Smitty's Crawfish Etouffee

My husband's maternal side of the family has French heritage and I feel VERY fortunate because I have always enjoyed Cajun faire!  Justin's Dad learned to cook from his mother-in-law...so he's actually the one that does all the Cajun cooking around their home even though Justin's Mom is the one that has the French blood pumpin'!!  Justin's family enjoys embracing their French heritage through cooking, decroating for Mardi Gras, attending Mardi Gras functions, hosting crawfish boils etc.  So, for our rehersal dinner, we planned a Mardi Gras themed dinner and party.  We chose to have it at Delacroix's in Nacogdoches and it was fun and delicious...I've become a fan of the Cajun traditions and have enjoyed embracing that part of my new family :)
For our second Valentine's Day together, Justin invited me over to his house...he had cooked a wonderful meal of Crawfish Etouffee!!  I was blown away at how absolutely mouth-watering this dish was.  If I wasn't already head-over-heels with this boy, I was after that meal!!  So enough with the background, here's the scoop on the dish:

• 3 lbs crawfish tails (I buy these in the seafood section at Wal-Mart or if you've just had a crawfish boil and you have leftover crawfish, you can peel them and use those!)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup green onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1 stick butter
• 1 6 oz. can tomato paste
• 6 oz. heavy whipping cream
• 3 cups prepared Minute Rice
• water, as needed
• Tony's to taste

Saute all vegetables in butter until clear and soft.  Add tomato paste, whipping cream, and Tony's.  Add water if needed for consistency. Simmer 15 minutes.  Add crawfish.  Simmer 5 minutes. Turn off burner, cover, and allow to sit for 15 minutes.  Serve over prepared white rice (I cheat and use Minute Rice...the ancestors are probably rolling over in their graves!)

(Ok, if you're wondering....for these pictures, we used shrimp because Wal-Mart was out of crawfish and it turned out really good....so you can always use shrimp if you're not a crawfish fan....or you can use crawfish AND shrimp...Justin also added crab leg meat this time, but NEVER use imitation crab for this dish)