Crawfish etouffee

Mmm...crawfish.

Now, these weren't the greatest crawfish in the world. They were Chinese (not Gulf), previously frozen, already cooked, and in fact many were still half-frozen. But they were the first crawfish I'd had access to since the wedding, so who cares?

So to make the most of them, I removed the tail meat and used the shells to make broth. I put all the shells and the heads in a big pan, filled it with water, brought it to a boil, and then let it simmer for a while. I strained out the shells and used some of the broth to make the rice.

Then in a separate pan, I made a roux (one cup vegetable oil, one cup flour, whisk together and keep stirring over medium heat until the mixture turns brown) and added three chopped shallots (one onion would work, too), several chopped cloves of garlic, and one big chopped green pepper. Let that cook down a bit, adding broth as needed (be sure to stir well after adding the broth). Then add seasonings--a bay leaf, cayenne pepper, cumin, salt, and so forth. Add the reserved crawfish meat and lots of chopped parsley at the last minute, and serve hot over rice.

(I had some broth left over. I froze it for later.)