Etouffee

5 -6 serving

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
½ medium Onion; medium dice
4 Stalks celery; medium dice
1 Bell pepper; (pick yer color..I like red), med. dice
Garlic; to taste, (used about 2 tsp...coulda used much more, IMO..)
2 cans (8-oz) tomato sauce
1 can (14-16 oz) chicken stock
1 teaspoon Thyme; I'm guessing, up to 2
1 teaspoon Basil; ditto, up to 2
1 teaspoon Oregano; ditto ditto, up to 2
Salt to taste
Ground red savina to taste
1 tablespoon Olive oil; about
¼ Flour; about, just enough to bind the veggies, (see below)
1 pounds Shrimp; peeled, washed, (bought, unpeeled, headless weight)

Directions

Don't spare the rod on my account! Oh, sorry...wrong list. Hmmm...the recipe. Okay, here goes. Think FireGirl's list of ingredients is correct on her website so double check it for omissions (although she forgot that I used some ground red savina in it...which I carried w/me on the trip; gracias Brother Jim..). No measurements, just recollection of what I threw in. And realize, we wanted to eat, not sit around and let stock cook down, blah, blah...even forgot the pasta (rice is better tho...again, too impatient) until the last minute. Consequently, it isn't traditional really, but it wuz purty damn tasty...

Now if I had found some *crawfish* up thar...well, things woulda been different...

Heat a stockpot on high heat (Lisa had a beautiful gas stove...hence my excitement and agreement to cook whilst on vacation...okay, I wanted to show off and see if I could still woo wimmenz with my culinary skills...although I think it was the fact that I began to wash my dishes afterwards that was "attractive"...hehe...). When very hot, add oil and allow to heat/smoke.

Add veggies and stir. Don't let the garlic burn, but cook over the high heat allowing them to sweat/soften. Add the herbs/spices (watch the backlash from the savinas!), stirring/mixing well. Add the flour and mix well. Mixture should thicken/"clump" up (you're making a roux, essentially).

Add one can of the tomato sauce and stir well. It should darken some (the entire mix), but again, NO burning. Turn down heat if needed. RE: if any time during the process things begin to burn, pull it from the heat.

Stir in the stock. Mix well. Add the rest of the tomato paste. Mix well.

Let the mixture come to a boil. Dump in the shrimpies and turn down to a simmer. Simmer for about 15 minutes and taste it frequently, adjusting herbs, heat (chile), salt, etc. Done.

I was satisfied with the result. Wasn't *really* hot in terms of chile, but I wasn't sure of FireGirl's friend Lisa's chilehead rating. I think it was just right though. Well balanced. Think I'm gonna see if I can talk the chef at work into letting me offer crawfish etouffee as a special tonight....and call in the 18 year old banquet manager for a nibble of my culinary delights. She is the definition of a nubile to make a grown man whimper like a dog (that he is..). Of course, I'll hate myself in the morning...

Eat 'em up, yum.

Posted to CHILE-HEADS DIGEST by MachineGun <rael64@...> on Apr 24, 1998

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