Taste Lafayette Classic Crawfish Étouffée

Prep time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4 - 6

Recipe courtesy of: George Graham, AcadianaTable.com

Tip: It is best to peel your own, but packaged tail meat is a huge time saver and works just fine. If you use the packaged, be sure to add a little water to the fat inside to get all the flavor out. Crawfish Puree can be found in South Louisiana but virtually impossible elsewhere. Look for it on www.cajungrocer.com.

Ingredients

1 pound unsalted butter
2 large yellow onions, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 8-ounce package Crawfish Puree
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 pounds Louisiana crawfish tail meat
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 cup crawfish stock (substitute seafood stock)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Dash of hot sauce to taste
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 cup green onion tops, diced
4 cups cooked long grain white rice

Directions

In a large skillet on medium heat, melt the butter and add the onions, bell pepper and celery.

Sauté just until tender and add the garlic along with the puree.

Reduce the heat to simmer and stir to combine.

Season the mixture with the cayenne and add the crawfish tail meat stirring to combine.

Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to incorporate and begin cooking the uncooked flour.

Add some of the stock and continuing stirring until it begins to thicken.

Add more stock until you get the desired thickness.

Season to taste with salt, pepper and hot sauce.

Serve over a mound of white rice and garnish with chopped parsley and green onion tops.

Serve with hot French bread and an ice-cold beer.