Paula Deen’s Shrimp Creole
So I had a half bag of frozen shrimp left over from the Super Bowl party and needed something to do with it. Enter Paula Deen. I remember an episode where she was having a hen party (her words, not mine) and was making all kinds of delicious food for her girlfriends. One of those dishes was shrimp creole. Now, I’m quite the connoisseur of cajun, creole, new orleans sytle cooking. However, I’ve always been a little afraid to try making it myself because my only reference was watching Emeril. He doesn’t tend to make things look all that easy, and I’m not really fond of saying BAM as I throw seasoning at my food.
This recipe, however, was easy as could be. I will admit, though, that a few months ago I wouldn’t have said that. Why? Because it involved chopping. I was terrible at chopping anything, it took me forever, and I always made a huge mess. Since I’ve been cooking at home, though, my chopping skills have improved greatly, much to my surprise.
So I chopped some onion, celery, and green pepper, sauteed them in some oil with chili powder, and placed them into my heated crock pot. Why sautee before putting it in the crock pot, you ask? Well, for one thing, that’s what the recipe called for. But more importantly, after my experience with the lamb and lentil stew, where my vegetables were still crunchy after four hours in the crock pot, I decided it was worth the few extra minutes of stove work to get the desired result.
Next, pour in a can of tomatoes, some tomato sauce, hot sauce, Worcestershire, put the lid on and walk away. Wait! What about the shrimp, you ask? I learned that shrimp needs very little cooking. Cooked too long, shrimp becomes, well, rubber. So I followed Paula’s advice and added the shrimp at the end of cooking.
The Tasting
I made a pot of white rice in my rice cooker. By the way, if you don’t own a rice cooker, get one. It’s another one of those great put the food in and walk away appliances. And for as much rice as I eat, it’s saved me from a lot of boil overs and undercooked or overcooked rice. Just get one, you’ll be glad you did. Anyway, back to the shrimp. I dished myself up some rice and spooned the shrimp and sauce over it, and had at it. All I can say is, I love you Paula Deen. This was absolutely delicious. And, because of the ease of cooking, this recipe now ranks at the top of my recipe list. The shrimp (even though I had used pre-cooked frozen shrimp) were nice and tender, and the sauce was spicy, but not overly so. Now I fully understand the yummy face that Paula made when she tasted it on the show.
Postscript
The next week, I was trying to think of something to make. I had a bunch of chicken breasts that I needed to cook up, so I thought I’d try the shrimp creole recipe, only substitute chicken for the shrimp. The result? Good, but not as good as the shrimp. I put my raw chicken in the crock pot to cook, not realizing the amount of juice it was going to contribute to the sauce. It thinned out the sauce, and the taste, quite a bit. It was still good, but could have been much better had I added the cooked chicken at the end. Maybe I’ll try again and report back.
I am not going to be original this time, so all I am going to say that your blog rocks, sad that I don’t have suck a writing skills