Shrimp Etouffee

I've been craving fish lately and so I rummaged through my refrigerator to see what could be created without going to the grocery store in the middle of the night.  I flipped through my Taste of Home Cookbook and compared it with the ingredients on hand and decided to make the Crawfish Etouffee, using shrimp instead.  Hence, my blog post title - Shrimp Etouffee.

In French, the word "étouffée" means, literally, "smothered" or "suffocated", so this past weekend, I enjoyed making and eating Shrimp Etouffee - shrimp smothered in a tomato based sauce.  And it was yummy.  In fact, truth be told, I think it tasted even better the next day when I had it again for dinner. 

Because I didn't have exactly all that was required of this dish, I had to make a few substitutions which I will post below.

Shrimp Etouffee
based on Taste of Home's "Crawfish Etouffee"

Ingredients:
1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup of water
2 cups of tomato sauce (I used the tomato soup I made earlier.)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp aji panca (Peruvian red pepper)
1 cup of frozen okra
pinch of cayenne
pinch of dried thyme
pinch of ground cumin
1 lb of frozen large deveined shrimp, thawed

Directions:

1. In a heavy Dutch oven (or stockpot), whisk the flour and oil until smooth.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the flour/oil mixture is a reddish-brown.  (Basically, you're making a roux.)
2. Sauté the onion and celery in this mixture.  After a minute or two, add the garlic and sauté.  Then add the aji panca.  (I used the aji panca in substitution for paprika since I didn't have any.)
3. Add all the other ingredients except for the shrimp and okra.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.  Adjust seasonings if necessary.
4. Add frozen okra and cook to almost done.  Then add raw shrimp and cook until the shrimp turn pink.  Adjust seasonings if necessary.

Typically, this dish would be served over a bed of rice, but somehow I served mine under a bed of rice.  lol

* Just curious:  Etouffee.  Why does using French words make you feel all sophisticated?  As a kid, I would pretend to speak French, butcher what I "read" in my mom's French books, and dream of the day that I would speak fluently.  What happened?  I took French I from a very Southern-speaking American teacher and the next year I switched to Spanish.  That teacher was German. 

Note:  If you haven't entered my 1st giveaway and would like to, follow this link.  :-)

Bon Appetit,