute in the roux until the onions are translucent. Now... as your veggies are cooking, get out your bag of thawed crawfish tails. Empty the bag into a bowl and add 1.5 cups of water to them. Stir them around so you get off all the juices. Strain the tails from the juice, and set them aside. Once you're veggies are cooked down a bit, add the juice to the pan. Bring this to a boil and add your salt, white pepper, garlic powder and cayenne. You pretty much have to eyeball it yourself, cuz I ain't got a clue how much I use. Add a bit, then taste test it til you got it where you want it. Bring it to a boil, lower to a simmer and let this cook for about 20 minutes. And, while that's cooking, make your rice. After 20 minutes, add your crawfish tails and your scallions, mix that up, and let cook another 5 minutes or so. (The tails are already cooked, so it's really just a heat up you need to do.) Heat up some bread in the oven, prep 1 part rice into a bowl for 2 parts etouffee, and get it!