New Orleans has a way of taking whatever’s around them and frying, stewing or boiling it until your taste buds beg for mercy.
Crawfish Étouffée
"Étouffée is a Louisiana seafood stew that differs from gumbos and Creole sauce-based dishes in that it’s traditionally made with a light or “blond” roux. My untraditional method bypasses the roux altogether."
3⁄4 pound (3 sticks) salted butter
2 cups diced onions
1⁄2 cup diced red (and/or green or yellow) bell pepper
2 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Seasoning Blends Shrimp Magic or Home Creole Seasoning (recipe below)
1⁄2 cup water or Strong Shrimp Stock
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
1 (1-pound) package domestic peeled and cleaned crawfish tails
1 bunch green onions, chopped
hot cooked Jazzman rice or jasmine rice
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and add the onions. Cover and cook on low to medium heat to “sweat” the onions until soft but without coloring, about 30 minutes. Add the diced peppers and the Shrimp Magic, cover, and continue cooking an additional 15 minutes. Add the water or stock, bring to a boil and whisk in the cornstarch and water slurry. Simmer for a few minutes and turn off the heat. The mixture will be broken and oily at first, but you will be able to whisk it together as it cools.
If serving right away, stir in the crawfish tails and green onion and return it to a simmer for a couple of minutes. If the sauce “breaks,” just continue whisking until it comes back together.
Serve in warmed pasta bowls over hot rice.
Note: Refrigerates up to a week, but don’t add the crawfish tails or green onion until you serve it. To reheat, heat slowly while whisking, then add the tails and green onion.
Home Creole Seasoning
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"Étouffée is a Louisiana seafood stew that differs from gumbos and Creole sauce-based dishes in that it’s traditionally made with a light or “blond” roux. My untraditional method bypasses the roux altogether."
3 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons table salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons white pepper
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried thyme
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and store tightly covered in a cool part of your kitchen.
Traditional Jambalaya
"This is a quick and foolproof way of preparing this dish that allows you to add whatever ingredients you like by cooking them ahead and then adding them to the sauce base. Use chicken, sausage, shrimp, crabmeat, oysters, whatever you have on hand."
4 cups Creole Mother Sauce
2 or 3 cups cooked chicken, sausage, shrimp, crabmeat, oysters—whatever you have on hand
1 cup water or stock
3 cups cooked white rice
freshly chopped parsley or green onion
Heat the sauce in a large saucepan and add the cooked chicken and/or other proteins. Add the water or stock, cover and simmer for a few minutes, until hot.
Fold in the rice. Garnish with plenty of freshly chopped parsley or green onion.
Creole Mother Sauce
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"Creole sauce is a hallmark of New Orleans cooking and takes time and a bit of technique to get right. It’s usually mixed with shrimp and served over rice for shrimp Creole, but it can be used to braise anything from green beans to wild game.”"
1⁄4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup diced green bell pepper
1 cup diced onion
1⁄2 cup diced celery
1 cup sliced okra
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
1 small bay leaf
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
1 quart Strong Shrimp Stock
1 tablespoon Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Seasoning Blends Shrimp Magic or Home Creole Seasoning
1 teaspoon kosher salt
To make the roux, heat the oil on high in a large, heavy-bottom pot. Whisk the flour into the hot oil and continue to whisk constantly. Use a large spoon to scrape the edge of the skillet the whisk won’t reach so that it cooks evenly.
When the color is approaching that of dark brown sugar, which should be 2 or 3 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the bell pepper, onion, celery, okra, garlic, and bay leaf. The roux color will advance one shade. Cover and cook on very low heat for 15 minutes.
Add the tomatoes with juice, mashing them up with your hands into small pieces, and then add the stock. Scrape the bottom of the pan with a ladle or spoon to release any crusted bits. Season with the Shrimp Magic and salt.
Bring this to a simmer and cook on low boil for about an hour to reduce the liquid by about 40 percent. Skim off the fat by tilting the pan and allowing the grease to collect along the sides so it can easily be removed with a large spoon. Remove the bay leaf.
Note: It can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for several months.