Crawfish Étouffée cooked the old-fashioned way is a classic Cajun recipe. (2024)
by George Graham210 Comments
Just think of it: Fresh Louisiana crawfish tail meat swimming in a lightly thickened butter sauce infused with spices and aromatics over a mound of white rice. This is the purest expression of Cajun cooking I know and love. It’s that time of year, and in case you missed it, here is my recipe.
Crawfish Étouffée in a rich stock is a classic Cajun recipe. (All photos credit: George Graham)
But the time-honored recipe forcrawfish étouffée is under assault. There is a most disturbing trend in South Louisiana cooking these days that is gaining acceptability among traditionalists–cream of mushroom soup in crawfish étouffée. This is nothing short of sacrilege, and it must be stopped at all cost.
Don’t get me wrong. I love to experiment. I enjoy an occasional contemporary twist on a classic. A grits and grillades with gator meat recipe is a prime example of how far I am willing to expand the boundaries of Louisiana classics. But this can opener-enabled madness borders on the ruination of the entire culinary heritage of Cajun and Creole culture.
It is not the first time classic Crawfish Étouffée has come under attack. I recall the tomato paste assault some years ago that had to be rebuffed by the true bayou traditionalists. And now, the time-saving, tin-can cheapsters are pouring on the soupy extenders that rob flavor and render a pound of tail meat utterly inedible.
Stop it.
Crawfish Étouffée should always be a centerpiece dish to showcase the unique flavor and texture of Louisiana crawfish. Treated lightly, this buttery mixture envelopes the tail meat with a rich, flavor-filled coating of golden goodness.
From time to time, depending on the availability I do use frozen cooked Louisiana crawfish tails, but in season, there is no substitute for fresh-picked tail meat. When eating boiled crawfish at a restaurant I always save the shells and take home another 3-pound order. The next day, I remove and reserve the tail meat and wash all the heads and shells of excess spice. These shell pieces are simmered in a large pot of water to reduce down into an intense crawfish stock that is a key to the perfect étouffée.
Soup? No thanks. Not in my Crawfish Étouffée.
Pinch the tail. Suck the heads. Boiled crawfish time.
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Classic Crawfish Étouffée
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Recipe by: George Graham - AcadianaTable.com
Serves: 4 to 6
Ingredients
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups diced yellow onion
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1 cup diced celery
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 pounds Louisiana crawfish tail meat
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1½ cups crawfish stock or seafood stock
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Dash of hot sauce
¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 cup diced green onion tops
6 cups cooked Louisiana long-grain white rice, such as Supreme
Instructions
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and add the onions, bell pepper, and celery. Sauté until tender and add the garlic. Lower the heat to simmer and stir to combine. Season the mixture with cayenne and add the crawfish tail meat stirring to combine.
Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to incorporate and begin cooking the flour. Add some of the stock and continuing stirring until it begins to thicken. Add more stock until you get a stew-like thickness.
Season to taste with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Serve over a mound of white rice garnished with chopped parsley and green onion tops.
Notes
It is best to peel your own, but packaged Louisiana crawfish 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. Make a crawfish stock with leftover heads and shells; just rinse off any seasoning and boil them for 30 minutes and strain. A good shrimp stock can be made using dried shrimp (look for them in any Asian market) boiled in water and strained.
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Crawfish étouffée is a simple dish of sweet and meaty crawfish served up in a rich and flavorful gravy that is made from a quick roux. The dish includes the Cajun holy trinity of onions, bell peppers and celery, along with lots of garlic, spicy Cajun seasonings, and fresh chopped herbs.
History. Around the 1950s, crawfish étouffée was introduced to restaurant goers in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana; however, the dish may have been invented as early as the late 1920s, according to some sources. Originally, crawfish étouffée was a popular dish amongst Cajuns in the bayous and backwaters of Louisiana.
Etouffee can be found in both Creole and Cajun cuisine, with slight but important differences in the seasoning and preparation of each version. Creole etouffee uses a traditional French-style roux made from butter and flour while the roux for Cajun etouffee is made with oil, lard, or other animal fats.
One iteration is that a crawfish stew is made with a dark roux, while an etouffee is made with a roux made lighter by the addition of cream. Some people say crawfish stew is the Cajun interpretation of the dish, while etouffee is the Creole version.
In the 1700's, Acadians, now Cajuns, arrived from Canada and settled along bayous. Crawfish were eaten mostly of necessity, as the poor man's food was cheap and readily accessible.
Étouffée (eh-two-fay) derives from the French word meaning “to smother.” History tells us that the first crawfish étouffée was conjured up in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, the home of the Acadian people and locally known as real “Cajun Country.” In 1959, the Louisiana legislature officially designated Breaux Bridge as “la ...
Around the 1950s, crawfish étouffée was introduced to restaurant goers in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana; however, the dish may have been invented as early as the late 1920s, according to some sources. Originally, crawfish étouffée was a popular dish amongst Cajuns in the bayous and backwaters of Louisiana.
As time has rolled on the story has gotten more varied in the telling, and the dish more complex in the making. Some say Aline inherited her technique from crawfish courtbouillon (a tomato based seafood stew) made at the nearby Hebert Hotel in the 1920s, and adapted it to her needs and means.
While they are very similar, they do utilize different ingredients. Cajun food is typically spicier than Creole food, and it also contains more pork and crawfish. Creole food utilizes more ingredients like tomatoes, shrimp, oysters, and crab.
The "holy trinity" in Cajun cuisine and Louisiana Creole cuisine is the base for several dishes in the regional cuisines of Louisiana and consists of onions, bell peppers and celery. The preparation of Cajun/Creole dishes such as crawfish étouffée, gumbo, and jambalaya all start from this base.
Both etouffee and gumbo are broth-based, using shrimp stock, seafood stock, crawfish tail stock, or chicken stock. But etouffee has a thicker, gravy-like consistency whereas gumbo is a thinner stew.
We've found an easy way to eliminate the smell: Soak the fish or the shellfish meat in milk for 20 minutes and then drain and pat dry. The casein in milk binds to the TMA, and when drained away, it takes the culprit that causes fishy odor with it. The result is seafood that's sweet smelling and clean-flavored.
How to serve crawfish etouffee. The traditional side for this is rice, which pairs well and soaks up all that delicious flavor from the sauce. If you prefer not to use rice, you could instead serve with cornbread, mashed potato, bread or biscuits.
My trick for the crawfish tail meat is to add fresh squeezed lemon juice to them before adding into the light roux base with vegetables. That way, if you are introducing yourself to the crawfish world, you won't be put off by the fishy smell.
It's made with a roux, onion, celery, and bell pepper (the holy trinity), tomato, garlic, hot sauce, and either shrimp, crawfish, or chicken. What is this? Cajun Étouffée does not contain tomatoes. The addition of tomatoes is the Creole way of preparing etouffee.
In some ways, its similar to gumbo – same types of Creole seasonings, served over rice, and made with a roux, but unlike gumbo, étouffée is often made with a“blonde”roux, giving it a lighter color and a very different almost sweet flavor. It's a unique taste you won't soon forget and worth trying at home.
Both etouffee and gumbo are broth-based, using shrimp stock, seafood stock, crawfish tail stock, or chicken stock. But etouffee has a thicker, gravy-like consistency whereas gumbo is a thinner stew.
In French, the word “étouffée” means “smothered.” So, crawfish étouffée is literally crawfish smothered in a creamy broth flavored with loads of spicy, Cajun seasoning. Below, you'll find a simple yet delicious recipe that's quite like the one served by the Hebert family more than a century ago.
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