Crawfish Etoufee

 

I cooked this and it turned out wonderful.  We like spice, so I added some jalapeno in there too...I also added some red and yellow pepper too...YUMMO!

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell peppers
• 1 pound peeled crawfish tails
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of cayenne
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons chopped green onions

Directions

In a large saute pan over medium high heat, melt the butter. Add the onions, celery, and bell peppers and saute until the vegetables are wilted, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add the crawfish, garlic, and bay leaves and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the crawfish for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Dissolve the flour in the water. Add the crawfish mixture. Season with salt and cayenne. Stir until the mixture thickens, about 4 minutes. Stir in the parsley and green onions and continue cooking for 2 minutes. Serve over steamed rice.

How to create a Roux

 

In honor of the upcoming Mardi Gras...I make this to start my Etoufees :)  Yummy!!

Ingredients

• 3 cups vegetable oil
• 5 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

Place a heavy, iron Dutch oven, (or iron skillet with deep sides) over medium heat and heat the oil until just smoking. Whisk in flour, a little at a time and cook, whisking constantly, until roux becomes smooth and thick. Continue to cook, constantly stirring with a wooden spoon and reaching all over bottom of pan, until roux darkens to desired color. Be careful not to produce specs of black. The roux must remain an even color throughout process. If specs appear you must start over.

For a Light Brown Roux, cook the mixture, over medium heat for 1 1/2 hours, or until the color of peanut butter. Remove about 1 cup of the light colored roux, cool completely, and set aside for the Delmonico's Seafood Okra Gumbo.

For a Medium Brown Roux, cook the mixture, over medium heat for an additional 30 minutes, or until the color of a copper penny when ready. Remove about 13/4 cups of the medium colored roux, cool completely, and set aside for Emeril's Country File Gumbo.

For a Dark Brown Roux, cook the mixture an additional 35 to 45 minutes. The color should resemble dark chocolate when ready. Remove all of the remaining dark roux from the pan and cool completely. Set aside for the Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.

NOTE: The timings for various shades of roux will vary depending on the cooktop as well as the amount of roux made. (A smaller amount will cook in much less time.) If this is your first time making a roux, the slower you cook it, the less likely you will be to burn it. The important thing is to cook the roux to the desired color, as specified above.

Make you own Creme Fraiche

Crème fraîche is the kind of cream you could happily eat off a spoon. It is sour cream’s French cousin, but it is richer than sour cream, its texture smoother, more velvety, and more like custard. When you buy crème fraîche at an outdoor market or from a neighborhood cheese shop in Paris, it is spooned from a crock into a small container and, in the process, falls languidly off the ladle. In terms of taste, crème fraîche is tangy the way sour cream is tangy, but its tang is more subtle, more refined. And, unlike sour cream, crème fraîche can be whipped into soft peaks and cooked without risk of curdling. It is one of milk’s minor miracles and is treated as such in Paris, where it is used often in a cake or tart recipe, piped into a rosette to top a mousse, spooned into a quenelle to finish a savory soup or a portion of sweet gateau, dolloped on top of a sundae, and, yes, eaten off a spoon in the privacy of one’s own kitchen when no one is looking.

The French take their crème fraîche seriously and Parisians will have a favorite merchant at the market from whom they’ll buy their week’s supply, or they’ll look for crème d’lsigny, the one crème fraîche to be awarded AOC, or Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, status. (This crème fraîche is made from the same cream as AOC butter from Isigny.) While any recipe that calls for crème fraîche can be made with regular heavy cream (crème fleurette, in France), the results are superior—at least in the sensuousness department—when the crème is thick, slightly acidic crème fraîche.

Yield: 1 cup of crème fraîche

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 1 tablespoon buttermilk or yogurt

Directions

Unfortunately, crème fraîche is not easily found in the United States and what is available is often very expensive. However, crème fraîche can be made simply and reasonably at home. To make , pour theheavy cream into a clean jar, add thebuttermilk or yogurt, cover the jar tightly, and shake it for about a minute. Then just leave the jar on the counter for 12 to 24 hours, or until the crème fraîche thickens slightly. How quickly it thickens will depend on the temperature of the room—the warmer the room, the quicker the thickening action. When it has thickened, chill the crème fraîche in the refrigerator for a day before you use it. Crème fraîche can be kept covered in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks and (or but, depending on your taste) will get tangier and tangier day after day.