Besh’s Crawfish Etoufee’.

I love that cookbook. Shame he tanked his career but that cookbook remains a favorite of mine to use and read through.

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With that dark roux it looks more like crawfish stew - which I really enjoy, but for me étouffée is much lighter in color and thicker.

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I agree with this. I think of crawfish etouffee as sort of reddish orange color, with the fresh crawfish fat as the dominant component.

That looks like a good crawfish stew, though.

That's crawfish stew, not etouffee'. Etouffee' has a butter roux and no tomatoes.
It looks like a good stew though!

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Etouffee' has a butter roux and no tomatoes.

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OP's dish certainly doesn't look bad by any means. I'd eat it, and the little bit of tomato doesn't appear to have overtaken the dish. But yeah...I agree.

I think the Acadiana Table blogger puts it pretty well:

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the time-honored recipe for crawfish étouffée is under assault. There is a most disturbing trend in South Louisiana cooking these days that is gaining acceptability among traditionalists–cream of mushroom soup in crawfish étouffée. This is nothing short of sacrilege, and it must be stopped at all cost.

Don’t get me wrong. I love to experiment. I enjoy an occasional contemporary twist on a classic. A grits and grillades with gator meat recipe is a prime example of how far I am willing to expand the boundaries of Louisiana classics. But this can opener-enabled madness borders on the ruination of the entire culinary heritage of Cajun and Creole culture.

It is not the first time classic Crawfish Étouffée has come under attack. I recall the tomato paste assault some years ago that had to be rebuffed by the true bayou traditionalists. And now, the time-saving, tin-can cheapsters are pouring on the soupy extenders that rob flavor and render a pound of tail meat utterly inedible.

Stop it.

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LINK

I'm gonna let you boys in on a secret on why our overly complicated dishes arent as good as our grandmaws.

Half. It comes down to halves.

Your maw maw wouldn't use half a onion. She wouldn't touch 3/4 of a bell pepper. And she for damned sure wouldn't toss celery tops and use a single stalk of celery.