"Roux"ts

In French, the word "étouffée" means, literally, "smothered" or "suffocated", from the verb "étouffer". With the freezing cold weather I experienced all last week in Illinois and the icy temperatures I returned home to in DC, being suffocated actually sounded like a comforting idea. I decided to make Crawfish Etoufee since it was the perfect cold-weather comfort food in my mind. Anything that reminds me of home - my beloved New Orleans - has the ability to take the chill out of any blistery DC winter night. Not only did the warm dish served over white rice warm me to the core, but the stress of making my very first roux got me heated up as well!

Crawfish Etouffee
Adapted from Emeril Lagasse

Ingredients

• 1 stick (1/4 pound) butter
• 4 ounces all-purpose flour
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1/2 cup chopped bell peppers
• 2 cloves of garlic
  
• 1 pound peeled crawfish tails
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
• 3 tablespoons chopped green onions
• Cooked white rice, for serving

Directions

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the flour and cook until the roux is a peanut butter color, about 5 minutes. Do not walk away from your roux, once it begins to turn brown it cooks very quickly and if you don't constantly stir it you will risk burning the crucial ingredients.

Add the onions, garlic, and bell peppers and saute until soft and golden, 10 to 12 minutes.

Add the crawfish and bay leaves. Reduce the heat to medium.

Stirring occasionally, cook until the crawfish begin throwing off a little liquid, 10 to 12 minutes.

Add the chicken stock to the crawfish mixture and season with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper.

Stir until the mixture thickens, about 4 minutes. Add the parsley and green onions and cook for about 2 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves and serve over cooked white rice.

This recipe needed some additions in the flavor department, which is very surprising for an Emeril recipe. If you click on his original recipe you will notice the omission of black pepper and garlic. I don't cook anything without black pepper and I knew garlic would enhance the flavors so I made sure to add them. This was the first Emeril recipe that I had to doctor after tasting the first bite. Normally his recipes are very spicy but this one wasn't. I also don't think I went far enough with my roux because the dish was more orange in color than brown and I think that if I had let if cook a little more it may have made a difference.