Crawfish Etouffee

I promised a recipe and I will give you one that my mom used to make, but I do not put in the tomato paste or tomatoes in the sauce.  I learned another way to make the "etouffee" from a friend who was from Beaux Bridge, LA.  That is where they have a crawfish festival every year.  We made the sauce and also put shrimp in the place of crawfish.  The original New Orleans recipe calls for fish stock, but you can make stock with shrimp shells when making it with shrimp or use a fish stock if you can get your hands on some. 

1 teaspoon tomato paste, 2 cups fish stock or seafood stock by boiling the shells and then drain the broth or water, 1-2 pounds of crawfish tails that have been peeled and cleaned, 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, 1-2 tsp. of salt or to taste, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, 1/2 cup chopped green onion, 1 finely chopped sweet white onion, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 1 cup of tomatoes seeded and cut up.  To make the roux you can either use 4 Tbsp. of butter and 3-4 Tbsp. of flour.
In a large saucepan(I use a large black iron skillet) melt the butter and remove from heat.  Stir in the flour and stir until smooth.  Return to heat and continue stirring until the roux browns. This takes about 10 minutes and the color will be dark brown like the color of chocolate.  Stir in the white onions and celery and cook about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic, seasonings, tomato paste (if using) and stock and stir into roux.  Add crawfish and tomatoes(if using) and simmer about 20 minutes.  Add the parsley and green onion about 5 minutes before serving.  Serve over steamed white rice. 
My friend from Breaux Bridge used the same ratio of canola oil to flour for the roux.  She then sautéed the vegetables except for the green onion and parsley in the about 2-3 Tbsp. butter for about 15 minutes until they softened. She then added the roux.  She did not use fish or shrimp stock, just water to thin roux out. She then added the crawfish or shrimp and did not use tomatoes or tomato paste.  We always in my family put the parsley and green onion in about 5 minutes before serving.  You may find the some Cajun families make the etouffee  a little different.  The shrimp version may also be called Shrimp Creole.  We visited St. Genevieve in Missouri on the way to St. Louis one vacation and I purchased this cookbook entitled La Cuisine Francaise des Premieres Annees de l'Amerique du Nord which means The French Cuisine the First Year in North America. This  paperback cookbook is by Patricia B. Mitchell.  The French Canadians settled also along the river in Missouri, as well as in Maine and some northern states when the disposition happened, not just Louisiana.  The recipes in this cookbook are in French. One day I may type up the Ecrevisse Etouffee recipe.  Ecrevisse is the word that the Cajun French called crawfish.  They gave the crawfish this name since it was new to them in the new land. Enjoy! Do not forget the Louisiana Hot Sauce!!!