shrimp etouffee

Surprisingly, I had all the ingredients for this — except the green onions.  Shrimp etouffee is a Creole dish which is KINDA, SORTA like gumbo.  It’s basically a roux with veggies and is seasoned with bay leaves and shrimp stock.

The Basics

• Diced veggies – Onions, celery and green bell peppers
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• Steamed rice
• 2-3 shrimp stock
• De-shelled and de-veined shrimp; about a couple handfuls
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 6 tbs butter – Don’t substitute with margarine.  Use butter.
• 6 tbs flour
• Sliced green onions
• Essence of Emeril – Yes, I actually have the packaged mix.  You can use cajun seasoning if you want.

The Rundown

1. Making the roux – This can be a bit tricky, but we’ll get through this together.  Put a dutch oven on your stove top, turn the heat to medium.  Add the butter until melted.  Once melted, sprinkle all of the flour. Mix immediately with a whisk.  Keep whisking the roux and let it keep cooking until it becomes a peanut butter like color.  This is going to take a while, but DO NOT LEAVE THE ROUX. It will brown very quickly and it will be game over.  This should take about 5 minutes or so.
2. Add diced veggies and cook for about 10 minutes.
3. Dump the whole can of tomatoes into the pot.  Add 1 tbsp. of essence of Emeril and 2 bay leaves.  Taste and add salt if needed.  Cook for about 4 minutes.
4. Add shrimp stock and mix all together.  Turn down heat until the etouffee starts to simmer.  Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add shrimp sauce and let cook for about 5 minutes or no longer gray.
6. Spoon etouffee on top of steamed rice and garnish with green onions.  Enjoy!

Additional Notes

• I wanted to make mine a little more….seafood-y.  What did I do? Add patis (fish sauce).  It’s salty BUT added a fishy taste to the sauce.  Use VERY sparginly and it won’t be that overwhleming.

Tags: complex, creole, dutch oven, recipe, shrimp