Étouffée is about as delicious as a dish can be. It's hearty, it's creamy, and it's got a ton of butter. Anything can really be turned into an Étouffée, but this recipe utilizes a consistent crawfish replacement, Langoustinos. They create a similar taste and texture to crawfish, and I don't have to pay $15 for shipping. You could use shrimp or crawfish if you have better access to those! I like my étouffée without any tomato, which turns this into a cajun version rather than a creole one.
Prep Time: Cook Time: Serves:
10 Minutes 1 hour 4 Servings
Ingredients
340g Langoustinos from Trader Joes (or 340g cooked shrimp/ crawfish)
50g butter
50g ap flour
1/2 bell pepper
1 yellow onion
1 celery stalks
4 garlic cloves
50ml of white wine
500ml fish stock - or water
4-6g cajun seasoning
2g garlic powder
Splash of hot sauce
Tons of black pepper
Salt
Bay leaf
Thyme
Green onion tops for serving
200g long grain white rice
350ml water
Salt
Bay leaf
Step 1: Prep The Ingredients
We’ll start with the trinity, yellow onion, bell pepper, celery. Dice all of your veggies into a medium fine dice, and mince your 4 cloves of garlic. Measure out 50 ml of a tasty white wine (not a requirement, but I think it’s nice) and 500 ml of fish stock or water. I found a really delicious fish stock that I love, but if you don’t have one, just use water. It’s classic and won’t hurt the dish. If you want some extra seafood flavor but don’t have the broth, mix water with a little bit of clam juice. Most grocery stores carry that, so it's easy to find. The langoustinos are already cooked, so you don’t have to do anything crazy to them. Place the bag in a bowl and let that sit in cool water. These should be defrosted by the time the sauce has cooked to a beautiful rich brown. Wash the defrosted tails just to make sure there isn’t anything in them you don’t want and then drain off the water.
Step 2: Make The Gravy
In a pot of medium heat, begin melting 50g of butter and add 50g of all purpose flour once it’s melted. For standard roux making procedure, keep the flour mix moving around over medium heat as the browning begins to take place. After about 10 minutes over medium heat, the roux should be close to peanut butter colored. Now you can add in your trinity and mix that to combine while these veggies begin to sweat. Cook these until they are nice and softened, but be sure that roux doesn’t darken too much in this time. Once nicely softened, add your minced garlic and let that soften as well. After a minute, add your 50ml of wine and mix that immediately. It will end up as a pasty mess, but that’s ok, the liquid we add next will loosen it up. Add your 500ml of fish stock a little at a time so you don’t up with lumps in the gravy. Season this now with a bunch of black pepper, 4-6g of cajun seasoning, and 2g of garlic powder. Toss in a bay leaf here as well. This needs to simmer for at least 30 minutes covered for the flavor of the sauce to fully develop. Stir this every few minutes to make sure the sauce doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn.
Step 3: Rice
At this point, wash 200g of white rice until the water runs clear and then add it to a pot with 350mils of water. Season this with a large pinch of salt and a bay leaf, bring it to a simmer and then cover it. Turn the heat down to low and set a 20 minute timer. Once the timer goes off, turn off the heat and let it sit for a few more minutes while you finish the étouffée.
Step 4: Finish The Étouffée
After 30 minutes, remove the bay leaf from the sauce. Taste the sauce real quick to make sure it’s smooth and flavorful. Add a little bit of chopped fresh thyme along with a few dashes of a Louisiana hot sauce. This brings some needed acidity to the sauce. This should be much thicker than something like a gumbo, definitely thick enough to coat a spoon. Add your langoustines into the hot gravy and give these a chance to warm through. Because they're already cooked, they just need a couple of minutes. Taste this one last time for salt and plate this up with your fluffy rice. The final dish will be creamy, peppery, and very seafood-y. It should taste like Louisiana in a bowl.
Cheers!
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