Southern Seafood

Passport & Plate - Shrimp Etoufee

USA | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped green bell peppers
1/4 cup chopped celery
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp Creole seasoning
2 bay leaves
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
4 cups chicken broth
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
green onions for garnish

Creole Seasoning:
2 1/2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried thyme

 

How to prepare this recipe
Melt butter in a Dutch oven. Stir in flour and cook over medium-low heat until golden brown to make a roux. Add onions, bell pepper, celery, and garlic. Cook vegetables until tender. Slowly stir in broth. Add Creole seasoning, bay leaves, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until thick, 30-45 mins. Add shrimp and cook for 5-7 mins. until shrimp is cooked through. Serve on bed of boiled white rice and garnish with green onions.

 

The story behind this recipe
Etoufee is not merely one story but many. It is the story of Louisiana Cajun transplants meeting Vietnamese shrimpers in a Texas town built on the oil boom. The dish is the happy stories of graduations, birthdays, and weddings. It is the sad stories of prison sentences and funerals. The variations on the recipe are as numerous as the cultures that live in this community. To limit the dish to one story is to deny the melting pot that makes up this city. It is the culmination of shrimp freshly caught in the Gulf of Mexico south of the city, combined with rice harvested from the swampy fields to the west, served up by the spices and cooking style that came from the east. No matter the cultural, racial, or political differences found here, we have all come together over a plate of etoufee.