Crawfish Etouffee: A potful of love, appreciation for PAO team

Christie Vanover, Chief, Command Information
Thursday, August 16, 2012

Well, this is my last food column for the Fort Hood Sentinel.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my spice of Army life with all of you. It’s been fun to describe the military anecdotes from six duty stations that have influenced my dinner plate over the past 19 years.

But our military journey is coming to an end, and it’s time to settle back home in Las Vegas.

I had a hard time coming up with this final recipe. How was I going to top my recipe for double espresso brownies with caramel macchiato mousse or my recipe for drunken shrimp?

Before I wrote “Spice of Army Life,” Janna Zepp wrote a column about the hidden details about Texas called “Tex Messages.” Today’s recipe actually makes me think of Janna and the rest of the command information team who welcomed me on board in January 2011.

I was so humbled walking into

this job. How could I, a short redhead from Kentucky, manage all internal media for the Army’s largest post?

Fort Hood didn’t just have the Department of Defense’s No. 1 newspaper; it was home to a television newscast, the Army’s only online radio station, a website and a social media presence.

As soon as I met the people behind the scenes, it didn’t take long for me to realize how I was going to pull this off. My staff has years of military and professional civilian experience. They are creative, innovative and I’d argue the best in their trade.

Working with this team has been an honor, and something I’ll remember always.

I do my best to let them know how I appreciate them through awards and attaboys, but they know the way I truly show my appreciation is through food.

After working 8-10 hour days, it should be easy to go home and forget about work. But I can’t. I can’t forget about the fact that the Sentinel staff will bust their butts to work around my schedule and meetings to get the paper done early.

I can’t forget that the Fort Hood Radio team will produce promotions that stations in America’s top markets couldn’t match. And that Fort Hood TV will broadcast live shows viewed by thousands worldwide.

I can’t forget that our webmaster will teach himself new code, so we can develop an app for the post.

This command information team loves Fort Hood – its Soldiers, its Families. They do all they can to keep the community informed.

So sure, I could go home and forget about work, but I can’t forget about them. So in addition to awards and attaboys, I cook … and I cook a lot.

In fact, I probably bring at least one dish a week, many of which have been featured in the Sentinel.

The very first dish I brought in was crawfish etouffee. I’d been the chief for about six weeks, and it was time for Mardi Gras. Growing up in Kentucky, I never experienced Fat Tuesday, but thanks to a two-year assignment in Mississippi, the love of the South is now in my soul.

The idea of eating crawfish took getting used to. I looked at them like I looked at roaches. Imagine my excitement when a steaming hot pot of these critters was dumped in front of me and a friend told me to twist the head off and suck out the brains.

But after a few triple dog dare yas and a few beers I got up the nerve. And ooo-eeee it was good. Now I look at crawfish as baby lobsters.

The secret to a good etouffee is a flavorful roux, a process where you cook fat and flour to make a thick brown paste. Some recipes call for butter and flour and others for oil and flour. Butter has its advantages because it’s so flavorful, but the disadvantage is that it burns easily. So this recipe uses oil for the roux, and calls for butter at the end.

I remember the day I created this recipe, just for my staff, hoping that they would feel the love I put into it, hoping they would realize this recipe was my first sign of appreciation for the amazing jobs they perform for our Soldiers.

I carried the Crock-pot into III Corps Headquarters. The security guard wanted to inspect (taste test) my “package.” It’s funny; they always want to do extra screening when I’m carrying food. I always invite them to PAO, but they never follow.

I plugged in the Crock-pot, and by lunch, everyone was digging in. When one co-worker said it brought him right back home, I knew that the love and appreciation was felt.

I continued cooking for my team every week for the past 18 months. I only hope that they know that I didn’t just do it because of my love of food. I did it because of my admiration for them.

They made this assignment unbelievable. They are what make the Great Place great.



Crawfish Etouffee

2 T. olive oil

12 oz. andouille sausage, diced

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup flour

1 cup celery, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 ½ cups onion, diced

3 cloves garlic

32 ozs. Seafood stock

32 ozs. Chicken stock

3 lbs. crawfish tails

¼ cup celery leaves, chopped

¼ cup parsley, chopped

¼ cup scallions chopped

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. Creole Seasoning

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 T. Tabasco sauce

½ cup flour

½ cup water

½ stick butter



Directions

Heat the olive oil in a very large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook until brown. Remove the sausage from the pan and set aside.

Lower the heat to medium and add 1/3 cup oil and 1/3 cup flour to the pot. Whisk constantly for about five minutes until golden brown.

Add the celery, peppers, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about seven minutes.

Add about one cup of seafood stock to the pot to deglaze the pan. Then, add the rest of the seafood and chicken stock. Allow the stock to heat up for about five minutes.

Add the sausage, crawfish tails and herbs and spices, and bring it to a boil.

Whisk ½ cup flour with ½ cup water in a bowl and add to the pot to thicken.

Add the butter and simmer – the longer the better. Serve over rice.