Crawfish Étouffée

Name: Crawfish Étouffée
Yield: Yield: 4 Servings.
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: ⅓ cup flour; ⅓ cup corn, peanut, or vegetable oil; ¼ cup finely chopped sweet green pepper; ¼ cup finely chopped celery; ½ cup finely chopped onion; 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic; 1½ cups Fish Stock; 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; 2 tablespoons butter; ½ cup finely chopped scallion(s); ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 3 pounds crawfish tails; 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil, or 1½ teaspoons dried; Freshly ground pepper to taste; Salt to taste, if desired; ¼ cup crawfish fat

Preparation info

Yield:
4
Servings.

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Craig Claiborne's Southern Cooking

By Craig Claiborne

Published 1987

About

Curiously enough, the word étouffée is not unrelated to smothered, as in smothered chicken. The verb étouffer in French means to suffocate, choke, or smother. The cooking term étouffée in French kitchens refers to foods, principally meats, that have been cooked in a tightly covered utensil. No doubt the Creole étouffée and the original French term are related, but in this recipe the dish is not tightly covered.