Shrimp Creole
Ingredients:
4 lbs. medium-size fresh shrimp, peeled, deveined, and coarsely chopped1/4 cup Canola oil1/4 cup all-purpose flour2 cups onion, finely chopped1 cup celery, finely chopped3/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced1 large green pepper, chopped4 cloves garlic, minced3 fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and small diced1 can Rotel tomatoes with chilies, undrained, chopped, (10-1/2 oz)1 can tomato sauce, (8 oz)1 can tomato paste, (12 oz)3 tomato paste cans of water (or chicken stock when it's not Lent)? cup sherry wine3 tsp. Frank Davis Seafood Seasoning1/2 tsp. kosher salt1/2 tsp. black pepper1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes3 bay leaves2 sprigs of fresh thyme2 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice + zest of one lemon2 tsp. Worcestershire sauceDash Frank Davis Cayenne/Garlic Hot Sauce2 Tbsp. sweet cream butter1/3 cup parsley, chopped6 cups hot boiled long-grain rice
First, using a flexible wire whisk, combine the canola oil and the flour in a heavy 5-quart Dutch oven and cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking continually, until it transforms into a golden colored roux.
Figure that this should take you about 15 to 20 minutes.
Next, drop into the pot the onion, celery, green onions, green pepper, and garlic. Then blend this into the roux and cook everything together, stirring often, for about 15 minutes or until the seasoning vegetables are fully wilted and tender.
Then stir in the all of the tomatoes-the fresh diced, the tomato sauce, the tomato paste, and the Rotels-as well as the water and the sherry wine.
When everything is fully blended, begin adding and whisking into the mixture the seafood seasoning, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, bay leaves, thyme, lemon juice, lemon zest, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce.
Now bring the contents of the Dutch oven to a full boil and stir everything around briskly.
Then immediately cover the pot and reduce the heat to nothing harsher than a gentle simmer. At this point, you allow the "Creole" to simmer for a full 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Finally, when you're ready to eat, gently stir in shrimp (along with the 2 tablespoons of butter, and simmer everything once more for about 10 minutes or until the shrimp turn pink and tender. All that's left is to whisk in the minced parsley and serve the Creole over a big bowl of hot, steaming rice alongside a glass of chilled white wine.
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Chef's Notes:
If you want to extract a number of other recipes from this "base recipe," you merely follow the directions to the letter until you arrive at the signature ingredient-in this case it's shrimp, but it can also be crawfish, crabmeat, calamari, lobster meat, etc. Of course, outside of the Lenten season you can also re-fashion this base recipe into Chicken Creole, Pork Creole, Sausage Creole. . .it's limited only by your imagination.
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