Crawfish Etouffee

I am a southern, Louisiana girl. I was born in New Orleans and then lived in Shreveport almost all of my life. I have lived in and loved Texas for almost six years now. There are many things I treasure about Texas. However, the cajun food in Louisiana cannot be beat. My brother is an excellent chef. He worked for a crawfish catering company for years, went to culinary school at the Cordon Bleu in Belgium and Paris, was the daily chef for 500 students at a YWAM base, and now works as a cook at a Mongolian restaurant in California. He loves cooking for large crowds and I love cooking for smaller dinner parties with friends and family. He is the cajun food cooking expert, so I texted him for some crawfish etouffee tips. Here is my recipe (using some tips from my brother) for Crawfish Etouffee.

Ingredients:

1/2 stick unsalted butter

4 1/2 tbsp canola oil

2 1/2 tbsp flour

1/2 a large yellow onion

1 chopped green bell pepper

2 stalks of celery chopped

4 cloves of minced garlic

4 stalks of green onions chopped

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons of Tony Chacheres seasoning

2 tbsp white cooking wine

1 1/2 cups of water

1 pound crawfish tails

dash of salt

2 tsp lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp of dried parsley

cooked brown rice

Instructions:

Chop all the vegetables. In a large pot (I use my Le Creuset dutch oven), melt the butter over medium-high heat and add the canola oil. Add in the flour. Stir continuously to make a light roux. (I use a wisk. Do not stop stirring! You do not want to burn the roux.) Let the roux thicken a little. Add the onions, dried parsley, celery, bell pepper, green onions, bay leaves, garlic, salt, and some Tony's. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are soft. (Adding in the dried parsley right after making the roux helps release the flavor more.)

 Add in the white cooking wine. Cook for 3 minutes. Add the water and the crawfish tails. Sprinkle in more Tony's. Bring to a boil. After it boils, reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, about 7 minutes. Add in the lemon juice and the rest of the Tony's. Serve over the brown rice.

Laissez les bon temps roulet!

(Commonly said in New Orleans. French phrase meaning "Let the good times roll!")