Shrimp & Crawfish Ettouffée

It was 4:50pm on September 10th, 2001. I remember running as fast as could to make to the travel agency which was closing at 5pm, and pay for our tickets to New Orleans. We had a great bed and breakfast reserved right in the center of all and since my husband had been there before, he was the one planning our days and nights filled with fun things to do. Our tickets were for the following week... and then the next morning was September 11th, 2001.
My fear of another attack made me pack my apartment into a storage and move to Brasil for 3 months. I ended up using those tickets to go to Savannah for a friend's play a year later and never again thought about New Orleans... until Fat Tuesday of course.
The place i worked at in NYC was famous for it's great live music scene, and every fat tuesday we would hire the best creole band available, dress up the bar in beads, masks and gold,green and purple balloons... I would fill the Taylor machine with the strongest hurricanes and would jump in the kitchen and get the crawfish and the alligator ready to go.

So here's how I've been cooking. Might not be original but it's my take on Ettouffée. And for New Orleans, I'll always hope that one day I'll make it there.

Ingredients:

1lb of 26-30 shrimp, peeled and deveined (tails left on)

1lb of cooked crawfish tail meat (frozen section of the grocery store)

2 medium onions chopped

1 bell pepper chopped

1 cup of chopped celery

3 slices of bacon chopped and fried, separate from grease and keep both

1/2 cup of butter

3/4 cup of all purpose flour

2 tomatoes peeled, seeded and chopped

3 cloves of garlic thinly sliced

1/2 cup of white wine

1 cup of clam juice

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup chopped fresh green onions

cajun seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

In a large heavy bottomed pan melt the butter and add the bacon grease and flour to it, not letting the butter burn, cook on low stirring frequently for about 30 minutes.

Add the onion, pepper and celery and cook for another 15 minutes. Add garlic, tomato, cooked bacon and cook another 10 minutes.

Add wine and clam juice, and if too thick add water to desired thickness. Add shrimp, crawfish, cajun seasoning, salt and pepper to taste, cook until shrimp turns white, about 10 minutes.

It tastes great with a few drops of tabasco. Serve with white rice.