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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Shrimp Étouffée

I assure you that we are still alive and well(ish), life has just kept us from the blog lately. We recently moved cities and are sorta settled in a family house while I look for work and Laura gets settled in her new job. For a bit of comfort recently, I decided to try my hand at a dish that my family has been cooking for years now, Shrimp Étouffée. Wikipedia has a good article on Étouffée if you want to bone up.

This dish is rather simple, but easy to mess up if you aren't paying attention. It starts with a full stick of butter, mmmmmm. Sorry, just the thought of all that buttery goodness made me zone out there for a moment. Once the butter is melted sauté 1 cup chopped onions, 1 cup chopped celery 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper and 2 cloves crushed garlic. Once the onions become limp add 1.5 cups of water and let simmer for about 20 minutes.

Next, add 1.5lbs of shrimp and cayenne to taste (we like it hot and went with 1/2 teaspoon). Let this simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the shrimp is cooked. Dissolve 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in 3 tablespoons of water and add to the skillet. Serve over cooked rice.

For some added taste of home for me, we paired it with a simple cucumber salad that my family likes to make. The salad combines sliced cucumber (thin is good for this, but it is up to you), mayonnaise (we went with Vegenaise and I swear you can't tell the difference), green onion and ground black pepper (or cracked pepper is nice as well). The salad is best if you can soak the sliced cucumbers in water with some salt for a few hours before mixing the rest of the ingredients.

Finally we added some Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, because who in their right mind doesn't like them? All in all this was just what this homesick boy needed.

mmmmmmmmm butter
sauté goodness
still needs pepper
really, don't fear it!
a taste of home

6 comments:

  1. Thems sure are some purty sea cockroaches!

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  2. Beautiful post! I love everything about it, down to the pyrex friendship mixing bowl. :)

    We make a similar cucumber salad, but include very thinly sliced onion, and a wee bit of vinegar in the mix. Mmmm. Glad to see y'all are alive and well.

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  3. Laura loves that mixing bowl, it was in the house when we got here and I have a feeling it will stay with us ;)

    I think I'm going to try the vinegar next time I make the salad. Do you recommend any particular type?

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  4. I'm fairly certain we generally just use regular apple cider vinegar. I could see that red wine might also be tasty. Let me know if you try something fancier than those.

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  5. WE MISS YOU!

    come back now, please.

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