Louisiana Seafood Diet

Down here in Louisiana, we usually eat all the food that we see, but that's not exactly what this lens is about. Food from the sea and local waters, including fish, shrimp, crabs, oysters and crawfish are popular all year long, but especially on the Lenten menus.

Every Friday after Mardi Gras, the seafood markets and restaurants are packed with good Catholics who have given up eating meat for Lent. Some of the easy to prepare recipes featured here include: Crawfish Etouffee, Baked Redfish or Red Snapper, Shrimp Jambalaya, and Shrimp Stuffed Bell Peppers.

All kidding aside, we do love our seafood down here in the south. In much of Louisiana, fish is usually fried, but in the south, with its French influence, many tasty Creole and Cajun recipes, using our bountiful seafood, have been handed down through the generations.

All of the recipes that we share with you here are versatile and different seafood or other meat can be substituted for the listed ingredient. That's one thing about Louisiana cooking, you can make a delicious dish with a little of this and a little of that because it's all in the seasonings.

Most recipes for seafood dishes start with at least two of the "holy trinity" which consists of chopped onions, bell peppers and celery. Cayenne pepper, bay leaf, basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, garlic and a few other herbs and spices also add to the wonderful flavor.

2 lbs. peeled crawfish tails

¼ lb. butter or ¼ cup olive oil

½ cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped onions

½ cup chopped bell pepper

2 tablespoons crawfish fat

2 cups cold water

2 teaspoons corn starch

¼ cup onion tops and parsley, chopped

Salt, Black pepper and Cayenne (red pepper)

Season crawfish tails with salt and pepper and set aside. Melt butter or oil in a heavy pot. Add onions, bell pepper and celery; cook until the onions are wilted, stirring constantly. Add crawfish fat, 1 ½ cups water and crawfish tails. Bring to a boil and cook over slow heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Dissolve corn starch into ½ cup of water, add to mixture. Add onion tops and parsley and cook another 10 minutes. Let it sit for a few minutes. Serve over cooked rice. Serves 4.

You'll find many delicious Cajun seafood recipes within the covers of this fabulous book.

1 lb. peeled and deveined shrimp

4 cups cooked rice (we like brown rice)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon sugar

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup chopped onions

2 cups water

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup bell pepper, chopped

¼ lb butter or 1 cup olive oil

½ cup green onions and parsley, chopped fine

Salt, black pepper and Cayenne (red pepper) to taste

Cook rice separately.

Chop shrimp and set aside. Melt butter or heat oil and add onions, celery, bell pepper and garlic in a heavy pot. Cook uncovered over medium heat until onions are wilted. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly for about 15 minutes. Then add 1 ½ cups water and season to taste with salt, black pepper and Cayenne. Add sugar and cook uncovered over medium heat for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally or until oil floats to the top. Add shrimp; continue cooking and stirring another 20 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in ½ cup water and add; cook another 5 minutes. Mix ingredients with cooked rice; add green onion tops and parsley. Mix again. Serves 8 generous portions as a side dish.

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From the Kitchen of Yvonne

This is a quick and easy recipe that you can whip up in a few minutes (if you use frozen shrimp and boil in the bag brown rice). It will take longer if you use regular brown rice.

Serves 2-3 people

1 lb of shelled deveined Shrimp

2-3 sliced Vidalia Sweet Onions

1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon of Butter

2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped

Italian seasoning

Cooked brown rice

Follow the instructions on the package of rice. Cook the brown rice 45 minutes ahead of time if you are using regular rice. If you are using boil in a bag rice, start it right before you cook the shrimp (it takes only 10 minutes).

Put Olive Oil in a large frying pan and set on medium to medium high. Put 1 lb. of shrimp into pan. Cover and cook about 2 minutes, then turn the shrimp over and put in the slices of sweet onion and chopped garlic and sprinkle with the herbs. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes or so (longer if shrimp are frozen) until the onions are wilted and the shrimp is pinkish white and cooked. Stir in the Tablespoon of butter. Salt and pepper to taste and serve over rice.

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1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped onions

¼ cup butter

1 cup cooked rice

8 medium-sized bell peppers

½ cup bread crumbs

Salt, black pepper and Cayenne (red pepper)

Cut the tops off and remove the centers from the bell peppers and put them in cold water. Bring to a boil and boil for ten minutes. Drain and set aside.

Stuffing

Melt butter in pot; add onion sand celery. Let it cook until the onions are wilted; add shrimp and cook about 6 minutes. Then add rice, lobster and season to taste. Mix well; fill each pepper with stuffing. Cover with bread crumbs, brush tops lightly with butter and bake in 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes. Serves 4.

Reference: Don's Secrets, Don L., Ashby D., and Willie G. Landry, Don's Seafood & Steak House, 1958

Since the BP Horizon Oil Spill, do you think that seafood caught in the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat?

Al and I enjoy the outdoors and we used to do a lot of fishing, shrimping and crawfishing so our seafood was really fresh. However, Hurricane Katrina blocked our boat in for 3 years and with all the clean up, we just haven't been able to get it over to the shop. Hopefully this year we'll be able to use it again.

In the photo, Yvonne is holding one of the big Redfish that we caught at Southwest Pass. That was a long time ago, before all the over fishing by commercial ships with big purse nets began. There aren't as many like this one anymore.

Louisiana chefs have written many fantastic cook books for those who would like to try their hand at Cajun cooking. There are also many delicious mixes that can be purchased if you aren't really comfortable in the kitchen that will enable you to mix up a delicious Creole or Cajun dish in minutes.