Crawfish etouffee
A classic Louisiana dish, this is easy to make and packed with delicious, comforting flavor.
Servings: 4 approx
Calories: 129kcal
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Ingredients
- ½ onion large, or 1 small
- ½ green pepper
- 1 stick celery
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (can reduce or omit if you prefer)
- 1 pinch salt or more, to taste
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste tomato puree
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 1 cup fish or seafood stock or chicken (possibly 1-2tbsp more, as needed)
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 lb crawfish tails (pre-frozen is fine but ensure defrosted and don't rinse)
- 2 scallions/spring onions to garnish, or use parsley
Instructions
- Finely dice the onion, pepper and celery and finely dice the garlic. Finely slice the white and pale green part of the scallions and set aside for later.
- Warm the butter in a pan over a medium heat and add all of the chopped vegetables (apart from scallions). Cook for a few minutes until they are all softening, add garlic, then continue to cook a couple minutes until the onions are translucent.
- Stir through the paprika, thyme, oregano, pepper, cayenne, salt and tomato paste. Mix in and cook a minute then add the flour. Stir through and cook, stirring now and then, for a couple minutes. You should notice a slight nutty smell and it darkening slightly, but take care that the mixture doesn't burn. You may need to reduce the heat a little.
- Add the stock, mix well and scrape away anything that is stuck to the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or so to thicken a little. Add the Worcestershire sauce and crawfish, cook for another 2-3 minutes to warm the crawfish through (assuming pre-cooked, as is more common - give a bit longer if they are raw to ensure cooked). Check and adjust seasoning, if needed, then serve over rice, garnished with scallions.
Video
Notes
If you find whole, shell-on crawfish, the shells make a great stock for this (and any extra is delicious in seafood soups like chowder). But be aware that you lose a lot of weight to the part you remove - I typically find around ¼ of the weight of whole crawfish is the actual meat, or potentially more/less depending on size. Also, allow extra time for separating/making stock. Note if you get raw crawfish, they likely need extra cleaning as well.
If crawfish are not available, shrimp also work well instead (or use a mix of both, as in the video). Medium/small are probably best fit size-wise.
Nutrition
Calories: 129kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 42mg | Sodium: 330mg | Potassium: 216mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 708IU | Vitamin C: 14mg | Calcium: 47mg | Iron: 1mg