Étouffée or etouffee  (pronounced: [e.tu.fe] ay-TOO-fay) comes from the French word étouffer, which means to smother.
Étouffée is a dish found in both Cajun and Creole cuisine.
The recipe traditionally starts off with a roux. A Roux (pronounced Roo) is a combination of fat/oil and flour used to thicken sauces. Cooking the flour allows the starch granules to swell and absorb moisture thickening the sauce.Â
Usually the roux is cooked until peanut butter brown before addition of other ingredients. I like to brown the flour and onions together. The onions release their sugars as they cook and caramelize giving a depth of flavour and sweetness to the nutty roux flavour.
I also added the sausage to brown with the roux to get as much flavour sausage flavour in my sauce as I could. I initially wanted to use chorizo sausage and basically make a sausagey meaty sauce. But I couldn’t find chorizo that made me happy. Ever notice how you’ll see something in every shop everywhere, until you want to buy it and then its no where to be found?!
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup flour
1 cup yellow onion, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup green bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
3-4 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 teaspoons salt (to taste, also depends on the type of salt you use)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 can diced tomatoes
2 pounds shrimp
1 pound sausage
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped