Thursday, February 12, 2009

Cajun Cooking Contest




In January, Judy L. began a contest on her blog Patchwork Times.  The contest involved Cajun Cooking. Well, that seemed to be an easy one for me. My husband and I both grew up in Louisiana in Cajun Country. We cook Cajun food on a daily basis. Well, the real problem (which is not a problem) is that my husband is the one who does the cooking. He enjoys it. It's his creative outlet. Whenever I attempt to cook, he insists on coming into the kitchen and telling me how to do it. I like to do it "my way." So  I stay out of the kitchen and let him do the cooking. My plan was to photograph him when he was doing the various stages of making a Gumbo. Well, I've had problems  with a sinus infection the past month. The day he made an awesome Gumbo, I was down nursing a headache. I didn't get pictures to share, but I did eat gumbo for almost a week.

One evening he did make a Corn and Shrimp Chowder. Hmmm....  Chowder. That's not something one usually connects with Cajun Cooking. It  reminded me of a friend I used to teach with in Louisiana. He said that he quit trying to cook Chinese because it still tasted like his Cajun cooking. He still insisted on adding onions, bell peper, celery and red pepper. This Corn and Shrimp (shrimp = Louisiana/Cajun) was wonderful. It was peppery. So here it is. Judy, I hope that I've convinced you that any dish is a Cajun dish when Cajuns are cooking it . LOL.



Shrimp and Corn Chowder
1 tablespoon butter
2 (10-ounce) packages frozen corn, thawed
1 onion chopped
2 (8-ounce) bottles clam juice
1 3/4 cups fat-free, reduced sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3/4 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 teaspoon salt

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the corn and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 8-10 miutes.  Add the clam juice, broth, sugar, cayenne, and thyme; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer 5 minutes. Transfer to a blender and puree, in batches if necessary. Return to the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Stir in the shrimp and salt and cook until the shrimp are pink about 2 minutes.

Makes 6 servings
173 calories per serving

fromWeight Watchers Make It in Minutes book p. 99

3 comments:

Peggy said...

I'm not cajun, but that does sound cajun to me. It sounds very good and I am going to try it. We have everything in the house except the clam juice. I have never used that, because I usually make a broth out of the shrimp shells.

Unknown said...

Joe would love that I will try it next weekend.

Lori in South Dakota said...

I was real excited until I got to the clam juice :( but do you have any other recipes to share?? tonight I has busy with gumbo again, a friend was staying overnight and we had that for supper. YUM! I was born too far north!