aka “New Orleans Shrimp with Midwest ingredients”

I like to think I am a decent cook.  I’ve never had formal training of any kind, but spent years watching my mom produce quality meals day after day that rarely seemed to be repetitive.  Now that it’s my turn, I find I cook exactly the same.  There are certainly good aspects from learning by example, but the downside is that I now cook straight-up Midwestern meals just like my mom, who cooks Midwestern meals probably just like her mom.

Now there’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but Part One of a quest of mine over the coming [insert whatever time period you'd like because I really don't have one] is to try to cook different types of cuisine.  I hope to create some international dishes as well as dishes simply from other parts of our own country.  The hard part of that quest for me is not so much finding the ideas but actually planning far enough ahead to purchase the ingredients (that most likely are not already in my Midwestern kitchen).  We’ll see how it goes and, of course, I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

This first step on the quest began with a South Beach Diet email I received.  I’ve never actually tried the diet, but I’ve found they often have some good recipes (in my opinion, usually reached by substituting the full-fat versions of ingredients ).  The email I received was for “Big Easy Shrimp” and I was surprised to see it used ingredients that I already had.  So begins my quest.  It got rave reviews from the food critic, not only as a good meal, but as one to add to the repertoire (that’s another level of “rave review” from him).

As for recipe changes I made…  I obviously (being married to a pork man) used “real” bacon instead of the recipe’s turkey bacon.  I also burnt it a little (which I wouldn’t suggest) but that caused me to remove some of the grease (which I would suggest if you’re using the real stuff).  There seemed to be plenty of bacon flavor in the dish, so I would be worried leaving all the grease would be overboard even for bacon lovers like us.  I served it over brown rice and it made for a great dinner dish.

Give it a try for something different, and please let me know how it goes and how you made it your own!

Big Easy Shrimp

Description

Here’s an easy way to get a taste of the Big Easy. Serve this traditional shrimp creole dish over brown rice to turn this into a Phase 2 dinner. If you like, you can substitute sea scallops for the shrimp.

Serves 4

Ingredients
2 strips turkey bacon or Canadian bacon
1 onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1 celery stalk
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can (16 ounces) chopped tomatoes with juice
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon hot-pepper sauce
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

Instructions
Cook the bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Place on a paper towel–lined plate. Crumble when cool. Leave any drippings in the skillet.

In the skillet, over medium heat, cook the onion, bell pepper, and celery for 5 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes (with juice), bay leaf, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and hot-pepper sauce. Heat to boiling. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the shrimp and bacon and cook for 5 minutes, or until the shrimp turn pink. Remove and discard the bay leaf before serving.