Since the first step in making a roux is heating the fat, let's start with that. There is no one right fat for making a roux. Some cooks use oil, some use lard, and some use butter. I often grab butter because I love its flavor, especially in a dish featuring a delicate seafood like shrimp. That rich, toasted dairy flavor makes more sense to me with shrimp than a neutral oil does.
The first stage is what I'm calling a blond roux. At this point, the raw flavor and aroma of the flour has been cooked out, but there's been little to no color development. We're still just looking at white flour mixed with golden butter. If you were making a classic, also known as a white sauce, this is as far as you'd go. But down in Louisiana, there's no requirement to stop there.
There's no right answer for how much to cook a roux for étouffée. Ask around, and you'll meet fierce advocates of a blond roux, a peanut butter roux, a brown roux, and every shade in between. I happen to be in the peanut butter camp, since it produces an étouffée with a more complex flavor, while still retaining a bit of lightness. To me, a blond roux is too bland, while a brown one's bitter notes are too intense for shrimp.
I played around with different solutions to this challenge. I considered specifying a set level of doneness for the roux, so that my recipe would work every time without fail.
Using head-on shrimp for shrimp stock is worlds better, because the heads are where all the good shrimp flavor is. The only problem is that head-on shrimp can be more difficult to find, and it will be particularly challenging for folks who live in places with a more limited seafood selection. If you can't find head-on shrimp, you can still proceed with the recipe, making a shrimp stock with just the shells. It'll be better than water, certainly, but it won't be great.
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