Crawfish Etouffee
Ingredients
4 cups vegetable oil
4 pounds chopped crawfish tail meat plus 2 pounds whole crawfish tails
8 ounces (2 sticks) salted butter
2 ounces paprika
10 quarts seafood stock
4 ounces Creole seasoning
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 brown onions, minced
2 green bell peppers, minced
1 red bell pepper, minced
1/2 bunch celery, minced
6 ounces Louisiana hot sauce
4 ounces Worcestershire sauce
2 ounces black pepper
2 ounces dried parsley flakes
2 ounces granulated garlic
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon ground bay leaves
One 50-ounce can tomato soup
1 1/2 cans cream of mushroom soup
Directions
In a large oval roasting pan or large pot, heat the vegetable oil on medium-high heat for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a separate sauce pot, add the chopped crawfish, butter, paprika, 2 quarts of the seafood stock and 2 ounces of the Creole seasoning, bring to a boil and lower to a simmer.
When the oil in the roasting pan is hot, stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is medium brown in color (a similar color to peanut butter). Turn off the heat and immediately add the onions, bell peppers and celery. Add the hot sauce, Worcestershire, black pepper, parsley flakes, granulated garlic, cayenne, basil, bay leaves and remaining 2 ounces Creole seasoning, stirring constantly.
Add the tomato soup and remaining 8 quarts seafood stock and stir. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring. Add the crawfish and butter mixture and continue cooking for 30 minutes, stirring regularly. Stir in the cream of mushroom soup and simmer for another 30 minutes. Add the whole crawfish tails and remove from the heat.
