Crawfish Etouffee

Ingredients

• 1 package frozen crawfish tails - 12 or 16 oz. Completely THAWED
• 1 can Hunts regular tomato sauce - 8 oz
• 1 stick butter - NOT margarine
• 2 cups chicken stock - NOT water
• 1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
• Salt
• Cayenne pepper
• Tony Chachere's Cajun seasoning
• Corn starch
• The holy 3 - 1 bellpepper, 1 onion, 2 celery stalks, chopped. OR I buy PictSweet in the frozen aisle of the grocery store and use about a third of a package.
• Green onion tops (optional)
• Cooked rice

Instructions

1. Have your pot of rice cooking while you prepare the etouffee. If you have a rice cooker, that is even better!
2. Place package of frozen crawfish tails in water to thaw. They must be completely thawed before cooking.
3. Put the chicken broth, butter, tomato sauce, garlic and a pinch of cayenne pepper in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat considerably and let the sauce simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure that the butter fully incorporates. At this point you do not want to add salt or Tony's seasoning. You will add that to taste after you have added the thawed crawfish tails.
5. After the sauce has cooked down for a while, bring it back up to a quick boil and add the crawfish tails. Now this is VERY important. The crawfish tails are already cooked. All you are doing is warming them so do not cook more than 3 minutes and turn the heat down a couple of ticks while you are doing this. You do not want to cook them at full heat.
6. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to break the crawfish apart and stir several times during the three minutes.
7. Taste while you are cooking and season with salt and Tony's seasoning to taste. Keep in mind that crawfish is already pretty salty so be careful.
8. Remove from heat source and add a small amount of cornstarch slurry to thicken. The slurry is simply a tablespoon of cornstarch stirred into about a quarter cup of cold water. Be sure there are no lumps before you add this to the crawfish mixture.
9. Let it sit for about 5 minutes or so to let the crawfish continue to warm through. Serve on rice with a salad and garnish with green onion tops.
10. Add some crusty French bread and a glass of white wine and you are serving up a meal that will earn you some serious raves!