Etoufee'

Our neighbors (and good friends) in Allen, TX first introduced us to true cajun food -> Crawfish boils, Crawfish Etoufee', Crawfish pie, cajun sausage and chicken and lots of other yummy Cajun foods. This is the Etoufee' dish they taught us to make, it's not true Etoufee', more of the "quick and easy" type but it still remains one of our favorite dishes to make. While we lived in Texas, we were able to get our hands on packages of crawfish but since we've not always been able to purchase it where we've lived, we turned this into sausage and shrimp Etoufee'. (We have found here that the packages of crawfish can occasionally be found at Publix, in the seafood freezer section.) We like this dish so much that we always make a double batch of it (this is good now with the ages of our kids), which is the recipe I'm posting - so if needed, you can cut it in half.

Note: Our kids wouldn't go for true cajun sausage (and some of the "true" cajun sausage varieties we can't stomach either!) so I use beef sausage, readily found at the grocery store, and the shrimp is the pre-cooked variety. Since the shrimp shrinks some when cooked I get the biggest size I can afford at the time I'm buying - it's best if you can find these bags on sale ahead of time.

Etoufee'

2 Green Peppers, diced
3-4 Stalks of Celery, sliced
1-2 onions, diced

(amount of celery and onions depends on size, goal is to have the vegies be "balanced" so sometimes have to cut up the peppers first and see how it goes - this isn't an exact type recipe, play around with it to your taste)

1/4 cup stick butter (the real stuff!)
2 cans regular Ro-tel tomatoes
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup
1 Beef sausage link (12-16 oz), sliced
1 Bag (12-16 oz) fresh or frozen pre-cooked shrimp

(FYI, the "fresh" cooked shrimp in most grocery stores is the same as what you find in the seafood freezer section. How do I know? Because one time they didn't have enough for my order, and the guy stepped out, took a bag from the freezer and then finished filling my order. At that point I had to ask about it....!)

OR instead of shrimp, 1-2 pkg. of crawfish meat (usually about 12-16 oz.)

Cooked Rice (we cook our rice in a rice cooker but can also use rice prepared on stovetop or Minute rice; have to admit though that Minute rice is a little "weak" in stature for this dish)

Instructions:

Slice and dice all vegetables. (Pictures actually show 2 double batches being prepared - one for us and one to give away!)
Melt the butter in large pot. When butter is hot (but not browning), add the vegetables and stir-fry until soft. [Can add some salt/pepper here to taste.]
Once vegetables are soft (or slightly soft), add the 2 cans of Ro-tel tomatoes.
Add the cream of mushroom soups as well, however, when adding each one, fill each empty can with 1/2 can water, swirl around with spoon to get more goody and then add to the pot.

Bring the pot of vegetables with tomatoes and soup to a boil, turn down and simmer. In the meantime, slice up the Beef sausage.

Add beef sausage to pot, bring to a boil again and then let down to a simmer.

[My hubby does all the "cooking" so I can continue on with the sausage and shrimp preparation. We have a good time doing this dish together; he also washes and preps the vegies for cutting and sets up the rice cooker to cook rice.]

If using frozen shrimp, thaw under running cold water (only takes a few minutes). Remove tails off of shrimp and add to the pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15 min. or so.

[Hubby adds a few shots of Tobasco sauce to the Etoufee' - this is entirely up to you!]

Here's a pic of the Etoufee' in the pot after the sausage and shrimp are added.

The finished product, served over rice.