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Shrimp Creole
Serves 4 Prep 15 min Cook 35 min Total 50 min Type Meal Origin Creole

Shrimp Creole

Louisiana Creole's signature shrimp dish: prawns simmered in a tomato-based holy-trinity sauce with garlic, herbs and Creole spice. Served over white rice.

Serves 4 Prep 15 minutes Cook 35 minutes Units Rate

Overview

The trinity (onion, celery, green pepper) softens in butter; garlic, Creole seasoning and herbs join. Tomato paste deepens; chopped tomatoes and stock loosen; the lot simmers for 20 minutes into a thick sauce. Prawns drop in at the end and cook for 3 minutes, pink and just-set. Hot sauce, lemon and parsley to finish.

Ingredients

Sauce

  • 50 g unsalted butter
  • 1 onion (large, chopped)
  • 3 celery sticks (chopped)
  • 1 green pepper (chopped)
  • 6 garlic cloves (crushed)
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 400 ml seafood, chicken (or vegetable stock)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning (or 1 tsp paprika + ½ tsp each cayenne, garlic powder, oregano, salt, black pepper)
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon hot sauce (Crystal or Tabasco)
  • ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

To finish

  • 600 g raw prawns (shelled, deveined; tails on)
  • ½ lemon (juice)
  • 4 spring onions (sliced)
  • A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley (chopped)

To serve

  • Cooked white rice
  • Extra hot sauce

Method

Stage 1 - Trinity

  1. Melt the butter in a wide heavy pan over medium heat.
  2. Cook the onion, celery and green pepper 8 minutes until softened.
  3. Add the garlic; cook 1 minute.

Stage 2 - Build the sauce

  1. Stir in the tomato paste and Creole seasoning; cook 2 minutes - the paste will darken.
  2. Add the chopped tomatoes, stock, bay, thyme, Worcestershire and hot sauce.
  3. Bring to a simmer; reduce to medium-low.
  4. Cook 18-22 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened to a sauce that coats a spoon.

Stage 3 - Prawns

  1. Add the prawns; stir into the sauce.
  2. Cook 3-4 minutes until the prawns are pink and just-set - don't overcook (rubbery, sad prawns).

Stage 4 - Finish

  1. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice, half the spring onions and half the parsley.
  2. Discard the bay and thyme stems.
  3. Taste; adjust salt and hot sauce.

Stage 5 - Serve

  1. Spoon over white rice; top with the remaining spring onions and parsley.
  2. Pass extra hot sauce at the table.

Notes

  • Creole vs Cajun: Creole uses tomato; Cajun (typically) doesn't. Creole is "city food" (New Orleans, refined, with French influence); Cajun is "country food" (rural, rustic, no tomato in the originals).
  • Don't overcook the prawns: Pink, plump and just-set is right. Overcooked prawns turn rubbery and ruin the dish.
  • Make the sauce ahead: It deepens overnight. Add the prawns just before serving.

Storage

  • Sauce keeps 4 days refrigerated; reheat and add fresh prawns.
  • Doesn't freeze well with cooked prawns; freeze sauce alone (3 months).

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Crawfish Étouffée

Crawfish Étouffée

A Louisiana classic, the dish whose name means "smothered" in French, and that's exactly what's happening at the table: tender crawfish tails smothered in a rich gravy spooned over white rice. You start with a blond roux (butter and flour cooked just to the colour of peanut butter, lighter than gumbo's nearly-burnt mahogany), then soften the Cajun trinity of onion, celery and bell pepper in it until everything goes glossy. Tomato paste, Cajun spice and stock loosen the mixture, and the lot simmers down to a thick velvety gravy. Crawfish tails (or prawns if you can't find them) go in near the end and cook just briefly so they stay tender rather than turning rubbery. Spring onion and parsley scatter over at the finish. Ladled over white rice in a bowl, with crusty bread and a glass of cold beer alongside.

Cajun 1 hour Serves4