Creole Shrimp

It's that time of month again when I peruse the pages of my recent Cooking Light magazine and re-vamp one of their recipes for my dinner table. I really enjoy this magazine for the new ideas it inspires, but don't necessarily agree with several of their ideas of "healthy" foods  (often their elimination of butter or healthy fats of any kind as well as subsitutions with low fat or no fat milk and their use of "fake" foods like margarine). However, these types of ingredients are easy to replace with more nourishing options.

In their latest issue, the June 2013 magazine, I found a wonderful shrimp recipe that my family thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, it was so good, it will likely be on the regular rotation and I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did. Here is the link to the original recipe. I've changed it up a bit below.

Ingredients:

1 cup uncooked rice, white or brown

4 - 5 tablespoons of butter, as needed

3/4 pound medium-sized shrimp, peeled and deveined, (about 15-20 shrimp)

1 - 2  tbsp Creole seasoning, divided (I used this one)

1 onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 tbsp dried thyme

1/2 tbsp dried marjoram

4 large garlic cloves, minced

3/4 - 1 cup whole milk

3/4 - 1 tbsp arrowroot powder

1 can diced tomatoes (or the equivalent chopped fresh tomatoes with juices, about two cups)

Sea salt & black pepper to taste

2 tbsp minced fresh chives

How To:

1. Rice: Cook rice as indicated on the package, set aside when finished.

2. Shrimp Prep: After peeling and deveining the shrimp, rinse and sprinkle with about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of the Creole seasoning, mix, and set aside. I also pinch the tails off my shrimp before cooking because I have an 8-year old who prefers his shrimp "prepped", but you could do it either way. **Cooking Light recommends US Pacific white shrimp as the sustainable choice.

3. Sauce: In a large skillet over medium heat, saute onions, peppers, and garlic in butter until softened. Add shrimp and cook a few minutes per side, until just starting to turn orange. Then add tomatoes and simmer. In the meantime, mix milk with arrowroot powder in a separate glass and then add slowly to the shrimp mixture, stirring gently as the sauce thickens. Bring to a low simmer, season with remaining Creole seasoning, salt and peppers, and garnish with chives. Serve over rice.

 

Comments:

The Creole seasoning we used was a recipe from Emeril Lagasse and worked really well. I used an empty seasoning container and quickly prepared it while my onions and peppers were cooking. This is a picture before I mixed everything together - you can see the layers of different seasonings used.

The next time I make this I'll probably add a little more heat in the form of an extra dose of cayenne pepper or my husband's homemade blend. The current version is fairly mild, although it does have some heat due to the cayenne pepper in the Creole seasoning. This is gluten-free as long as you don't use a pre-packaged Creole seasoning with funny additives (that may include gluten). If you are not making your own, be sure to check the ingredient list.

This takes about 30 minutes to make and serves about four to five nicely. Based on five servings, about 275 calories per serving per caloriecount.about.com.

 

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This recipe was shared at Waste Not Want Not Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday, Show and Share Wednesday, Wednesday Extravaganza, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Just Another Meatless Monday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, and Foodie Friday by Rattlebridge Farm. Please follow the links for more great recipe ideas!