You Tell Me Your Dream

Crawfish

Crawfish go by many names here in the US, Crayfish, Crawdad, Crawfish, etc, but when it comes right down to it, they're little, freshwater inseects easily found in streams all over America (as well as China, apparently). They look vaguely like tiny lobsters, minus the claws, and turn similarly red when cooked.

Of course, catching them yourself is a lot of worth, so I located precooked tails for about $14 a pound. My first introduction to Crawfish was the Crawfish Étouffée at Yat's Cajun Creole. While I couldn't locate their recipe, I did find this one, to try my hand at the little buggers.

Crawfish Étouffée
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes to one hour
Serves: 6-8 people

Ingredients:

2 lbs crawfish tails
black pepper
cayenne pepper

3/4 stick butter
1 onion
1 green bell pepper
4 stalks celery
1 chili pepper

1 1/2 cups cold water
1/4 cup chopped scallion
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Pinch dried thyme
Pinch dried oregano
1 bay leaf

less than a half cup white flour (no substitutions!)
3/4 stick butter
creole seasoning

Prep:

Season the crawfish tails with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Mince up the onion, green pepper, celery, and chili pepper and put into one bowl.

Chop up the parsley and scallion, and put into another bowl together.

Cook:

Melt three quarters of a stick of butter in a pan, and sauté the onion, bell pepper, celery, and chili pepper in it for about 5 minutes, or until translucent. Then add a cup and a half of water, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, and crawfish tails. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Produce a Roux:

Melt the remaining butter in a pan over very low heat, and mix in an equal amount of flour. Cook very slowly, stirring constantly. There's an art to this, and it takes patience. If you burn it, throw it out and try again. In about five minutes the mixture will be peanut butter colored. This mix, known as a Roux (pronounced "roo") will thicken your étouffée.

Finish:

Add the scallions, parsley, and roux, and cook for an additional five minutes, stirring frequently.

Season with Creole seasoning and serve over rice.

The end result was promptly eaten by Katrina, myself, and several friends until we were all full. Delicious, I tell you I can't rave about how good it was enough.