Shrimp Creole 8.4.14

Yesterday was one of those days.  After dropping my son off for half-day Mandarin camp, I had to stop by the bank for PTA (because in my copious spare time I chose to run for PTA treasurer and was elected), be on a research call with a friend in Colorado, do some searching and downloading of journal articles for an upcoming piece, run back to school to pick my son & his two friends up for a playdate, host the playdate, and then have dinner ready in 30 minutes so that I could head over to the PTA executive board meeting.

I'd imagine I'm not the only busy one out there, so I figured I'd blog about one of my favorite super-fast dishes: Shrimp Creole.  Please note, despite these first two cooking blog posts, not everything I cook uses canned tomatoes (really--in fact the grilled chicken that I made on Sunday was completely a different set of ingredients...really!).  Okay, so here's what the finished dish looks like:

Shrimp Creole--YUM! 

Here's your ingredient list: 

• Onion
• Green Pepper
• Celery
• Cooking Oil
• Red Pepper Flakes
• Shrimp (I use medium, frozen cooked shrimp 80-100 count/lb)
• Canned Diced Tomatoes
• Rice

I am always really cooking for 2 (we have weird dietary conflicts in our house--in this case, the two is my husband & me--sometimes it's my son & me) so I used about a half pound of shrimp, 1 stalk of celery, half an onion & green pepper, 1/2 cup of rice & 1 can of tomatoes.  Feel free to adjust.  

Step 1: Start your rice in a rice cooker (yes, this is a cheat. By assembling mostly cooked ingredients, everything goes quicker); chop the fresh veggies & thaw your shrimp: 

Onion, Green Pepper, Celery

Step 2: Heat the oil and add the red pepper flakes to the heating oil.  This releases the heat from the red pepper flakes--adjust to taste.  It's good without the red pepper flakes too, but then it's just not as creole. 

Red Pepper Oil

Step 3: Add the veggies to the red pepper oil & sauté until onions become slightly translucent.  You don't want to overcook your veggies because then they lose that crispness in the final dish.  

Step 4: Add in the shrimp & canned tomatoes.  Since the shrimp is pre-cooked, it's just about heating.   Simmer for about 5 minutes

Step 5: At this point, if you've started the rice before you began dicing your veggies, it should be done.  Add your rice into your large skillet or wok (yes, a non-stick 12-14" wok is perfect for this dish)

Step 6: Simmer as long as you can before you have to rush off to the rest of your life or feed your hungry self/family, plate and serve

This dish is even better warmed up the day after (like the chili)--once the flavors have had a chance to absorb, but often there's none left at my place for the day after.  Bon appetit!