How to Cook Cajun Food

Sunday, June 20, 2010

How to Make Crawfish Stew - Spicy

Make a Crawfish Stew - Spicy


Now that the crawfish boil is over what will you do with all of the leftovers? Well there is a simple answer, make a spicy crawfish stew. Throwing together a spicy stew with the left over sausage, vegetables and crawfish is fairly straight forward. Having a crawfish boil and saving the leftovers unlocks several Cajun crawfish recipe opportunities. So lets turn up the heat and cook some Cajun food.

Cook Crawfish Stew - Spicy Ingredients

  • crawfish tails (peeled) 4 lbs would be best
  • Sausage, potatoes, corn and any other goodies you have leftover from the crawfish boil
  • 1 white onion chopped up fine
  • 1 green bell pepper chopped up fine
  • 1 stalk of celery chopped up fine
  • 1 to 2 cloves of garlic chopped fine (optional)
  • 1 cup flour (more or less)
  • 1 cup cooking oil
  • Hot sauce (optional)
  • 3 to 6 hard boiled eggs (optional)
  • Approximately 4 cups of water
  • Salt and pepper to tast
The key to making any Cajun stew or gumbo is in the roux. There are several instant roux mixes on the market and some of them are good when time is an issue. The roux mix I would recommend when going the instant route is Tony Chachere's Roux Mix 1 lb. it is not as good as making your rue the old fashioned way but you can still make a vaillant (nice) base for your stew or gumbo. For the purpose of this recipe we will assume you have plenty of time and want to give making your own roux a shot.

Before preparing the roux it is important that you get the other ingredients ready, you will not have time to mess around when you start the roux.

Lets get started, pour one cup of cooking oil in a large pot or skillet over medium heat. Once the oil heats up a bit start mixing in the flour slowly with a spoon, spatula or a whisk. I prefer to use a whisk. Add small amounts of flour at a time mixing together well until you get a consistency somewhat like gravy. Keep stirring the oil and flour mixture or the roux will burn. You can turn the heat down a bit if it seems to hot. Continue stirring the roux until you get a deep golden brown color. Add the Cajun holy trinity (bell pepper, onion and celery) and garlic (optional). Be careful when adding the trinity to the roux, the water in the vegetables may make the oil spatter. Keep stirring the roux until it is just about to burn approximately 20 to 30 minutes. DO NOT BURN THE ROUX!

Zyliss Quick Blend Whisk                                  Magnalite Classic 10-Quart Covered Stockpot

Add half of the water and continue to stir. Blend the water and the roux together. Once the base for your spicy crawfish stew is mixed well add the left over crawfish and other goodies from the seafood boil. Pour the rest of the water into the pot and mix well. Be carefull when adding the water so you do not make the stew to think or thin. You can add more spices or hot sauce at this point but keep in mind the crawfish were boiled in spicy seasoning. Put the cover on the pot and cook 30 to 35 minutes on low to medium heat, stirring the contents of the pot occasionally. Remove the cover from the pot and cook an additional 20 minutes, if the stew starts getting to think add a little water. If you want to add the hard boiled eggs to the spicy crawfish stew do so with about 5 minutes remaining on the cooking time.

The last step is to make some rice and enjoy you Cajun crawfish stew - spicy!

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