Crawfish stock from the weekend family boil
Are you looking for a Paleo shrimp creole recipe? Here’s a delicious one.
And… it’s another New Orleans themed post for Bravo for Paleo. We can’t help but love crawfish. But this is shrimp creole right? Yes it is, but my grandmother Mere and my great-grandmother always said crawfish stock packs more flavor than shrimp. So we took the unsucked heads, onions, lemon, and made a stock all day. (The stock is what makes a good NOLA meal) Then we followed a Shrimp Creole recipe from my Rouses everyday Magazine, which was surprisingly Paleo already. This dinner had wonderful flavor, and the experience was great as well.
Becnel’s Creole Tomatoes
The best way to make a meal taste amazing is with local ingredients. These local Creole tomatoes, the Louisiana shrimp and crawfish really made all the difference. It’s important to buy local and organic because of the higher nutrient level, and your taste buds will thank you.
So enough chatting, here was the final outcome.
Paleo Shrimp Creole with Riced Cauliflower
Serve with riced cauliflower, or faux-tatoes.
- 4-5 large tomatoes
- 2 Tablespoons butter (preferably pastured)
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- 1 cup diced green bell pepper
- 1 ½ cups Vidalia onion (or yellow)
- ¼ cup tomato paste (look for low sugar content, no added sugar)
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 cups crawfish/shrimp stock
- 4 lbs. of 21-25 wild-caught Louisiana shrimp
- 1 head of cauliflower
- Bring 1 quart of water to boil in a medium saucepan. Blanch the tomatoes in the water about 1 minute, just until the skin breaks. Remove the tomatoes from the water and pull off the skin (see picture). Seed and dice the tomatoes then set them aside.
- Melt the butter in a large pot over high heat. Add the celery, bell pepper, onion, and tomato and saute for 7-10 minutes until the tomato is nearly dissolved and the vegetables begin to caramelize. Reduce the heat to medium and add the tomato paste, bay leaf, and spices if using shrimp stock. Allow the mixture to simmer for an additional 3-4 minutes until the vegetables are a rich caramel color. Add the stock and reduce the mixture at a low rolling boil over medium heat for 25 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer for an additional 10 minutes until the shrimp are pinked and cooked through. Serve with Riced Cauliflower.
- Chop up raw cauliflower; break florets into somewhat even pieces.
- Add to food processor and pulse until rice-like consistency. It is important not to over pulse or you may puree it.
- Take riced raw cauliflower and you can either microwave for 10 minutes OR cook in coconut or olive oil in a pan.
- We used crawfish stock which is full of flavor. If using another type of stock you can add ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon paprika, sea salt and pepper.
There is nothing better than freshly caught Louisiana Redfish. The term Half-Shell refers to a redfish that when cleaned you leave the skin on what I refer to as a slab of meat. Most people seem to take the scales off to make a cleaner presentation. The fish is cooked on a BBQ Pit with the skin down, which takes the brunt of the heat and any flame ups from the coals. We use and are huge fans of The Big Green Egg and for this application used pecan wood chips.