Seafood Dirty Rice

For Mardi Gras this year, we made seafood dirty rice for dinner and King Cake for dessert.  It was my first time making the King Cake by myself and I was really happy with how it turned out.  My mom and I made the seafood dirty rice together - we used the recipe from the Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen cookbook.  It was really good!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound shrimp (with shells)
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp. peanut oil
• 1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
• 3 tbsp. very finely chopped onions
• 2 1/2 tbsp. very finely chopped bell pepper
• 2 tbsp. very finely chopped celery
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shrimp stock
• use the shrimp shells to make the stock
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3 1/2 cups cooked rice
• 3/4 cup very finely chopped green onions
• 1 cup (about 1/2 pound) lump crabmeat

Yield: 4 servings

Peel the shrimp and use the shells to make the shrimp stock.

Melt the butter with the oil in a large skillet.

Add the tomato sauce, onions, bell pepper, celery, garlic, salt, white pepper, thyme, and cayenne.  Sauté over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the stock and continue cooking over high heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the cream.

Simmer for about 4 minutes.

Add the shrimp and simmer for 3 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the rice, green onions, and crabmeat, keeping the lumps of crabmeat as intact as possible.

Heat through and serve immediately.

This recipe is so good - I highly recommend trying it if you like cajun food.

Boiled Shrimp and Red Sauce

One of my favorite meals is boiled shrimp and red sauce. We almost aways have it on New Year's Eve, and often for other occasions as well. Today I'm sharing our recipe - the red sauce recipe was created by my grandpa and it is a lot tastier than your normal cocktail sauce.  I like the red sauce so much that I usually wind up eating the leftovers with Ritz crackers.

Ingredients

• peeled and deveined shrimp
• 1 tbsp. Old Bay seasoning 
• paprika
• Rick's Red Sauce
• 16 oz Heinz ketchup (I prefer using Simply Heinz - no corn syrup!)
• juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp. A.1. steak sauce
• 1 tbsp. Heinz 57 sauce
• 4-5 splashes Tabasco

Bring water to a boil and add Old Bay seasoning. Add peeled and deveined shrimp.  Bring water back to a boil and boil for about 5 minutes. Add a sprinkle of paprika to the water. Drain the shrimp and rinse with cold water. Dunk in ice or put in the refrigerator to chill.

To make the red sauce, stir the ketchup, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, A.1. steak sauce, Heinz 57 sauce, and tabasco together.  Refrigerate.

Serve the shrimp with a side of red sauce and enjoy!

This is a really easy meal to make and great for parties, since you can make as much as you need.