creamy étouffée

Okay. Let me tell you a little story. When I first started talking to R, I didn't believe he could cook. We would text each other a lot & I remember asking him once what he was making for dinner, and he said, "spinach and cheese stuffed salmon." I'm pretty sure my reply was something along the lines of "HAHAhahaha... wait seriously?" Upon meeting him he took me to a vegan restaurant and ordered slab tacos and that might have been the moment I decided to not, under any circumstances, let this man out of my life. One of the first things he cooked me was etouffée. It was seriously one of the greatest things I have ever tasted, and I hate celery. With a passion. Not with peanut butter. Not smothered with ranch dressing. But he changed my mind about it forever (he keeps thinking he'll change my mind about cilantro too - sneaking it into my food & stuff - but no). I've never met a man other than my brother who loves to cook, so I got extremely lucky. He cooks me food every day and teaches me little tricks he learned when he was a chef, which is a bonus. Food is literally the way to my heart, if you haven't guessed already. This is his recipe that he created from his time being in louisiana, I promise you won't be disappointed :) You can also use shrimp instead of crawfish if you like.

étouffée

2 c rice
12 oz. raw crawfish tails
4 T butter
3 stalks of celery, sliced
1 small onion, diced
1 small tomato, diced
6 cloves chopped garlic
2 c milk
3 T corn starch
1/2 T lemon juice
1/2 T pepper
1 t Tony's seasoning
1/2 T dried parsley
1/2 t cayenne pepper
pinch of salt

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Meanwhile, make your rice. He drains his in a colander so it gets sticky.
2. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Add salt and lemon juice. Bring to a low boil.
3. Add milk and crawfish. Stir all of your dry seasonings in. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.
4. Add corn starch and stir to thicken.
5. As it thickens, remove from heat and let cool for a moment. Serve over rice!