Crab and Egg Etouffée

Servings6

Time to Cook90 minutes

Time to Prepare20 minutes

Recipe developed for BC Egg by Diversivore

A homey and satisfying stew-style Cajun classic made even more filling and delicious with the addition of eggs poached right in the mix.

Ingredients

1/2 cup lard (115 g) or vegetable oil
1 cup all purpose flour (115 g)
3.3 lbs yellow onions diced
1 cup celery diced (approx 2 ribs)
1.5 cups green pepper diced (approx 2 large peppers)
4 cloves garlic minced
2 lbs crab meat
4 cups unsalted vegetable stock or seafood stock
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper plus more to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper freshly ground, plus more to taste
1 tsp salt plus more to taste (see note)
2 Tbsp Tabasco sauce or other Louisiana-style hot sauce (see note)
1/4 cup parsley chopped, plus a little more to serve
6 large eggs
3 cups prepared medium- or long-grain rice, to serve

Instructions

Prepare rice for serving the finished stew. Keep warm and set aside.
Place a large, heavy pot over medium-low heat. Add the fat (lard or oil). Once hot, add the flour and whisk together. Continue to whisk for around 15-20 minutes. The roux is ready when it’s the colour of coffee with lots of milk (see note on roux colour).
Stir the onions into the roux, cover, and cook on medium-low for around 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Add the peppers and celery. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until all vegetables are very soft (around 20 minutes).
Add the crab meat, stock, bay leaves, spices, and hot sauce. Increase heat to medium, bring to a boil (uncovered), then reduce the heat to maintain a low simmer.
With the lid still off the pot, simmer to reduce the liquid volume of the stew by about 1/4. Taste test, adjust spices as needed.
Once you’re satisfied with the salt, spice, and acidity of the dish, stir in the chopped parsley (reserve some to serve if you like).
Make ‘pockets’ in the stew by pressing the back of a serving spoon into the étouffée. It will fill with liquid, but that’s okay – we just want to push some of the solids out of the way. Crack an egg into each ‘pocket’ and cook to desired doneness (see note). Depending on the size of your pot, you might find it easier to cook the eggs in two batches of three.
Serve étouffée with cooked eggs (one per person) in a shallow bowl over a bed of rice. Serve with extra parsley and hot sauce, if desired.

Notes

Roux colour – Cajun and Creole roux can vary quite a bit in colour, and consequently flavour. For a recipe like this, I aim for a light brown (cafe au lait) colour. A darker roux will be nuttier and bolder. You can go with a pale roux too, but I personally dislike very white roux, as it tends to leave the flour tasting raw and unfinished.

Salt – Make sure that you taste-test for salt. If possible, making this meal with a no-salt added stock will give you the most control, but if you have to use a salted stock, you might find that you don’t need to add any salt at all. Remember that crab meat and hot sauce are going to contribute salt to the recipe too! Finally, take into account that the étouffée will be served on rice, so you might want the stew itself to be a just little salty on its own.

Louisiana-style hot sauce – Louisiana-style hot sauce is very vinegar-forward. In a recipe like this one, that’s an important feature, as the hot sauce serves to acidify and add sourness (as well as heat and flavour, of course). If you’re using a hot sauce with less vinegar flavour, you might want to actually adjust the taste of the dish with a combination of hot sauce and wine vinegar.

Egg doneness – Approach the eggs more-or-less the way you would with standard poaching. For runny yolks, simmer until the whites look just-set. If you like a fully set yolk, cook longer. Either way, it can help to cover the pot to speed up cooking the top of the egg.

Egg variation – Boiled and peeled eggs can also be stirred into the finished étouffée. I actually find the poaching method considerably easier (no peeling!) and tastier, but there’s nothing wrong with this variation.