etouffee opinions wanted

[tommag]

I see some recipes with and some without tomatos.  I'm finally getting around to making it and tomato sounds good but I'm not sure.
This is the first time I've peeled shrimp.  What a pita, crawdads are a lot easier to peel!

[olfart]

We buy deveined raw frozen shrimp for my wife's recipe of Shrimp Creole. They're easy to peel because being deveined splits the shell down the middle of the back.

[tommag]

Well, I used 2 plum tomatos that I had on hand because they were extremely ripe. It turned out ok but I remembered that I'm not a fan of dry cayenne pepper, not too hot, just the taste.

[tommag]

Like a lot of dishes, it gets better the next day. The cayenne flavor mellowed out and the Serrano peppers I put in it blended nicely. The next time I get over to WinCo I think I'll buy some crawdad meat and make it again since I have plenty of shrimp stock in the freezer now and don't need the shells to make more.