Crawfish Etouffée
Crawfish Etouffée
In Cajun cooking, etouffée (AY-too-FAY) refers to simmering crawfish or shrimp “smothered” in onions, green peppers, celery and tomato sauce. Delightful over long grain or jasmine rice.
1 pound fresh or frozen Crawfish Tails*
¼ cup Butter
1 ½ Yellow Onion- small diced
1 cup Celery- finely chopped
½ cup Green Bell Pepper- small diced
1 Tablespoon Garlic-minced
½ teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
1 cup Water
½ cup Tomato Sauce
½ teaspoon Smoked Paprika
½ teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
Place a large, deep sided frying pan over medium heat. Preheat your pan until you can feel gentle heat radiating from the center of the pan from about 4 inches from the surface.
Add the butter. If it sizzles, remove the pan from the heat to cool for a minute or two, then return to the heat.
Add the onions, celery, peppers, garlic and salt. Move around in the butter until coated. Allow to sweat. You do not want to hear lots of loud sizzling or see the onions turning brown. Stir on occasion until the onions begin to look clear and tender. This will take about 10 minutes.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water until there are no lumps.
Add the tomato sauce and water to your pan. Turn up the heat until you see small bubbles forming. Simmer until the sauce thickens.
Add the smoked paprika and black pepper. Stir.
Stir in the crawfish and simmer for 1 more minute. Crawfish is very delicate and does not require very much cooking time. The crawfish is cooked when it curls slightly.
Serve over your favorite rice.
Shishito Peppers
6 to 10 Shishito Peppers
1 teaspoon Canola Oil
½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
Using a cast iron or heavy gauge fry pan, heat until you can feel intense heat radiating from the surface. Toss the shishito peppers with a small amount of oil until they are lightly coated. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt. Add the peppers to the dry fry pan. Allow the pepper to blister on each side. Remove from the pan.
*If using frozen crawfish tails, thaw and remove from packaging. Crawfish fat has a rich orange color. In frozen crawfish, the fat will coat the tails. This is normal. Do not rinse.
