Wines

Rawson's Retreat
Shiraz Cabernet
South Eastern Australia
Vintage 2006

Conde de Valdemar
Rioja
Spain
Reserva 2001

Recipe: Crawfish Etouffee

Here's the recipe for Paul Prudhomme's Crawfish Etouffee.

Seasoning mix

2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cayenne
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried sweet basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
3/4 cup chopped fresh onion, celery and green pepper mix

7 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 sticks of butter
2 pounds crawfish tails
1 cup very finely chopped green onions
Serve with rice

Combine the seasoning mix and set aside. In a large black-iron skillet, make your roux with the vegetable oil and flour. Cook until roux is dark red-brown in color, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately stir in your chopped onion mix and one tablespoon of the seasoning. Continue stirring until cooled, about five minutes.

In a 2 square saucepan, bring 2 cups of the stock to a boil over a high heat. Gradually add the roux and whisk until dissolved. Reduce heat to low and cook until flour taste is gone, about 2 minutes, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Remove from heat and set aside.
In another pan, melt 1 stick of butter and stir in crawfish and the green onions, saute about 1 minute. Add the remaining stick of butter, the stock mixture and the remaining cup of stock. Cook until butter melts and is mixed with the sauce, about 4 to 6 minutes, constantly shaking the pan but careful not to break up crawfish tails. Add the remaining season mix, stir well and remove from heat. Serve immediately over rice.

Crawfish Etouffee

For the ladies who missed Friday's dinner - the etouffee was wonderful. It's a classic, which originated from Paul Prudomme, at Susan's house.

We used her husband's great grandfather's black iron skillet (and a wooden spoon - don't try to make a roux without one.)

Try the recipe; it's not too hard. Susan, have you ever made the recipe using shrimp instead of crawfish?