Chris Preovolos/photo
ABOVE: Shrimp étouffée over rice.
2/28/2009
I was a little under the weather this week, so whipping up a New Orleans dinner for Mardi Gras was out of the question. I’m just now catching up.
Without overlooking gumbo, po’ boys, boiled crawfish, bread pudding (and let’s not forget sazeracs), when I think of New Orleans, I can’t stop thinking about étouffée. For my money, crawfish étouffée is the quintessential Crescent City dish, but around here it’s easier to use shrimp, unfortunately.
After some Internet research over the past couple of years, I’ve settled on a recipe from NOLAcuisine.com, with just a couple adaptations [there is no way I'm making homemade Worcestershire sauce]. This recipe calls for a blonde roux, which is fine by me because I’m probably going to end up burning it if I have to go much darker. However, many traditional étouffées use a reddish brown roux.
I don’t know where you stand on the debate regarding the inclusion of tomatoes in your etoufee, but I don’t really care; the bottom line is this is a faithful representation of a classic New Orleans dish.
I hope you like butter.
–CP
CHECK OUT THE RECIPE: HERE
