Alligator Étoufée

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serves 4

• 1 lb. alligator meat 
• 1 can crushed tomato 
• 4 tomato on vine, quartered 
• Green onion one bunch, diced 
• 5 cloves garlic, diced 
• 1 Portobello mushroom, diced 
• Flour 
• Salt 
• Black pepper 
• Cayenne 
• 2 sticks butter (duck fat preferable) 
• 1 cup Jasmine rice 

Start by making a roux in one large saucepan. -stir together 2 tbsp. butter (or duck fat for the win) with 2 tbsp flour added gradually (ratio should be 1:1) over medium heat until a wet paste is formed. Continue to stir and turn down heat when paste darkens to a peanut butter color. You now have a roux. Into the same pan add the can of crushed tomatoes. Add 3 tsp salt, 2 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp cayenne pepper. Mix over low heat. *If you have any ox-tail beef stock on hand, now would be an excellent time to add that. We did. In a separate saucepan on medium heat, melt 6-8 tbsp of butter (duck fat). Dump in the diced garlic, green onions, mushrooms, and three of the tomatoes on vine (they should be quartered, so you'll have twelve slices) and sautée until garlic is barely browned.

Dump in the roux-tomato mixture. Add glass of the best red wine you're currently not crushing - Bordeaux if your cellar has some. Mix well and let simmer on low heat. Cut alligator into clam-strip sized strips. Dump into roux/stew. Cover and let sit on low heat for 1 hour. Jasmine rice can take awhile, so plan ahead by giving yourself about .5 hour. Check the bag/box for instructions on cooking times for 1 dry cup. When rice is done, create an island of rice in each serving bowl. Ladle the roux/stew either on top of the island to drown it (étouffer - to smother), or around it (for purposes of kaiseki).


Étouffée (eh-too-fay) is a Cajun or Creole dish made of a seasoned brown roux simmered with some kind of shellfish (most typically crayfish/crawfish) and then served over a small mound of rice so that the mound is drowned by the stew (Fre: étouffer - to suffocate, smother).
We have always enjoyed ordering étouffée when we visit New Orleans and pair it with other famous dishes such as gumbo and turtle soup - indeed, these are the very meals which define the city and its people, and as such they are like memories we are able to conjure up when we feel a longing for them. Biting into a spoonful of étouffée is enough to summon up a memory of oneself sitting in the low lamplight glow of a French Quarter restaurant, the dish's spices making one's eyes water just enough to blur the shapes and shadows which are casting themselves on wall, street, and broken beads. First, your mouth tingles from the flavor and then you hear the low drum of the music in your ears before it flows into your feet, and then you are humming along to it, for it is its own strong magic. As for the meat, we've always had it with shellfish, but never alligator. Since we had some of the evil reptile on hand, we thought "Why not?" The decision certainly added an edge to this already delicious meal.
Our friends Jay and Seamus joined us for this meal, and hopefully the dish did its job and it conjured up a little bit of New Orleans in our kitchen.
As for music, may we recommend Tom Waits?


*Kaiseki (懐石料理) - we inserted the leftover tomato slices into the rice mound and then sprinkled diced fresh parsley on top of that, which creates a nice presentation.


~Ciao & Bon Appétit.