Father's Day Dinner / Revisiting Some More Southern Favorites*...

Now you've done it, readers - all the discussion of regional foodstuffs this weekend has got my Southern food cravings working overtime. Luckily, I had Father's Day as an excuse to spend some quality time in the kitchen...

I present to you Crawfish Étouffée!

Now étouffée is a Louisana specialty, and not one that I grew up eating in my native Tennessee - which is a shame, because my friends and I used to spend lots of afternoons in the creek catching what we then called "crawdads" when I was a kid. Had you suggested to me then that I would ever actually eat one of those "mudbugs" we were catching, I think I would have been appalled. (In fact, I vaguely remember being really disgusted when the Paul Prudhomme-inspired Cajun Food craze of the 80's first began to spread. I also remember thinking that some people would eat anything.... little did I know!)

And now, some history....

The name étouffée comes from the French word étouffer, which means "to smother" - that's because this entree is smothered in delicious flavor! Étouffée can be made with crawfish or shrimp (I find both equally delicious) and is traditionally begun with a medium-colored, butter-based roux to which vegetables (the "holy trinity" of Cajun cuisine: onion, bell pepper, garlic) and the crawfish-or-shrimp are added.
Some people add tomatoes or tomato paste - however, most purists would agree at that point what you have is not a true étouffée, but just a stew (albeit a tasty one). I understand that the tomato/no tomato debate is a raging one that can pit brother against brother....
Étouffée is typically served over rice, so as to sop up every bit of the delicious sauce.

I love étouffée, but I'll admit that I don't make it at home on a regular basis - mainly because it is time-consuming. There's a whole lot of chopping to do, and for this dish, I prefer the texture of hand diced vegetables. Sometimes I'll take a shortcut and chop all the veggies in the Cuisinart, but I never end up liking the texture of the dish as well.
In addition to the hand chopping, there is the roux-making. Again, not difficult, but time consuming - for the color that I like for this recipe, I stand and whisk the flour/butter mixture pretty much continuously for 20-25 minutes. (I have a gas range, so I feel that's pretty quick, I suspect that it would be closer to 30-40 minutes on an electric...) I know, I know, it's time consuming, but the end result really it worth it....

For our Father's Day dinner, I served this with plain steamed white rice, and some corn bread sticks (to which I added Parmesan cheese and some black pepper, simply because I like those two flavors.)
In the background, you can kind of see my glass...I'm drinking something that I know is weird, but I just love it. I'm not sure if this drink has a name,** so I don't call it anything. Bubba refers to it as "that nasty drink."
It's a combination of beer and lemonade. I know that it sounds gross, but it is a great summer drink - it's nice and light. I take about 4 ounces of lemonade and pour it in a tall glass, then add beer to fill the glass up. Don't use good beer for this - cheap, watery American beer is perfect. And you're not allowed to knock it until you've tried it....

For dessert, I made the peanut-butter brownie cupcakes as mentioned on VeryGoodThings. This kind of recipe is not really my usual - I have no problem with mixes, etc. as a starting point, but this recipe was nothing but boxed mix. Then I thought "don't be a food snob, Bubba and Schecky will love them." And they did...

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*Hey Autum, do you remember months ago telling me that I should write about food???? :)

**Maybe Manda can help me out with this? I first had this drink in a tapas bar in Barcelona, but it was a pair of British girls sitting at the counter who told me what to order - they called it a "Lager with Lemon." Since then, I have been told that it may be called a Shandy????)