Down Home Cajun Shrimp Etouffee Food

SHRIMP ETOUFEE

Steps:

• Add the oil to a large heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Once hot, sprinkle in the flour. Cook the roux, while stirring, until it's the shade of peanut butter, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the thyme, garlic, celery, onions and bell pepper and saute until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the paprika, cayenne and white pepper and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Whisk in the stock, clam juice, tomatoes, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes of simmering, adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Stir in the shrimp, lower the heat and cook until the shrimp are cooked through and bright pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in the green onions right before serving.
• Serve in a bowl with a mound of white rice in the center.

CAJUN CRAWFISH AND SHRIMP ÉTOUFFéE

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Gradually stir in flour, and stir constantly until the mixture turns 'peanut butter' brown or darker, at least 15 or 20 minutes. I use a large fork with the flat side to the bottom of the pan in a side to side motion. This is your base sauce or 'roux'. It is very important to stir this constantly. If by chance the roux burns, discard and start over.
• Once the roux is browned, add the onions, garlic, celery and bell pepper to the skillet, and saute for about 5 minutes to soften. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and fish stock, and season with the seafood seasoning. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Season the sauce with hot pepper sauce and cayenne pepper (if using), and add the crawfish and shrimp. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until the shrimp are opaque.

SHRIMP ÉTOUFFéE

Steps:

• In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onion, celery and bell pepper, and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 more minute.
• Sprinkle the flour over the ingredients and stir constantly until lightly toasted, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, and stir and cook for 1 more minute.
• Pour in the stock and 3/4 cup water. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add the hot sauce, bay leaf, Creole seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil, and cook until the mixture starts to thicken, about 2 minutes.
• Stir in the shrimp and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer until the shrimp is cooked through and opaque, about 5 minutes, turning each piece halfway through. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust seasoning. Sprinkle the scallions on top. Serve warm over rice.

SHRIMP ETOUFFEE

Steps:

• Fish Stock: Combine all ingredients and bring to boil; simmer for 4-8 hours, the longer the better; replenish water as needed to keep one quart of liquid in the pot.
• If you're short on time, a stock simmered 20-30 minutes is better than water.
• If you're even shorter for time, simmer the shells from the peeled shrimp and skip the vegetables.
• Seasoning Mix: In a small bowl thoroughly combine all dry ingredients; set aside; combine chopped vegetables in separate bowl and set aside.
• Roux: Heat the oil over high heat in a large, heavy skillet until it begins to smoke, about 4 minutes; use a LONG handled whisk and gradually mix in flour; cook and stir constantly until roux is dark red-brown,3-5 minutes; don't let roux scorch and DON'T get it on your skin!
• Remove from heat and stir in the combined vegetables and ONE TABLESPOON of the dry seasoning with a wooden spoon; stir for 5 minutes while the roux cools down.
• Gravy: Bring the fish stock to a boil in a 2 quart saucepan; gradually whisk in roux and stir until incorporated.
• Reduce heat to low; continue stirring and cook another 2 minutes, until flour taste is gone; if any of the gravy scorches, don't scrape that part of the pan; remove from heat and set aside.
• Finish: Using a 4 quart saucepan, melt 3-4 T butter over medium heat; stir in shrimp and green onions and sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly.
• Add the remaining 3-4 T butter, Fish Stock and gravy; shake the pan rather than stir until the butter is melted and mixed into sauce, about 4-6 minutes.
• Add remaining seasoning mix; stir well and remove from heat; if sauce starts separating, add a couple of T of stock or water and shake pan until it combines.
• Plate rice in a ring and pour etouffee into center; serve immediately.

MIXED CAJUN ETOUFFEE

Steps:

• In a large hot skillet, brown the sausage quickly over high heat to seal in juices.
• Remove to medium size bowl. Go ahead and taste a piece if you want.
• Add the chicken breasts to the same pan and quickly brown both sides, cooking through. If the breasts are really thick, you may want to slice them in half or pound them so they will cook through without burning the outside.
• Remove chicken to cutting board to cool.
• Meanwhile, throw shrimp in pan and give a quick browning (no more than 45-60 seconds).
• Add browned shrimp to bowl with sausage. The shrimp doesn't tempt me as much as the sausage, but go ahead a sample a piece if you want.
• Now head back to the chicken. Should be cool enough to handle if you're careful. Either shred into bite size pieces or dice with a sharp knife.
• Add to the shrimp and sausage.
• Measure out one cup of beer and set aside.
• Pour the remaining beer over the meat mixture.
• Add chopped parsley and combine well.
• Using the same skillet that you browned your meat in, melt the butter over medium heat, scraping up the browned bits of meat.
• Whisk in flour a little at a time, stirring continuously until smooth.
• Continue cooking until roux (flour and butter mixture) is nice and browned, 10-15 minutes. Don't rush it by turning up the heat or you'll burn it.
• Add onions, celery, peppers and garlic to roux.
• Cook 4-5 minutes until crisp-tender.
• Stir in spices and cook another 5-10 minutes.
• At this point, I transfer to a bigger pot because I don't have a big enough skillet. If you need to do this, heat your bigger pot a few minutes before you add the chicken broth and beer (next step)so it's ready to go. If just using one pot, ignore this step.
• Add remaining cup of beer and chicken broth to roux/veggie mixture. Add hot sauce if desired.
• Stir well to combine, cover and simmer 10-15 minutes.
• Pour meat mixture into pot and combine well.
• Continue cooking 5-10 minutes longer.
• Serve with hot rice.