We don’t live in New Orleans but that didn’t stop us from having some great Creole-style food this weekend. Shrimp Creole was on the menu at my house and most of it came from my garden!
Snow is still covering the ground, but my 2014 garden lives on in my freezer, basement and canning jars.
I adapted this recipe from a cookbook I bought when I visited New Orleans with my daughter a few years ago. It’s a dish served at the Court of Two Sisters restaurant in the French Quarter.
For the original recipe, click here.
When I say that I adapted this, it’s because, while I love shrimp, I decided to decrease the amount of shrimp and increase the number of vegetables I used. I did this for a couple of reasons.
First, the original called for 3 pounds of shrimp. Three … that’s a lot of shrimp. At about $13 a pound (if you can find a sale) … that’s a lot of shrimp.
Second, I have tons of vegetables from the garden. I love vegetables, and they’re almost free since I grow them myself!
I also changed the amounts of the liquid ingredients so there was no need to add any kind of thickener to the sauce as in the original.
So here’s my version of the Court of Two Sisters Shrimp Creole.
Peel and devein 2 pounds of shrimp.
I reserve the shrimp shells and boil them in a pan of water. I use this water to make rice to serve with the Shrimp Creole.
Chop shallots, onions, peppers, celery and mince the garlic.
Melt 1 stick of butter in a large skillet. Yes, I know it may seem like a lot of butter. But, I promise, it’ll be fine.
Add the chopped veggies and garlic, and sauté for about 5 minutes. The only vegetable in this recipe I didn’t grow myself was the celery. Something to try this year.
Then add the bay leaves, tomato puree,
canned tomatoes,
and simmer for 15 minutes.
For those who don’t know what tomato puree is, it’s just tomatoes that I have seeded and pureed in the food processor and then frozen.
Add shrimp and simmer another 15 minutes.
Add lemon juice,
salt and pepper, and cayenne to taste and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, make rice with the strained boiled shrimp shell liquid.
Serve Shrimp Creole over the rice.
Happy Fat Tuesday!
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
- 1 cup diced shallots
- 1 1/2 cups chopped peppers
- 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 2 cups tomato puree
- 1 pint canned tomatoes
- The juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 pound peeled and deveined shrimp
- Salt, pepper, cayenne
Melt the butter and sauté the onions, shallots, celery and garlic for about 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree, tomatoes and bay leaves, simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the shrimp and simmer for 15 minutes. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper and cayenne to taste, and simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes. Serve over rice. Makes about 6 servings.
And to think … almost everything in this dish came from my garden!
I’m just gonna tell ya … this is some good Creole!
