Remember this?  That’s right…summer.  At the end of a long, cold winter and an even longer cold spring, we’re longing for it.  It’s just around the corner.  But not yet…this first weekend in April, Easter Sunday, we still need something warm to dig into in the cockpit.

How is crawfish etouffee a sensible dish for Easter supper, you ask?  What, the photo above isn’t what your Easter basket looked like?  Well, aside from resurrecting the leftover crawfish tails we froze after our epic crawfish boil last year, etouffee like most good Louisiana dishes, starts with this…the Holy Trinity.

Yes, New Orleans recipes and real-life cooks actually refer regularly to onion, celery, and bell pepper as the holy trinity.  Dice two onions, half a pepper, two stalks of celery and a couple of cloves of garlic.

Sautee these in six tablespoons of butter (yes six, and yes butter…it’s from New Orleans) over medium heat until they begin to soften, about 10 minutes.

Stir in a good healthy pound of crawfish tails (or shrimp if you’ve not been blessed with extra mudbugs) and simmer this, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes.

Add one 10.5 ounce can condensed cream of shrimp soup (no, I’m not kidding, and yes, they still sell it), 1/2 cup water, and 1/2 cup dry white wine.

Let all of this simmer for 20-30 minutes.

While the etouffee is simmering, make white rice.  After 20-30 minutes, season the etouffee to taste with salt, some cayenne pepper, and hot sauce (we like Crystal, but Tobasco is good too), then give it another 10 minutes or so on medium-low heat.

Serve over rice with a sprinkling of chopped green onion tops, and a decorative crawfish tail shell that you picked out of the tails before adding them in, so that your guests are forewarned that this is real food!  Happy Easter and spring!