This is my first time making it, but not my last. The back story is that I have a friend who was born and raised in south Louisiana, a true Cajun. He moved to South Carolina a couple of years ago with his job and that's how I came to know him. Couple of times a year, we enjoy fish camp together and he always makes crawfish étouffée. Well a couple of weeks ago, we were at fish camp again and I watched and asked questions about how he makes it. This time he included shrimp. After researching other threads on here and on the interweb about how others have cooked it, I decided to try my hand at it. Thanks to
jcam222
,
dirtsailor2003
, and
chilerelleno
for your threads.
So here I go...
I thawed out a quart of shrimp and peeled them. I bought the frozen crawfish tails from the only place I could find them - Walmart. I chopped up some green and red bell peppers, garlic, a couple of jalapenos, a yellow onion, and some celery...
I didn't really look at the crawfish package before I got it home, but figured with a name like Boudreaux's, it had to be the real deal, but it is Walmart and I should've known better, product of China.
For the stock, I sauted the shrimp shells in EVOO with onion, celery, and bell pepper until the veggies got soft. Added in some chopped garlic and a couple of bay leaves and then added about 4 quarts of water. Brought it all to a boil, then reduced the heat, and l let it simmer until reduced to about 2 cups or so of stock - maybe 2 hours at the most. Strained out the solids and there was my stock...
Now time for the roux. Melted a stick of unsalted butter and added in a heaping 1/3 cup of all purpose flour. Stirring almost constantly until I get the color I'm looking for...
Time to add in the chopped veggies. I sautéed them until mostly tender then added in the shrimp stock and the crawfish tails. A can of Hunt's Fire Roasted Diced tomatoes, a TBSP or so of creole seasoning, and a 1/4 tsp of cayenne were added and everything allowed to reduce and come together...
The shrimp were sautéed separately in EVOO and dusted with creole seasoning...
Served with rice and garnished with some chopped green onions. Time to eat...
For my first try, I was pleased, but next time I'll try to source the crawfish from somewhere else. Critique is welcomed and encouraged as I'm always wanting to improve. Thanks to those who posted their threads and to my buddy, Mike for his help, he gave me a lot of insight into this traditional Cajun dish and what it means to their culture...
jcam222
,
dirtsailor2003
, and
chilerelleno
for your threads.So here I go...
I thawed out a quart of shrimp and peeled them. I bought the frozen crawfish tails from the only place I could find them - Walmart. I chopped up some green and red bell peppers, garlic, a couple of jalapenos, a yellow onion, and some celery...
I didn't really look at the crawfish package before I got it home, but figured with a name like Boudreaux's, it had to be the real deal, but it is Walmart and I should've known better, product of China.
For the stock, I sauted the shrimp shells in EVOO with onion, celery, and bell pepper until the veggies got soft. Added in some chopped garlic and a couple of bay leaves and then added about 4 quarts of water. Brought it all to a boil, then reduced the heat, and l let it simmer until reduced to about 2 cups or so of stock - maybe 2 hours at the most. Strained out the solids and there was my stock...
Now time for the roux. Melted a stick of unsalted butter and added in a heaping 1/3 cup of all purpose flour. Stirring almost constantly until I get the color I'm looking for...
Time to add in the chopped veggies. I sautéed them until mostly tender then added in the shrimp stock and the crawfish tails. A can of Hunt's Fire Roasted Diced tomatoes, a TBSP or so of creole seasoning, and a 1/4 tsp of cayenne were added and everything allowed to reduce and come together...
The shrimp were sautéed separately in EVOO and dusted with creole seasoning...
Served with rice and garnished with some chopped green onions. Time to eat...
For my first try, I was pleased, but next time I'll try to source the crawfish from somewhere else. Critique is welcomed and encouraged as I'm always wanting to improve. Thanks to those who posted their threads and to my buddy, Mike for his help, he gave me a lot of insight into this traditional Cajun dish and what it means to their culture...
