Re: Favorite Recipes-All Time
Crawfish (or Shrimp) Creole
One stick of butter.
One large yellow onion, chopped.
A cup of chopped celery.
A cup of chopped green onions.
Three cloves of garlic, diced.
Two tomatos, diced.
1/2 cup chopped parsley.
One bell pepper, chopped.
One Jalapeno pepper, chopped.
3/4 cup flour.
3 lbs crawfish tails (boiled) or shrimp (raw, peeled).
2 cups tomato sauce.
1 to 1.5 quarts seafood stock.
1/2 teaspoon or more cayenne pepper (to taste).
1/2 teaspoon or more tabasco sauce (to taste).
Salt and ground black pepper to taste.
The stock makes a huge difference:
Shrimp stock: make it just like if you were boiling the crawfish -- boil about 2 1/2 quarts of water with an onion, quartered, a few celery stalks broken in half, a head of garlic, quartered, and a sachet with black peppercorns, fresh chopped parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil (or, just use a package of "shrimp boil" from the grocery store. I like Tony Cachere's). When the vegetables get soft, add the shrimp shells. Bring back to a boil until the shells turn pink.
After your shellfish is cooked, strain the stock and return it to a low boil until it reduces by 25% or so.
Melt the butter over medium high heat in a large saucepan (I use a cast iron pot, works great).
Saute the onions, celery, peppers and garlic, cook until they are wilted, 4 or 5 minutes.
Add the flour, a little at a time to make a roux.
(You can make the roux before adding the vegetables if you like, just be sure to make a light roux. Light brown is ok.)
Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatos, tabasco and cayenne.
Start adding the stock, stirring until you get a good sauce consistency (maybe almost as thick as ketchup but not quite).
Add the crawfish or shrimp, green onions and parsley then season to taste with salt & pepper, add some cayenne and/or tobasco if you like (just remember, it's a myth that creole cooking is supposed to be spicy enough to make you cry -- just make it how you like it), then take it off the heat.
Cover until the shrimp are done (just takes a few minutes).
Serve over white rice.
You won't regret it.
