New Orleans Style Crawfish Étouffée Recipe 375

Steps:

• Combine the rice and 6 cups water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until rice is tender and water has been absorbed.
• While the rice is cooking, melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, and saute until transparent. Stir in the garlic, and cook for a minute. Stir in the flour until well blended. Gradually stir in the tomato sauce and remaining 1 cup water, then add the crawfish tails and bring to a simmer. Add the green onions and season with salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes over low heat, until the crawfish is cooked but not tough. Serve over hot cooked rice.

Steps:

• Before preparing the vegetables, clarify the butter (not shown in video): Place 2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup) in a small saucepan over low to medium heat. Milk solids will foam to the surface, then sink to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the simmering settles and the milk solids have separated from the butterfat, 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and strain to remove milk solids. Measure out ½ cup of clarified butter for use in this recipe. (Cool the remaining butter and store in a lidded container in the refrigerator.) Prepare the vegetables: While the butter is clarifying, dice the onion and celery and mince the garlic. Remove stem ends from red bell pepper and jalapeño, then slice the peppers lengthwise into thin strips. Discard the seeds and white veins, then small-dice the strips.
• In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat the clarified butter and flour over high heat; whisk to combine and get rid of the lumps. This will form a paste called a roux. As soon as the lumps are gone, reduce heat to medium, switch to a wooden spoon, and cook, scraping the bottom to keep it from burning. (If you see steam or smoke, turn the temperature down further.) Keep stirring to prevent the roux from burning, up to 30 minutes. As the roux cooks, it will darken in color.
• When the roux is reddish and on its way to brown, add onion, red pepper, celery, jalapeño, and garlic; stir to combine with the roux. Allow vegetables to sweat and soften, about 2 minutes.
• Turn heat to high and slowly add the stock into the roux mixture, whisking constantly. As the sauce comes to a boil, it will rapidly thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon. Once the sauce is the right consistency, add the crawfish and bay leaves; stir to combine. Season to taste with several pinches of salt. Stir in the chopped scallions and cayenne pepper. Reduce heat to low and simmer, 10-12 minutes.
• Assembly: Taste étouffée and adjust seasoning. Stir in chopped parsley and juice of one lemon and stir to combine. Serve over hot steamed rice.

Steps:

• In a large heavy skillet, melt butter; stir in flour. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture is a caramel-colored paste, about 20 minutes. Add the celery, pepper and onions; stir until coated. Add the broth, water, parsley, tomato paste, bay leaf, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil., Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard bay leaf. Add crawfish and heat through. Serve with rice.

Steps:

• Assemble the chopped onion, bell pepper, celery, parsley and garlic for the étouffée; set aside. In a black cast iron pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Make a roux by gradually adding the flour to the oil, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until a medium brown roux is formed. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, parsley and garlic and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the crawfish tails, salt, black pepper, white pepper, red pepper, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, green onion tops and parsley. Mix well. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the crawfish tails are tender. About 12 minutes. Continue to gently stir. Shortly before serving, heat the étouffée slowly over low heat and gradually add 1 to 2 cups hot water to provide the gravy. Serve over boiled rice and top with sliced green shallot tops. BOILED RICE: Fill a 6-quart pot with 14 cups of water. Yes, really. Bring the water to a boil and add 2 teaspoons of salt. When the water is boiling rapidly, pour in rice (you can adjust the amount of rice based on how many servings you need, but don't exceed 4 cups of rice). When the water comes back to a boil, reduce the heat but keep the water actively bubbling. As the rice cooks, you should continue to stir the rice every 2 or 3 minutes to distribute the heat also you need not cover the pot while the rice is boiling. It should take no more than 15 minutes for the rice to be completely, perfectly cooked. As it begins to look fully cooked, taste a few grains of the rice to be sure there are no hard centers. When the rice tastes cooked to you, immediately take it off the heat, pour it into a colander and rinse well with hot water.