Crawfish Etouffe

This is adapted from a now disgraced New Orleans chef, whose reputation for an environment of pervasive sexual harassment is likely correct, but whose food is really quite good.  How do you separate the two, it is hard to say.  One critic pointed out the perils of family branding (we can only hope that happens to a great degree to the first family).  But I digress.  We have a source of great seafood that comes up from Galveston on a more than once a month basis in the warm months, and this was a delicious way to have crawfish.

• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• Half a red bell pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Leaves from two sprigs of fresh thyme
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 small tomato, peeled, seeded, and diced
• 1 quart stock
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 pound peeled crawfish tails (from 2 ½ pounds live)
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 dashes Worchestershire
• 2 dashes Tabasco Salt Freshly ground black pepper

 Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk the flour into the very hot oil. It will immediately begin to sizzle and fizz. Keep whisking and reduce the heat to moderate. Continue whisking until the roux takes on a gorgeous dark brown color, about 15 minutes.  Add the onions, reduce the heat, and cook until the onions caramelize. If you add all the vegetables at the same time, the water that results will boil the onions and their sugars won’t caramelize.
2. When the onions have turned the roux shiny and dark, add the celery, bell peppers, garlic, thyme, cayenne, and paprika. Cook for 5 minutes. Now add the tomatoes and the Shellfish Stock and increase the heat to high.
3. Once the sauce has come to a boil, reduce the heat to moderate and let simmer 5-7 minutes, stirring often. Be careful not to let it burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.
4. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the butter. Add the crawfish tails and green onions. Season with Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt, and black pepper. Once the crawfish tails have heated through, remove the saucepan from the heat.
5. Serve in individual bowl with a dollop of rice.