Seafood Etouffee over Rice

Serves 4 really fucking hungry people. Cooking time: 1 hour, 20 minutes or so, including making the roux.

Etouffee base

• 1 stick butter
  
• 1.5 c onion, very finely chopped
  
• .5 c all-purpose flour
  
• .5 c red bell pepper, finely chopped
  
• .5 c celery, finely chopped
  
• 3 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
  
• 1 can diced tomatoes, with liquid from can
  
• 1 can chicken broth
  
• 2 tsp black pepper
  
• 1 tsp paprika
  
• .5 tsp ground mustard
  
• to taste cayenne pepper
  
• to taste salt
  
• .5 c sherry (optional)

Fish

• .75 lb. medium to heavy fish, such as (in order of preference) grouper, snapper, mahi-mahi, tilapia, or even catfish
  
• .75 lb. medium-sized shrimp, peeled, deveined, and washed

Rice

• 2 c rice (uncooked)
  
• .25 sticks butter

Make a roux with 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup flour. It will take 20-30 minutes to get to the desired darkness; a nutty, deep umber.

Add about 2/3 of the can of chicken broth, slowly while stirring to mix it in with the roux. Then add the can of diced tomatoes and the rest of the vegetables. If the pan seems too dry (if it's frying instead of simmering), add water in 1/4 cup increments. Any water you add now will not hurt, it will just add to your simmering time later on. Add all the spices, and simmer until vegetables are soft, about 12 minutes.

While waiting for vegetables to soften, bring 4 cups water to a boil in a separate small pot with a tight-fitting lid. Once boiling, add the rice, a quarter stick of butter, and a few shakes of salt, and cover, simmering on low heat, for about 20 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed (without removing the lid).

Back to the etouffee. Once all the vegetables are soft, add the rest of the chicken broth and the sherry (optional), and simmer, stirring occasionally, until etouffee starts to thicken, about 12 minutes. At this point, you've got etouffee, with no meat. Taste it and see whether you want more salt, or more cayenne pepper.

We're making seafood etouffee here, and seafood takes very little time to cook, but if you were making Chicken Etouffee instead, for instance, you'd have probably wanted to add your chicken at the same time as your vegetables in order to cook it fully. But again, ours is a seafood etouffee, and we've got our shrimp peeled, washed, and deveined, and our fish trimmed and cubed. Add the fish and shrimp to the etouffee, and simmer until cooked, about 10 minutes. Serve etouffee over rice.