Crawfish Stew/Gumbo 7/14/2009

Hey ya'll! So I'm not a fan of seafood, but I will cook it for anyone. My mom had a potluck at work today so late last night I made a pot of crawfish stew for her. I added a little too much water, so it turned out more like a gumbo. But it's the exact same concept, just gumbo is watery instead of thick. My "kitchen assistant", Bella, was in bed, so she wasn't there to keep me company. But that's okay! Here we go....

1 medium onion (finely chopped)

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

2 mini bell peppers

Chop the veggies up! put in a bowl and set them by the stove so that you can add them into the roux

1 bay leaf

2 tsp seafood boil

save these til after you put the water in the pot

salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and Tony Chachere's (of course!)

put a small amount of the seasonings after you put the water. Remember, not much. You want to add more when the stew is almost DONE!

2 packs of already peeled crawfish

I put about 4 cups of water probably. Didn't really measure, just eyed it. 

Make the roux: 1/2 cup cooking oil (get it really hot, on medium high heat) then add 1/2 flour. stir CONSTANTLY until it is a milk chocolate brown color. while the roux is cooking, turn the heat down just a tad. When the roux is brown, add the veggies. Cooking (stirring just about constantly) for about 2 minutes.

Add water, seafood boil, bay leaf and the small amount of seasonings. Turn heat down to medium and cook for an hour. Keep an eye on it, stirring every so often. After it has been cooking an hour, add the crawfish and cook for about 20 more minutes. 

When the stew ("gumbo") is almost done, cook some instant rice (however much you want) and serve it over the rice. 

Pretty simple. Not a difficult dish at all. You see, the stuff that takes a while to cook, that has to sit for a while, you can relax! 

Well, I am off to make dinner for tonight! I will be back on later and tell you what I did! Thanks for droppin in! Good night and good eating!