Crawfish Etouffee

We had this a couple of weeks ago at our friends’ house.  Jeremy is originally from Breaux Bridge, LA, the crawfish capital of the world.  (And home to boudin making, as can be seen on the show “Dirty Jobs.”)  Both the Etouffee and boudin were really good.  The sausage is definitely different – you either like it or hate it.  It has rice in it, along with pork in all it’s forms.  I had to read the label to see if it was gluten-free (it is), but I’m not sure I really wanted to know what was in it.   Here’s the Etouffee recipe – it calls for less flour than some, which is why he used it.  It doesn’t start with as much of a roux as some.

2 lb. crawfish tails
2 large onions
1 stalk celery
2 cloves garlic
2 medium green peppers
1 stick butter
chopped parsley
chopped onion tops
salt
red and black pepper to taste
fat from crawfish (if you buy frozen tails, it comes with fat)
1 Tbsp flour (I used rice flour)
1 cup water

Mince onions, celery, bell or green peppers and garlic. Cook minced vegetables in melted butter over low heat. Cook slowly for 30 minutes or until vegetables are golden brown. Stire in 1 tablespoon of flour. Add crawfish tails and crawfish fat. Season with salt and papper to taste. Add one cup of hot water according to desired thickness of gravy. Let simmer in a covered pot until tails are tender. Add onion tops and parsley. Serve hot over rice. Serves 4-6.