Shrimp Étouffée

Étouffée is perhaps more commonly associated with crawfish, but shrimp is more readily available, so I've based my recipe on shrimp. I can't take complete credit for this, since the concepts came from a number of different recipes, but at least it is my own combination.

Ingredients

• 2½ lbs fresh (alive and still swimming!) shrimp
• 6 cups water
• ¼ lb (113 grams) butter
• 1 cup onion, minced
• ½ cup green bell pepper, minced
• 1 cup celery, minced
• 2 T shrimp head fat
• 3 T Oven-Made Roux
• ¼ cup scallions, chopped
• ¼ cup parsley, chopped
• 1 T Chuck's Creole Blend
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp salt
• Louisiana long-grain rice (perhaps a half-cup per planned serving of étouffée)

To Prepare

1. In a pot, bring the water to a boil and drop in the shrimp.
2. As soon as the shrimp turn bright red / pink (perhaps after only about a minute), remove the pot from the heat and extract the shrimp. Make sure to keep the water!
3. Once the shrimp have cooled to a comfortable level, peel and devein them. Squeeze the fat out of the heads. Store shrimp meat and fat in the refrigerator until needed.
4. Heat the butter in a deep pan and sauté the onion, bell pepper and celery until translucent (about 5 minutes).
5. Start steaming the rice
6. Take 1 cup of the water used to boil the shrimp, place in a small pot, and bring to a boil. While rapidly stirring, add the roux until completely dissolved (thus "activating" the roux).
7. Add the shrimp fat, 1 cup of the water used to boil the shrimp, Creole Blend, salt, and bay leaf to the activated roux (also about 1 cup)
8. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
9. Add the green onions, parsley, and (already cooked) shrimp meat. Simmer an additional 5 minutes.

To Serve

Ladle over hot long-grain rice.