Crawfish Etouffee Question

Far as I'm concerned, there is no ONE WAY to make any dish. Go with what feels right for you and if you like it, great. If you feel it needs something, tweak it the next time you make it.

I look at etouffee recipes like gumbo recipes, no two are exactly alike and people stage them in different steps when cooking them, but for the most part, they are all pretty damn good.

I always make a bit of roux when cooking ettoufee' if that helps. Oh, and a dark roux is way darker than the color of peanut butter. My dark roux is damn near the color of Hershey's chocolate.

I do the butter/flour roux as well, but cook it darker than blonde. Probably about peanut butter. I also add a tablespoon of tomato paste too and brown it a bit in the roux. My recipe is based on one from a restaurant in Scott that I think is long closed down called Mrs Helens or something like that. They had apparently won the Eunice World Championship with it.

I know I’m committing 2 sins per the purists, but have never had someone turn their nose up at my etouffee.

Only sin I see is the tomato

Thanks everyone. Didn't save the shells for stock but I plan to use seafood stock.

I am comfortable making a dark roux for chicken & sausage gumbo and a light roux for mac & cheese, but I didn't know if a peanut butter color was too dark or not dark enough. I think I will aim for somewhere between toasted and peanut butter in color.

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I make a blonde roux with butter and flour and DON'T burn it .

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Same here. Yours looks damn good too.

And you'll want a good seafood stock with an etouffee.

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If you feel it needs something, tweak it the next time you make it.

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I wish I could make etouffee more often, but crawfish aren't cheap up here in VA. Frozen LA tails are $22/lb up here, and boiled ones are hard to find for less than $10/lb. I've actually thought about using langostino tails to experiment with because sometimes they are cheaper and roughly the same size as crawfish tails.

most mac n cheese recipes start with a béchamel sauce, which is basically making a blond roux, adding milk til you get to your desired thick / thinness, then adding cheese.

Wasn't talking about OP, but the recipe above my post.

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Looks more like red bell pepper to me

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yes, I diced a red bell pepper along with yellow onions. Cooked down until translucent and soft. Fresh minced garlic is added near the end making sure it's not overcooked or burned.

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I make a blonde roux with butter and flour and DON'T burn it

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Pretty tough to burn a blond roux