Christoph and Steffi's Food and Travel & Christoph and Steffi's Food and Travel
Abundant shrimp in pale copper gravy over a separate mound of white rice with finely diced trinity and restrained herbs
AI-generated image · Higgsfield Seedream 5.0 Pro · AI-generated
Main LouisianaSouthern US Pescatarian seafoodricecomfort-foodspicy

Shrimp Étouffée

Shrimp smothered briefly in a pale copper butter-roux gravy with the Louisiana trinity, served over separate white rice.

Prep25 min
Cook40 min
Rest5 min
Servings6
Cook mode

Adapted from Explore Louisiana's crawfish etouffee, using shrimp as the named seafood while preserving the light butter-roux method.

Ingredients

Written for a 30 cm pan

Units
Temperature
Servings
6

Étouffée

  • 600 g large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 70 g unsalted butter, for roux
  • 70 g all-purpose flour
  • 200 g onion, finely diced
  • 120 g green bell pepper, finely diced
  • 80 g celery, finely diced
  • 15 g garlic, minced
  • 800 ml unsalted seafood stock, kept warm
  • 12 g homemade Creole seasoning
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 10 ml Louisiana-style hot sauce
  • 15 ml lemon juice
  • 20 g unsalted butter, to finish
  • 40 g scallions, sliced
  • 20 g parsley, chopped

Rice

  • 300 g long-grain white rice
  • 540 ml water

Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.

Method

  1. Keep raw shrimp and its equipment separate. Cook rice separately in the measured water.
  2. Melt 70 g butter in the deep skillet. Add flour and stir continuously, scraping corners, for 4 to 7 minutes until tan or light peanut-butter coloured with no black specks. If it smells acrid, discard and restart.
  3. Add onion, pepper, and celery immediately and cook 6 minutes. Add garlic for 30 seconds, then gradually whisk in warm stock without splashing.
  4. Add seasoning, bay, and hot sauce. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes until the gravy coats a spoon.
  5. Add shrimp only for the last 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat as soon as they are pearly and opaque. Add lemon, finish butter, scallions, and parsley. Rest 5 minutes and serve over rice. This tomato-free butter-roux route is one Louisiana approach, not the only Cajun or Creole method.

Ingredient substitutions

  • The source tradition often uses Louisiana crawfish tails. In Germany or Canada, frozen crawfish tails from a specialist may replace shrimp by weight. Shrimp are sweeter and firmer and lack crawfish fat, so they are not identical and must be added only at the end.
  • Homemade Creole seasoning controls salt. Commercial Germany or Canada blends vary; reduce separate salt and avoid garlic salt or onion salt.

Notes

  • Cool sauce and rice separately in shallow containers within 2 hours. Refrigerate no more than 2 days. Reheat gently to 74°C without prolonged boiling.
  • For best freezing, make and freeze sauce before adding shrimp for up to 2 months, then add fresh shrimp after thawing. Cooked shrimp become firmer if frozen in sauce.

Sources consulted

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Sources consulted

From Christoph Mayer

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