Shrimp Creole & Brown Rice

Shrimp Creole & Brown Rice... I would like to start by saying that I got the inspiration for Sunday night's dinner from a blog follower! This young man was someone who I knew briefly in college. We are friends on Facebook and he recently contacted me to let me know how much he enjoys my blog posts and told me about some recipe's of mine that he has tried! After a bit of chit chatting he sent me a great looking recipe for his Grandmother's Shrimp Creole dish which gave me the idea to create my dinner last night. I veered a bit from his original recipe, due to ingredients I had on hand and those that I found at TJ's, but the idea of recreating this spicy southern classic is the same! The moral of the story is - thanks to everyone who follows! Please reach out and let me know if there are dishes you have tired or recipes you use that I could be inspired by for an upcoming post.

The Ingredients:

1 Yellow onion
1 Bell Pepper ( I used a red one - but you could use yellow, orange or green)
A few cloves of crushed garlic
A sprinkle of Cayenne
Small palm full of crushed dried oregano and crushed dried basil
A bay leaf or two if you've got them
A pinch of Sugar
1 Lemon's worth of lemon juice
1 Can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 large spoon full of tomato paste
Whole peeled shrimp
TJ's Smoked Andoullie Chicken Sausage
Salt & Pepper to taste
A tiny bit of butter at the end

How To:

Chop the onions and the bell pepper into small pieces, maybe dime sized. Saute them over medium/high heat in olive oil with the crushed garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne, oregano, basil, and half of the lemon juice. Once that is starting to soften, add in 2 of the sausages also chopped up. I cut them in half long ways and then sliced the pieces into quarter inch thick half moon shapes. Let that saute together and add the pinch of sugar and the big spoon full of tomato paste. Tomato past is a great way to add a little sweetness to a sauce or saucy dish such as this, as well as acts as a bit of a thickening agent. Let that continue to saute for a few minutes and then add the can of diced/crushed tomatoes and a bay leaf or two if you have them on hand. You can let this simmer lightly on low heat with a lid for as long as you need. I let it go about an hour.

In a separate saute pan I cooked my shrimp in olive oil, lemon juice and a bit of salt and pepper until they were pink/golden on each side - just a couple minutes. Then dump the whole pan into the sausage tomato pan and give it a toss. Add a little bit of butter just to give it an even creamier finish and an extra added richness.

Voila! Serve over TJ's brown rice (freezer section, takes 3 minutes to steam up) and you've got yourself a southern inspired spicy shrimp dinner!

TJ's ingredients

Saute the veggies

Love their Chicken Sausages

Add the sausage and seasonings

Let it get nice and caramelized

Add the tomato paste & tomatoes

Add the bay leaves and let it simmer lightly

Saute the shrimp

Dump em in!

Enjoy!! ( I forgot a pic before I started chowing down!)