New Orleans Style Shrimp and Sausage

January 9, 2023

So I saw this method for cooking polenta on Jacques Pepin’s Instagram. It looked really easy and I wanted to try it, but I rarely eat polenta and I couldn’t figure out what I was going to do with it once I made it. I was close to making short ribs, which is always delicious. But I’ve been getting these emails from Brennan’s about ordering a king cake for Mardi Gras, and then I ate some bananas foster at Mooo…. and felt New Orleans calling.

I started with an onion, two celery stalks, and a red pepper. I diced it all fine and sautéed it in a tablespoon of butter along with a large clove of garlic for about 7 or 8 minutes. To season I used about a tablespoon of paprika, half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a hefty amount of black pepper, and a teaspoon each of dried thyme and oregano. Then I added two sliced chorizo sausages. I would have preferred andouille, but it’s hard to find.

I cooked all of that for another 10 minutes to get a little browning on the sausage. I think I could have browned the sausage before I started on the vegetables, but this worked and saved some effort. Next I added a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes with the juice and a good amount of tabasco sauce, covered it and left it on very low heat for about 45 minutes while the polenta cooked.

Last I added the shrimp turned off the heat and covered it again. The shrimp was cooked through in about 5 minutes. I finished it off with a lot more tabasco sauce and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. As expected I spooned it over my creamy polenta and then garnished it with fresh parsley. More or less, I made shrimp and grits. It was great and will probably become a regular thing for me. Once I work out the details, I’ll post it on the recipe page.

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