Shrimp Étoufée


Work, but very yummy


We've started eating out too much again, so I polled the kids for things to fix for supper and Daughter dragged out the recipe binder and decided to make Southern Living's Shrimp and Crab Étoufée (but without the crab, because it does foul things to my digestive tract,) It took an hour and a half from start to table because the miserable recipe calls for uncooked still-in-the-shell shrimp (fresh or frozen, they don't care) and then of course the first step is "Peel the shrimp." So Daughter and I stood there peeling 2 pounds of 70-90 ct. raw shrimp. Augh! If it's not important that they be unfrozen, why is it important that they be unpeeled? At least we caught them on sale at $5 / pound, so the meal didn't cost an arm and a leg.

(Foodies may skip the lectures on the importance on getting very fresh shrimp and how it still being in the shell is a better guarantee of that. I've seen the Good Eats episode on that subject. I'm in the middle of the freakin' continent; the only way I'm getting truly fresh shrimp is to drive 14 hours and then eat it while I'm there. We have two types of seafood here -- frozen and previously-frozen.)

Howsomever, it is a delicious recipe! And may I brag that my daughter did the whole thing by herself with me acting only as a sous-chef; I did nothing but help peel shrimp and measure out some spice ingredients as she called them out when she was at a point where she couldn't stop stirring. She made her first roux and it was gorgeous. She didn't burn it or undercook it, it was a lovely caramel color when she was done and the final dish was a beautiful copper shade (it has a tablespoon of tomato paste in it.)

Posted: Fri - July 25, 2008 at 10:05 AM   Home         | | View Technorati reactions

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