Shrimp Creole—Bam!

“If somebody has a chance to put my food in their mouth, that tells the story.” ~Emeril Lagasse
“I had these recipes that say do this, do that. Who MAKES these rules?” ~Emeril Lagasse

Bam! A recipe by Emeril Lagasse is included in Food & Wine’s best-ever recipes issue!

Oh, and not just any recipe either, but a shrimp recipe. I love shrimp—my favorite seafood!

Creole Food in New Orleans

You may know by now that I am a native Texan. My family has been in what is now Texas for many, many generations (over 7 or 8, if I can count correctly), but growing up, my family did also live several years in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, moving there when I was six years old.

New Orleans was a great place to live and a great way to experience so many things that I’d probably never have experienced elsewhere, and among those things was food. More specifically great cajun and creole food.

I couldn’t wait to make Emeril’s Shrimp Creole, the recipe chosen from Food & Wine’s issue in 1985.

Photo of the magazine cover. — Best-ever recipes? Challenge accepted!

Cook the 40

Why take on Food & Wine’s best-ever recipes from their forty years in publication? Because if you’ve been paying attention, you know that’s one of the things I’m doing this year!

Besides, I’m hoping that taking on these 40 recipes will also add some fun and new favorite foods to my life. If even half of them end up being tasty, this will be a worthwhile endeavor. Again, new food usually is, and how can I go wrong with an Emeril Lagasse recipe?!

40 Years of Food & Wine

According to the September 2018 anniversary issue of Food & Wine, and editor Hunter Lewis, https://twitter.com/notesfromacook?lang=en, what makes a good recipe is it being delicious, of course, and (I think even more important sometimes) the best recipes “tell a story worth repeating.” Well said, Hunter.

I am not sure what kind of stories all of these 40 best-ever recipes will tell from my kitchen’s point of view, but as Emeril’s quote above tells us, sometimes the best story is the food itself.

An Emeril Lagasse recipe! I was very excited to make this.

The 14th Recipe

Long before he was a famous TV chef, I was eating at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, where Emeril Lagasse cooked! I didn’t know that, of course, but there you go.

I remember the first time we went, actually; I remember because the name of the restaurant always made me think that we were about to eat really well, which we most certainly did! I think I also remember that the red beans and rice dish was the best anywhere, and I’m sure it was.

Shrimp, creole food, Emeril, memories of New Orleans were among the many reasons I was excited to make this recipe.

Again, it’s shrimp and it’s Emeril!

Let’s Get Cooking

If you’ve read even one of my blog posts, you know that I start each one with a quote. Besides being in love with food, eating and cooking, I also love words, reading—and writing (duh…blogger here).

To me, words can be powerful. They can educate, entertain and inspire; they can instill fear, bring you to tears or cause you more joy than you think you can handle. Words can also give you an excuse to change a recipe as you see fit!

Thanks, Chef Emeril! I appreciated finding your quote above because well, I made a few changes to your recipe below…

Sorry, Emeril, but I used a yellow bell pepper instead of green. Because well, I don’t like green bell peppers. I’ve given them plenty of chances, and they keep letting me down. The end.

A little prep…
A little sauté…
…adding more ingredients
Making the creole seafood seasoning.
I love that this recipe calls for fresh tomatoes.

Tabasco sauce and Lea & Perrins…perfect ingredients for this creole dish.

Emeril’s creole seasoning recipe was easy and a nice thing to have in the pantry, I think.

This recipe was really an easy one to make. Besides peeling and prepping the shrimp, everything else is pretty simple. Not that getting the shrimp ready is that difficult but it does require time and some messy work.

Total time for all prep was stated to be about 45 minutes, and I think that was about right. The dish itself didn’t take too long to cook.

After setting aside the creole sauce, I was ready to cook the shrimp with some of the seasoning.

Oh, the kitchen was smelling really good now!

Once the shrimp is cooked, you add it to the sauce.

Yep. I made that garlic fried riced-cauliflower again instead of rice. It was perfect for this dish!

So, Where Was I When This Recipe Was Published in 1985?

As Food & Wine was publishing this recipe in 1985, I was living in San Antonio, finishing up my freshman year in high school, starting my sophomore year in high school. Lots of dark eyeliner on my bottom eyelid, tons of hairspray all over my feathered hair and plenty of puffy sleeves for a lifetime (although I still LOVE puffy sleeves!) are a few of the things you would have seen if you saw me back in 1985.

What else was I doing, where did I go?

With my little sister; photo taken at a photo booth at the old Centeno’s grocery store near my old house on W. Gerald in San Antonio.

As I was only 14 or 15 during 1985, I didn’t really go anywhere. My family didn’t take any trips or vacations that year, although I’m sure we visited Austin and Laredo to visit family.

I worked that summer at a beauty salon; I answered phones, cleaned, and even helped at the shampoo sink. Mostly I listened to older ladies gossip, watched them get bad perms, and decided that I certainly did not want to be a beautician when I grew up. No offense to the beauticians of the world, but that life wasn’t for me.

On a very hot day in July, 1985, with my grandmother, and my cousin Veronica on the day of her wedding.

Also that summer, my cousin Veronica got married. It was a super hot day, and everyone was miserable at the ceremony in the not-air-conditioned church at La Villita in downtown San Antonio, but we all had a blast anyway. Almost all of my cousins were at the wedding, and we had so much fun together.

My cousin Marty, me, cousin Julia, Tio Jorge and my cousin, Rhonda at a family wedding in July, 1985.

Rock On!

Oh, speaking of fun! I also went to a concert that summer with my cousins Julia and Dina. We saw Bon Jovi open for Ratt at their World Infestation tour when it came through San Antonio. The three of us got to go to the concert by ourselves, and well, we rocked out!