Crawfish Etouffee

Delicious!
     Crawfish Etouffee is a famous Cajun recipe.  Etouffee translates to smothered.  Etouffee is always served with rice.  Some modern etouffee recipes add tomato to the ingredients and do not require a red brown roux.  My recipe is traditional Cajun, with a red brown roux and no tomatoes.  You need to prepare all the ingredients ahead of time, before you start to make the roux.
     Recipe:  Cook some plain long grain white rice and keep the rice warm.
     Shell about 25 to 40 crawfish tails per serving.  (Try to retain the yellow crawfish fat.)
     Reserve 1 whole crawfish to use later as a garnish. 
     Set the crawfish and crawfish fat aside. 
     Finely dice these vegetables: 2small handfuls of onion, 1 small handful of 1/2 green bell pepper + 1/2 red bell pepper, 1 green onion and 1 small handful of celery. 
     Place the diced vegetables into a bowl.   
     Add 2 minced garlic cloves.
     Add a minced small shallot.
     Heat 5 to 6 pats of unsalted butter in a sauce pot over medium high heat. 
     Add an equal amount of flour to the butter while stirring with a whisk. 
     Stir with a whisk constantly, till the roux cooks to a red brown color.  (If you burn the roux and there are black specks, then the roux must be discarded and a new red brown roux must be started.)
     When the roux becomes a red brown color, immediately add all of the chopped vegetables and stir.  The hot roux will cook the vegetables and garlic in a few seconds.
     Add the crawfish tails.
     Add a little squeeze of lemon juice.
     Add a splash of dry white wine. 
     Add a cup of shrimp broth. 
     Stir the etouffee. 
     The etouffee should be a thin medium consistency at this point.
     Add a pinch each of basil, oregano, thyme, tarragon and marjoram.
     Add 3 pinches of chopped Italian parsley.
     Add 2 pinches of  cayenne pepper.
     Add 3 pinches of paprika. 
     Stir the etouffee and reduce the temperatur to medium low heat. 
     Simmer the etouffee for five minutes. 
     Assembly:  Use a ring mold to place the white rice on a plate. 
     Spoon the crawfish etouffee over the rice and onto the plate. 
     Place a couple of parsley sprigs on the rice and garnish the rice with a warm whole crawfish.
     This crawfish etouffee is so very delicious!  Every taste is heavenly.  The red brown color comes from the roux and not the shrimp stock.  The flavors are deep and comfortably spicy.  It is not necessary to add too much cayenne to this recipe because you want to enjoy the savory Cajun flavored crawfish.  A pretty whole crawfish is a nice garnish for etouffee.  Yummy!  ...  Shawna