King Creole

It has been a while since I last wrote a post. Life has been busy and writing suffered for it. That doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking and baking, we still need to eat after all, but proper inspiration had failed me and I reverted back to cooking the standard go-to recipes. Today, however, I got to talk with a dear friend who is thinking of moving to New Orleans. And that got the juices running. 

New Orleans: exotic, relaxed and frantic at the same time, artistic, good music and (even better) food. A place I would love to visit, to taste its diversities and to hear its history. When I think of the food in New Orleans, the first thing that jumps to mind is their gumbo. To you and me, this is a stew. The locals, however, would say that gumbo is a whole food group on it's own. Who am I to argue...

But New Orleans is more than gumbo. Think about Po-Boys, King Cakes (served from 6th January through to Mardi Gras Day), beignets (those soft, fluffy, deep-fat-fried balls [squares] of dough, served with mounts of powdered sugar) or Jambalaya. But my favourite has got to be:

Crawfish Étouffée

Ingredients:

• 125 gram butter
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 1 stalk of celery, diced
• 1 pepper (red, yellow or green), diced
• 500 gram peeled crawfish tails or prawns
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 300 millilitre water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium to high heat
2. Add the onions, celery and peppers and fry for 10 to 12 minutes until the vegetables are soft and the onions are turning a light golden colour
• the holy trinity in all Creole cooking are onions, celery and peppers: much like onion, celery and carrot is in French cooking
3. Add the crawfish tails (or prawns) and the bay leaves, reduce the heat to medium, and cook the crawfish until they start throwing off a little liquid
• this will be about 10-12 minutes, but less if you are using prawns
4. Dissolve the flour in the water and add to the crawfish
5. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste
6. Stir the mixture until it begins to thicken, about 4 minutes
7. Add the parsley and spring onions and cook for another 2 minutes
8. Remove the bay leaves and serve over cooked rice

This is not my longest post ever, I am still trying to catch my breath, but I do hope you will

Enjoy

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