Shared Plates Winning Recipe: Crawfish Etouffee

2847

While reporting and researching different families’ holiday food traditions for From Their Table to Yours, we realized that some of the best food isn’t just at the newest, hottest restaurant but can also be found in the homes of passionate home cooks like you!

With this inspiration in mind, #HourSharedPlates was born. Throughout November, we asked readers to submit photos of their favorite family recipes on Facebook and Instagram for the first monthly competition. Monique Olivier Getzinger rose to victory with her mother’s Crawfish Etouffee.

Check out upcoming editions for stories and dishes like Getzinger’s, and for more information on upcoming Shared Plates themes.

“I am a Creole from New Orleans and lived the first half of my life there enjoying the traditional, historical, and unique city where family, faith, and food are part of everyday life. The city relishes in the bounty from the bayous and Gulf of Mexico waters; and generations have created an enormous variety of delicious dishes that we call our own. My dear mother, who I lost just three months ago, was a wonderful cook and would follow the cooking steps but the ingredient amounts were ‘guessimates,’ and the final product was always delicious. I try to emulate her and put the care and love into my cooking as she did. Crawfish Etouffee is a warm, well-seasoned dish that transports me back home.”

Monique Olivier Getzinger


Crawfish Etouffee (Serves 4-6)

1 stick butter
1 cup green onions
1⁄2 cup onions
1⁄4 cup bell peppers
1 pound crawfish tails
1-2 tbs Creole seasoning (Getzinger recommends Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning and Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Seasoning Blend: Seafood Magic)
1 tbs minced garlic
2 tbs parsley
1 cup seafood stock
1 tbs plain flour dissolved in 1 cup of warm water
1 can of cream of celery soup
Hot white rice and buttered crusty French bread for serving

Melt butter over medium heat and add finely chopped onions and bell peppers and sauté until vegetables are soft and tender, about 5 minutes. Stir and scrape the bottom of the pan well.

Add the crawfish tails. Add a little water to the bag of crawfish to get all of the crawfish fat and juices and then pour everything into the pot. Add Creole seasoning, garlic, and parsley.

Cook crawfish for a few minutes until fully cooked. Add the seafood stock, then simmer over low to medium heat for about 10 minutes. To thicken the sauce a little, make a flour slurry by adding flour dissolved in hot water. Then add this slurry into the cooking crawfish and allow to simmer. Add one can of cream of celery soup or (pureed) cream of mushroom soup to increase the richness of the sauce. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes more.

Additional Creole seasoning may be a put into the sauce to taste. Serve over hot white rice with buttered crusty French bread on the side.

If you happen to have any crawfish left over from a crawfish boil – that would be rare if there are any left – but if so, use the tails for the etouffee. Crawfish tails packaged in one-pound packets from Louisiana are recommended. Do NOT use crawfish tails from China.