Crawfish Etoufee

[seurto]

Don't worry. Some of the guys on this forum need to avoid arguments otherwise it works their blood pressure up or something.

I really am glad for the advice since I have zero experience with cajun food except for drinking cafe au lait at le Cafe du Monde and eating at Heaven on Seven in Chicago a lot. "Real" Cajun food is totally foreign to me. All I know is that making dark roux is waaaaaay harder than you'd think.
"The music has gotten pretty bad, I think. It's all that damn line dancing." -- Chet Atkins

Ah, dark rue is not too terribly difficult.. What most people dont know is that you must (so that it tastes anything remotely close to "cajun" rue) use a "seasoned" black iron skillet.. The wife tells me you can purchase them that way now.. Properly seasoned black iron skillets are worth thier weight in gold to old school cajun women, and handed down as family heirlooms. My mother has her grandmothers that she got from her grandmother.. for example.. My daughter will probably inherit it.

30 or so minutes of attentiveness to the rue and its done.. You just cannot leave the stove, you must continually stir it. And drain the oil off the top, before you use it..

On sundays, Hebert's Meats in tulsa serves cafe au lait and bengeit's til noon.. Wife and I went a couple of times.. As, when we lived in Lafayette once the kids got older, we would take off to NOLA after getting them off to school and be sitting at Cafe Du Mond by 9ish.. Thats and po-boys are the only thing we really enjoyed eating in NOLA, that was genuine to NOLA.. IMO..

 

[poopgiggle]

You can buy the skillets pre-seasoned or you can just season them in the oven. I've had bacon with breakfast for the past few months because I'm trying to season the pan and I don't like the results after oven-seasoning.

How long does roux (I've never seen it spelled rue before, but then I know it from traditional French cooking) keep for? The hard part for me is babysitting it for half an hour, because that effectively puts the prep for everything else on hold. If I could make some beforehand and keep some in the fridge that would make my life a lot easier.

 

[seurto]

Yes, oven seasoning.. can be tricky..

I imagine its spelled "roux", I spell it "rue" out of habit, buddy of mine is a "rue"..

You can re-use it or "keep" it for quite some time in a mason jar, I suppose.. I've never seen anyone keep it for very long in recent years.. Wife says it keeps for a long time.. no problem.. (we've never kept any for "a long time" that I knew of)

They do sell it pre-made, in mason jars (entire aisles are dedicated to cajun ingredients at wally world down south and you cant miss it), so, I would imagine its like a canned good.. I'm pretty sure they have it at Hebert's in Tulsa.. If you want to try some pre-made stuff to make it easier..

 

[poopgiggle]

Yes, oven seasoning.. can be tricky..

All it ever does for me is leave a bunch of sticky crap on the pan that makes cooking with it more difficult. It's less effort for me to season it the old fashioned way than it is to keep trying to oven-season it and then have to scrape off the gunk with steel wool and try again.

You can re-use it or "keep" it for quite some time in a mason jar, I suppose.. I've never seen anyone keep it for very long in recent years.. Wife says it keeps for a long time.. no problem.. (we've never kept any for "a long time" that I knew of)

Sweet. When I have some extra money and can cook some fun food I'm gonna make some gumbo.

 

[beast1989]

But you NEVER mix seafood with chicken/sausage...

haha try telling that to my relatives in Louisiana, any gumbo that doesnt have the kitchen sink in it might have me disappointed.

I can understand not having chicken, but like you said andouille is a staple, as well as seafood in general so NOT having them both in a bowl of gumbo just seams a bit crazy to me.

 

[seurto]

haha try telling that to my relatives in Louisiana, any gumbo that doesnt have the kitchen sink in it might have me disappointed.

I can understand not having chicken, but like you said andouille is a staple, as well as seafood in general so NOT having them both in a bowl of gumbo just seams a bit crazy to me.

I think I said the exact opposite of that about andouille,

Like I said before, andouille is not regularly used by anyone I know.. Its a "regional" additive..

Like gumbo.. Seafood gumbo is regularly made by people on the coast, due to the readily available seafood, whereas cajuns further inland rarely make it, they make chicken and sausage gumbo.. But you NEVER mix seafood with chicken/sausage..

I was being somewhat serious about this.. seafood and meat dont go well together, when cooked together.. And its just how gumbo was created, regionally, due to availability of food products..

What part of Louisiana are your relatives from?
I ask this, because, I have never heard of anyone eating gumbo with both, and although I'm not familiar or do not have family in all parts of louisiana (the north, which is more like tex/ar/miss anyway.. ccc) I'm pretty certain that none of peoples in the acadiana area practice this interesting sacriledge.. lol

I've seen plenty of interesting concoctions presented as "gumbo", from North Louisianians.. and in NOLA, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, etc, etc.. (not in resturaunts, I learned at a very young age not to bother ordering anything at a resturaunt, that my family cooked at home.. even at my families resturaunt, it wasnt the same)

I'll also take this moment to explain why the "acadiana" area is so important to the "cajun" culture and food derivatives.. (not just because thats where I grew up).. When the cajuns landed there, 250 something yrs ago, it was thiers, they were the predominant culture in that area.. Unlike NOLA (where the last 4 boats ended up) or the rest of South Louisiana, where, the orginal cajuns and thier traditions and foods came into contact with other ethnic backgrounds (african/creole/french/spanish/american indian). Their food products, is a direct reflection on thier heritage and history. Also, the dialects of the "cajun" language french/spanish/indian/creole/african/italian (speaking outside of american english) is notably different from each region as well (for example, my grandfather could not readily speak "cajun" to his cousins who live 150 miles away, because the dialect was so dramatically different - indian, french, spanish, and even italian words thrown in). Even the english accent is different. There are still some parts of south louisiana where people do sound like the coach from Waterboy, and I can barely understand what they are saying. (my grandfather's mother came from one such area, on my father's side)..

I can elaborate on this further if anyone is interested, but for now, I'll keep it tied to food.. lol

Beast - if you wanna continue this fascinating discussion and have some true cajun food at the same time, we can grab a bite at the shack this week..

Poopdiggle - sunday we plan on going have cafe au lait and begnet's at Heberts, if you wanna shoot the breeze in Tulsa, and the wife would enjoy further discussion on roux prep and storage..

shoot me a PM if yall are interested..

 

[jstaylor62]

Adding a pic...

 

[seurto]

ours is usually a darker red/brown, and the veggies are cooked down more..
those crawfish look waaay too clean.. lol