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“Start with a Creole trinity of onions, celery, and green pepper, add some spice and salad shrimp; then pour over a crispy fillet of fish and you have a wonderful low-fat delicious dish, easy enough for every day, good enough for company”
Snapper with Shrimp Creole Sauce
Ingredients
For the Shrimp Creole Sauce
1 tablespoon grapeseed or other neutral oil- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 cup diced or thinly sliced celery (with some leaves if possible)
- 1/2 cup diced green peppers (green peppers are key to the Creole Trinity so don't use red or yellow)
- 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
- 3/4 cup diced tomato (fresh or canned)
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
- 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce (this is a technical term dash, so just dash, not pour)
- 1 - 2 dashes cayenne pepper, to your spice level
- 1 cup low-sodium or homemade chicken stock, or as needed
- 1/2 pound cooked "salad" shrimp
- Salt and pepper, to taste
For the Fish
4 red snapper or rockfish filets, check and remove any bones- 1 - 2 tablespoons Slap ya Mama seasoning*
- 1/2 cup each flour and cornmeal, mixed together in a shallow bowl
- 2 tablespoons grapeseed or other neutral oil, for frying
- Freshly chopped parsley, for serving, if desired
Method
Step 1
Prepare the Creole Sauce
In a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium heat; add the onion, celery and peppers; cook, stirring until they have just wilted and given up some of their juice, then add the garlic, cook for 1 minute; add the tomatoes and cook until soft. Stir in the thyme, oregano and cook for 2 - 3 minutes, then add the Worcestershire sauce, cayenne and chicken stock. Stir well and cook for about 5 minutes, adding more stock if the sauce seems to dry. Stir in the shrimp and cook until the shrimp are hot and well coated in sauce. Set-aside.Step 2
Prepare the Fish
Season the fish with the Slap ya Mama seasoning mix on both sides, then dredge in the flour/cornmeal mixture until lightly coated (I used a little cooking spray on the filet to help the coating stick).Step 3
Heat the oil in a large skillet; when hot, add the filets in a single layer, cook until browned on one side, about 3 - 4 minutes, then turn and brown the other side also 3 - 4 minutes.
Step 4
Remove the fish from the pan and plate; top with the shrimp Creole sauce. Sprinkle with fresh parsley, if desired.
Step 5
*Slap ya Mama is a Cajun Seasoning that is easily found in most markets. If you don't have any or don't wish to purchase it, it's a combination of salt, red pepper (cayenne), black pepper and garlic powder.
Step 6
**UPDATE** I just came back from a trip to New Orleans, where I ate drum fish. Drum fish would work beautifully in this presentation.
{The making of Snapper with Shrimp Creole Sauce}
BB loves those little salad shrimps on salads. He also loves to over-buy when I send him to the grocery store. If I tell him I need one lemon, he’ll come home with three. So when I make my recipe for Butter Leaf Lettuce with Shrimp and Fresh Herb Dressing and send him to the store for a quarter pound of salad shrimp, he’ll come home with 3/4 pound instead – leaving me to find new ways to use the left-over pre-cooked shrimp. This recipe for Snapper with Shrimp Creole Sauce is one of my solutions for excess shrimp, although I think it is totally fresh bought pre-cooked shrimp worthy.
This recipe starts with a Creole trinity – onions, celery and green pepper
Many (most) cuisines have their own trinity of vegetables to start a dish, often called a mirepoix. A mirepoix is simple a combination of generally three ingredients which add the flavor essence of the cuisine. For the French, it’s onion, carrot, and celery. For Spain, it’s called a sofrito which is a combination of onions, garlic, and tomato. This recipe starts with the Creole trinity, chopped onion, green bell pepper, and celery. The peppers must be green to add the true flavor for a Creole dish. Red, yellow and orange peppers are lovely peppers but are just too sweet to get the true Creole flavor.
After a quick sauté of the vegetables I add some fresh chopped tomato because it’s summer, they are in my garden right now and just waiting to add their deliciousness to the dish. If you don’t have a garden or fresh tomatoes, (or it’s in the middle of winter) canned work perfectly well. If you do use canned diced tomato, chop them up a little more finely then what comes in the can. You want the tomato to melt into the sauce. Then add a bit of fresh thyme and oregano, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper to give it a kick and some chicken stock to make it saucy. Once these have cooked for a few minutes, about 5 – 7, add the shrimp and just stir them gently around to get them hot and well coated in sauce. They are already cooked, they are small, it doesn’t take long.
Displayed on the wine barrel lazy Susan given to me by my sons for my birthday. It makes a great lazy Susan, as well as a nice photo prop!
I used snapper (sometimes called rock cod) in this dish, but you could use another white fish in its place. Whatever you use, make sure the bones are all removed, nothing worse than taking a bite of fish and getting a mouthful of bones that you have to gracefully extract. The combination of cornmeal (I used coarse cornmeal) and flour give the fish a nice coating and crunch. You may notice I didn’t use salt on the fish as the Slap Ya Mama seasoning mix has plenty. If you find the cornmeal/flour mix is not adhering well to your filet, try spraying the seasoned filet with a little non-stick cooking spray to help it stick.
Snapper doesn’t take long to cook as the filets are generally less than a half inch thick, so it’s important that your pan and oil are hot so the coating gets crisp by the time the fish is cooked, not soggy. Soggy coating is not good.
I served this with some brown rice and steamed fresh broccoli, although the broccoli missed the photo shoot.
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Nutritional Info
This information is per serving.
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Calories452
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Fat13g (2g Sat, 6g Mono, 3g Poly)
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Protein62g
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Carbohydrate21g
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Dietary Fiber3g
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Cholesterol191mg
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Sodium833mg
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*As always, provided for your informed decision and entertainment, but might not be 100% accurate
posted by Renz on October 16, 2015
This looks good. I do a shrimp creole too, but I always use large shrimp. Can you believe I eat snapper all the time, but coming from the Caribbean we always eat it whole. This would be a nice introduction with it filleted.
posted by LindySez on October 16, 2015
I love whole fish! I’ll bet yours is fresh and delish. I do a shrimp creole with large shrimp too, but this works better over the fish, and uses up all those little shrimps my hubby is fond of overbuying 🙂 Cheers ~ Lindy
posted by Michele on October 16, 2015
This looks amazing! I Love recipes that have big flavors and are healthy too! Cant wait to try this 😉
posted by LindySez on October 16, 2015
As I’m fond of saying, “Life is too short to eat mediocre food” …so I’m totally with you Michele. And better when it’s both easy and low-fat! Thanks for stopping. Cheers ~ Lindy
posted by Jenn on October 16, 2015
The creole trinity is my go-to! Love this tasty recipe!
posted by LindySez on October 16, 2015
Yes Mam, it does make the Creole Creole! Cheers ~ Lindy
posted by Dini @ The Flavor Bender on October 16, 2015
YUM! I can’t believe how delicious this looks 🙂 those flavours sound incredible!!
posted by LindySez on October 16, 2015
Thanks Dini, coming from the Flavor Bender, that’s high praise indeed. The flavors do go so nicely, as well as the textures. I hope you try it soon! Cheers ~ Lindy
posted by Vicky from @Avocado Pesto on October 17, 2015
Love the idea of a Shrimp creole sauce on fish. I actually just made snapper fillets last night for the first time (in a tomato, chipotle in adobo and coconut milk sauce) and loved it. Not sure why I haven’t been cooking with this fish all along!
posted by LindySez on October 17, 2015
Oh wow, that sounds YUMMY…I love this fish. It’s so mild and versatile. Cheers ~ Lindy
posted by Teresa on October 18, 2015
I’ve never tried Creole cuisine before, but always wanted to – thank for the recipe I think I will give it a try 🙂 I too always over buy, I can’t help it… 🙂
posted by LindySez on October 19, 2015
I hope you do give it a try Teresa. And that over-buy thing must be genetic, last night I asked him to get me a leek, and he got three, so now I have to figure out what to make with two extra leeks 🙂 Cheers ~Lindy
posted by Kimberly on October 20, 2015
I love anything Creole … and snapper is one of my favorite fish … so I bet I would LOVE this combination! Putting this on the to-make list ASAP!
posted by LindySez on October 21, 2015
It is so easy and tasty. Thanks for stopping by Kimberly. Cheers ~ Lindy
posted by Marissa @ OMG FOOD on October 20, 2015
Yes, please! You’ve got some tasty ingredients going on there. I actually haven’t had red snapper in a long time and now I’m craving this, but it’s almost 1am. Any chance you can teleport me this dish? 🙂
posted by LindySez on October 21, 2015
Wish I could, but it’s easy enough to make, even at 1:00AM if you just had all the ingredients there at hand 🙂 Hope you enjoy it at whatever hour! Cheers ~ Lindy