Shrimp Creole

Mardi Gras is tomorrow and I have one more New Orleans dish to share with you before it starts, this tasty shrimp Creole! Shrimp creole is a dish where the meat, often shrimp, is served in a tomato based sauce with onions, celery and bell peppers along with some spicy hot sauce and it is simmered until it gets nice and thick. This dish is so easy to make, you just need to cook the veggies until tender, throw everything but the shrimp into the pot, simmer until nice and thick, add the shrimp, cook and you're done! Although this recipe takes a bit of time to make, it's worth it because all of that simmering really brings out all of the flavours! So if you are still looking for an idea of what to make for dinner tomorrow for Mardi Gras (and lets be honest, this is good any day of the year), you cannot go wrong with this shrimp Creole! I't like bringing NOLA to your home!

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Recipes for Mardi Gras

This Tuesday is Mardi Gras and even though I will not be in New Orleans to celebrate, I take it as an excuse to whip up some NOLA inspired dishes since I am a huge fan on NOLA cuisine. I was really into New Orleans cuisine before I had even had a chance to go there and after finally getting the chance to visit a few years ago I came back with a long list of new recipe ideas to try recreating at home! Below you will find a list of some of my favourite New Orleans style recipes many of which are staples and pretty authentic (well as authentic as someone that did not grow up in New Orleans can make them) along with a few of my creative outtakes using the flavours of New Orleans cuisine. If you are looking for a way to celebrate Mardi Gras from home this Tuesday you cannot go wrong with one of these recipes!

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New Orleans BBQ Shrimp

Next week is Mardi Gras and even though I will not be in New Orleans to celebrate, I take it as an excuse to whip up some NOLA inspired dishes since I am a big fan on NOLA cuisine. Another one of my favourite dishes that I had when I visited New Orleans was the BBQ shrimp and I just had to try making it at home. Normally the BBQ shrimp is served whole with the shell and the head on but if you have any squeamish eaters feel free to serve the shrimp completely peeled. Other than the shrimp the the most important thing is the BBQ sauce which is a mixture of hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, garlic and plenty of butter. The recipe itself is really easy, you just cook the garlic a bit in some butter, add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the shrimp is cooked. Despite being so simple this New Orleans stye BBQ shrimp is so addictively good that you'll want to serve it with some crusty bread to mop up absolutely all of the BBQ sauce. If you are looking for a way to celebrate Mardi Gras from home next week this BBQ shrimp is a great way to do it. (To be completely honest with you, I didn't wait for Mardi Gras to enjoy this BBQ shrimp since it's great any day of the year, including say, today!)

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Chargrilled Oyster Pasta

When I made the chargrilled oysters I could not help but think about turning them from an appetizer/starter into a meal and the perfect way to do so was to use all of the flavours of chargrilled oysters in a pasta! Really the flavours of chargrilled oysters are very similar to those of shrimp scampi except with oysters in place of shrimp along with a few Cajun/Creole flavours. The sauce is pretty simple with a butter base followed by garlic, some wine or seafood stock, lemon juice and then some Worcestershire sauce, plenty of cheese and a hit of cayenne for some heat; it literally takes less time to make than it takes to cook the pasta. Since chargrilled oysters are grilled, I topped the pasta off with some more cheese and threw it under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese and get it all nice and golden brown. I served the chargrilled oyster pasta along with some actual chargrilled oysters and some bread to mop up any remaining sauce from the plate. This is definitely one tasty pasta dish and it's perfect for a special dinner for two like Valentine's Day!

Mardi Gras is next week and this chargrilled oyster pasta is a great way to bring a little bit of New Orleans into your home to celebrate!

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Chargrilled Oysters

Valentine's Day is this weekend and I have been testing out some new recipes for that special day and since oysters are a common food for Valentine's Day I started with some chargrilled oysters. I first had chargrilled oysters when I visited New Orleans a few years ago and they were one of the dishes that I ate while there that really stuck out in my mind so it seemed only natural to try to make them at home. Chargrilled oysters are basically oysters on the half shell that are filled with a lemony, garlicky, butter sauce, topped with cheese and chargrilled until the cheese has melted and turned golden brown. You really cannot go wrong with a sauce like that and they are usually served with bread so that you can soak up all of that buttery sauces goodness! If you don't have a grill, or you just don't feel like firing it up or if it's buried under 2 feet of snow you can charbroil them instead; they won't be quite the same but they will still be amazing and you can always add a touch of liquid smoke to the butter sauce to get that smoky/charred flavour. Although a bit decadent these chargrilled oysters are perfect for a special occasion like Valentine's Day and they make an amazing appetizer before the main event!

Mardi Gras is next week and these chargrilled oysters are a great way to bring a little bit of New Orleans into your home to celebrate!

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Blackened Shrimp and Fried Green Tomato Po Boy Salad

The blackened shrimp and fried green tomato po'boy is one of my favourite sandwiches and when I found myself thinking that it would also make a great salad I just had to try it. The po'boy submarine style sandwich can have pretty much much anything in it with common ingredients being fried seafood but this flavour combo is what I usually go with so that's where I started the salad out. The shrimp are simply tossed in some creole seasoning and then cooked at a high temperature in a pan and the fried green tomatoes are just sliced green tomatoes that are dipped in buttermilk followed by flour and/or cornmeal and fried until golden brown. The rest of the salad composed of lettuce and ripe tomatoes and I could not resist throwing some bacon into the mix! The final component of the salad is a tasty remoulade sauce thinned down a bit with buttermilk to make into more of a dressing. The po'boy sandwich salad experiment was a complete success with all of the flavours working well together and working well in salad form; I know I will be making this salad a lot in the future!

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Cajun Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo

Up next for my NOLA Mardi Gras theme is a quick and easy cajun/creole spiced shrimp fettuccine alfredo. I really cannot express just how quick and easy this dish is, you pretty much just season the shrimp with a cajun seasoning, cook it in a pan, make the alfredo sauce with cream and parmesan and you are done in less time than it takes to cook the pasta. Despite how easy this dish is, it is also super tasty, I mean you really cannot go wrong with alfredo pasta but then you add some cajun seasoned shrimp and thing only get better! This cajun spiced shrimp fettuccine alfredo is a great weeknight meal for the family but it is also sure to impress guests!

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Shrimp Jambalaya

First up for new recipes for my Mardi Gras feast is jambalaya which is a classic Louisiana rice dish. There a probably about as many different recipes for jambalaya as there are people that make it but it's base is meat, vegetables and rice and the rice is cooked in the same pot as everything else. One of the nice things about jambalaya is that you can pretty much do whatever you want with it; use whatever meat you want, use whatever vegetables you want, etc. You start by cooking the non-seafood meat, add the holy trinity (onions, celery, pepper), followed by the broth, rice and seasonings and then you let it simmer until the rice has cooked and the sauce thickens before adding the seafood at the end. Jambalaya is definitely one tasty home cooking dish that is pure comfort food!

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Shrimp Etouffee

It is hard to talk about cajun and creole cuisine without mentioning etouffee and with good reason given how easy it is to make and how tasty it is! Etouffee is a thick stew that is made with a roux that is cooked until deep brown to ensure that it is full of flavour. The meat in etouffee is typically shellfish with crawfish and shrimp being two good choices and it is generally served over rice. The key to a good etouffee is definitely the roux and you want to cook the butter and flour for a good long time until it turns a deep golden brown before adding the veggies. Once the roux is done the rest of the recipe is nice and easy and absolutely worth the effort to make!

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Blackened Catfish Tacos

I have had tacos on the brain a lot these days and I had another idea that I just could not contain; blackened catfish tacos with remoulade sauce. I was thinking about southern flavours like blackend fish and po'boys along with tacos and combining the three of them to create something new and wonderful. To cook fish blackened style, you rub it with spices, commonly a cajun/creole spice blend, and then sear it briefly at high heat until the outside just starts to char and blacken giving it a slight crispness while the inside is still perfectly moist and tender. I was taken by blackened fish the first time that I had it and I was thinking that it would be perfect in some fish tacos! Instead of using a salsa I figured that a remoulade sauce would keep the theme going nicely and since I most commonly have remoulade sauce in po'boy's and po'boys are commonly filled with lettuce and tomatoes so I filled the tacos out with lettuce and a quick pico de gallo. Heat is an essential component to tacos and without the salsa they needed some so I provided it with plenty of dashes of hot sauce to finish the tacos off!

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