The spring of my senior year of high school my parents took a two week road trip where they drove down the Mississippi all the way to New Orleans. With my parents gone for two weeks, I did what any other high schooler would do – I skipped school. I skipped school so I could work for them at their business. Monday through Wednesday while they were gone, I worked at their business The Ely Shopper to sell ads, make ads, put the paper together and finally print and deliver the Shopper.
While I was busy playing hooky and working, they were busy enjoying the amazing cuisine of New Orleans. My mom brought back with her a creole cookbook and in it was this recipe for Creole Shrimp. So I thought my first Lent recipe this year would be a nod to my parent’s trip to New Orleans. We’ve also decide to publish our Lent recipes on Thursday this year. This will make it easier to make on Friday if you like what you see!
Now, I could just follow the recipe directly but that wouldn’t be any fun. While I loved it the first time my mom made it for me, I wanted to kick up the creole flavor a little bit so I did some googling about typical creole flavors, some mixing, some experimenting and replaced the chili powder in her original recipe with my homemade creole seasoning. This isn’t spicy, it just adds a little more spices and flavors to the original dish.
Here’s what you need:
Creole cooking starts with the holy trinity of celery, onions, and green pepper. So the first thing I did was chop that up along with some minced garlic.
Heat just a little olive oil in medium saute pan with high sides over medium heat. Throw in the holy trinity and saute for about five minutes until soft. Add the garlic during the last minute so it doesn’t burn.
While the veggies are cooking, mix together the creole seasoning. You’re going to need: 2 T onion powder, 2 T garlic powder, 2 T basil, 2 T oregano, 1 T thyme, 1 T black pepper, 1 T white pepper, 1 T cayenne pepper, 5 T paprika, 3 T salt, and 2 T ancho chili powder. You won’t use all of it for the shrimp– this recipe makes about 1-1/4 c of seasoning.
Once the veggies are soft, add in a can of whole peeled tomatoes, a little sugar, and a couple tablespoons of the creole seasoning you mixed up earlier. Break up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon as you stir. Now here’s the weird thing, I don’t like chunks of tomatoes in my tomato sauces. So you might be wondering why did I use whole tomatoes instead of smaller diced ones? Well actually the diced ones will keep their shape – it’s something about how they are processed – but the whole ones will break up and combine nicely into your sauce with very little chunks.
Look how well they incorporate into the sauce.
Cover and simmer the sauce for about 25 minutes until the sauce thickens. Stirring occasionally.
Add some shrimp and cook for 3-4 minutes.
The shrimp is done when it turns opaque and begins to curl up. Don’t let it curl in too tight though or it will be overdone.
Serve the shrimp with the sauce over rice.
Enjoy!
- Creole Seasoning:
- 2 T onion powder
- 2 T garlic powder
- 2 T oregano
- 2 T basil
- 1 T thyme
- 1 T black pepper
- 1 T white pepper
- 1 T cayenne pepper
- 5 T paprika
- 3 T kosher salt
- 2 T ancho chili powder
- SHRIMP
- ⅔ c chopped onion (about a ½ medium)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅔ c chopped green pepper (about ½ a medium pepper)
- ⅓ c chopped celery (about one stalk)
- 2-1/2 T olive oil
- 18-20 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
- 2 T creole seasoning
- ⅔ t sugar
- Whisk together all of the ingredients for the creole seasoning.
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a medium sized saute pan. Add the onion, pepper, and celery and sauté for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic during the last minute.
- Add the tomato, sugar, and creole seasoning. Break up the tomatoes the back of a spoon as you stir it all together.
- Cover and simmer for 25 minutes until the sauce thickens. Stir occasionally.
- Add shrimp and cook 3-4 minutes or until opaque.
- Serve the sauce and shrimp over rice.
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