AI-generated image
Crawfish étouffée
Crawfish tails smothered in a buttery blond-roux sauce
Étouffée means 'smothered', and in Breaux Bridge, which calls itself the crawfish capital of the world, this is what happens to the spring crawfish catch from February to May. Peeled tails are simmered in a butter-based light roux with the trinity, garlic and cayenne until the sauce is glossy and orange with crawfish fat. Serve over white rice. Peeled frozen crawfish tails or raw prawns work well outside Louisiana. Chef's tip: keep any yellow crawfish fat in the pack; it gives the sauce its richness and colour.
- Total time
- 50 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
Shop this recipe on Amazon
Spices & pantry
Fresh ingredients (8)
Links open Amazon in a new tab. As an Amazon Associate, WhatToEat.Today earns from qualifying purchases.
Method
0/5 doneStep 1: Melt the 2 ⅞ oz butter in a heavy pan over a medium heat, whisk in the 3 tbsp plain flour and cook 6–8 minutes, stirring, until the roux is the colour of peanut butter.
8 minStep 2: Add the 1 onion, 1 celery stick and 1 green pepper and cook 8 minutes until soft. Add the 3 cloves garlic and 1 tbsp tomato purée for 1 minute.
9 minStep 3: Whisk in the 1 ¾ cups seafood or vegetable stock with the ½ tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp paprika and 1 tsp salt and simmer 10 minutes until thickened.
10 minStep 4: Add the 16 oz peeled crawfish tails with their fat and their fat and simmer gently for 5 minutes, until heated through (if using raw prawns, until pink and opaque). A common mistake is cooking the tails longer, which makes them tough.
5 minStep 5: Stir in the 1 tbsp lemon juice, 3 spring onions and 2 tbsp fresh parsley and serve over the 1 ⅓ lb cooked long-grain rice.
2 min
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 520 kcal
- Protein
- 30 g
- Carbs
- 48 g
- Fat
- 22 g
- Fibre
- 2 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does crawfish étouffée take?
- About 50 minutes in total: 15 minutes to prepare and 35 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- What can I use instead of butter?
- The same weight of ghee or coconut oil (for frying and most baking).
- What can I use instead of plain flour?
- Self-raising flour, same amount (then leave out the baking powder).
Reviews
No reviews yet. Be the first to cook it.
Rate this recipe
Sign in to rate and review this recipe.
You might also like
Singapore chilli crab
Chilli crab was first sold from a pushcart on the Kallang river in the 1950s and is now the dish visitors queue for along Singapore's East Coast seafood strip. Big mud crabs are cut up, wok-fried and simmered in a thick, sweet, tangy and gently hot sauce of chilli, tomato and garlic, which is then silked with beaten egg. Everyone eats with their hands and mops up the sauce with fried or steamed mantou buns. It is a weekend or celebration meal, messy and loud. Buy crabs live or freshly cooked the same day from a fishmonger you trust. Discard any live crab that doesn't move, smells of ammonia or has a cracked, leaking shell. The common mistake is boiling the sauce after adding the egg, which scrambles it into lumps; pour it in a thin stream over a low heat. Chef's tip: ask the fishmonger to clean and quarter the crab for you, and crack each claw lightly with the back of a cleaver so the sauce soaks in.
Singaporean
Barbeque sauce
A quick, tangy barbecue sauce of tomato ketchup, onion, butter, vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, vinegar and lemon, sweetened with sugar and warmed with black pepper and chilli flakes. Keep it warm and serve it with barbecued paneer, vegetable skewers, burgers and corn.
Lemon garlic baked salmon
The easiest way to cook salmon perfectly: a hot oven, a quick lemon-garlic butter and 12 minutes. Serve with new potatoes and greens, or flake it over rice.
