When It Comes to Classic Cajun Cooking, It Doesn't Get Better Than Shrimp Étouffée (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between gumbo and etouffee? ›

While both dishes use a broth base—like shrimp stock, crawfish tail stock, or chicken broth—étouffée has a thicker, gravy-like consistency because chefs make it with a roux (a mixture of all-purpose flour and butter). Gumbo, on the other hand, is thinner than étouffée, with a soupy stew broth.

Shrimp Creole and Shrimp Etouffee are similar dishes but are not the same. An etouffee has a consistency that is more like gravy and is thicker than shrimp creole sauce. Shrimp creole has a tomato base while shrimp etouffee has a roux for its base.

There is no substitute for boiling your own and then freezing some of the tail meat for etouffee or bisque. The difference in the two dishes, is etouffee is usually thicker than bisque and has larger chopped pieces of onions, celery and green peppers.

Taste of Etouffee

Etouffee is rich and spicy with the sweet and briny flavor of shellfish. The shellfish is coated in a velvety thick gravy flavored with traditional Cajun or Creole seasonings. The dish is typically served over rice, which soaks up the lush etouffee sauce.

Creole gumbo is usually made with okra, tomato, and often a combination of meat and seafood, while the Cajun version contains meat or seafood, and is typically okra-free and made with a darker roux.

They are typically thicker and spicier than a gumbo, and the rice is prepared separately and used as a bed for the creole mixture, rather than cooked in the same pot as with a jambalaya. Creole dishes also do not contain broth or roux; instead, the creole mixture is simmered to its desired degree of thickness.

The "holy trinity" in Cajun cuisine and Louisiana Creole cuisine is the base for several dishes in the regional cuisines of Louisiana and consists of onions, bell peppers and celery. The preparation of Cajun/Creole dishes such as crawfish étouffée, gumbo, and jambalaya all start from this base.

So, what's the difference between these two cuisines? While they are very similar, they do utilize different ingredients. Cajun food is typically spicier than Creole food, and it also contains more pork and crawfish. Creole food utilizes more ingredients like tomatoes, shrimp, oysters, and crab.

Both are considered main dishes, but étouffée is more or less a sauce or thick gravy, typically served over rice. Jambalaya, however, is a rice dish, akin to paella, its likely ancestor. One uses rice as a vehicle, the other as a staple component of the dish.

What is the difference between Creole and Cajun etouffee? ›

The Main Differences Between Creole and Cajun

A typical Creole roux is made from butter and flour (as in France), while a Cajun roux is usually made with lard or oil and flour. This is partly due to the scarcity of dairy products in some areas of Acadiana (Acadia + Louisiana) when Cajun cuisine was being developed.

In simplest terms (and remember all you New Orleans fans out there — I said simplest), Gumbo is a soup, étouffée is a stew, and jambalaya is a rice dish similar to a paella or rice-based casserole. It goes much beyond that, of course. Gumbos can be very stew-like and I've had étouffées that were almost like...

Étouffée is the French word for "smothered," and what it really describes is a Cajun and Creole cooking method in which a protein like shrimp is cooked on the stovetop in a thick, roux-based sauce.

Around the 1950s, crawfish étouffée was introduced to restaurant goers in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana; however, the dish may have been invented as early as the late 1920s, according to some sources. Originally, crawfish étouffée was a popular dish amongst Cajuns in the bayous and backwaters of Louisiana.

While gumbo and etouffee have some similarities and common ingredients like onions, celery, bell peppers, and a roux, each dish has its own unique flavor and characteristics (via Our Everyday Life).

Gumbo is a soup or stew made with 2 or more proteins and vegies with a dark roux. Very savory. Etouffee is more like a gravy served over rice. Jambalaya is more like a rice casserole.

Creole cooks in Louisiana usually prepare some variation of three basic recipes: a ''Creole gumbo'' that includes sausages, beef, veal, ham, chicken, whole crabs or shrimp and is thickened with roux and file powder; a simpler ''okra gumbo'' thickened with okra and including a variety of shellfish; and a ''gumbo aux ...