Seafood Dirty Rice
Shrimp Sauce
2 lb. shrimp with shells
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) butter
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup tomato sauce
6 Tbsp onion, chopped fine
6 Tbsp green pepper, chopped fine
4 Tbsp celery, chopped fine
2 tsp. garlic, minced
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. white pepper
2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
3 cups shrimp stock
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups green onions, chopped fine
1 lb. lump crabmeat, packed
Brown Rice
2 cups Uncle Ben's brown rice
2 1/2 cups shrimp stock
2 Tbsp onions chopped fine
2 Tbsp green pepper, chopped fine
2 Tbsp celery, chopped fine
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
pinch of cayenne pepper
Shrimp Stock
2 onions, quartered
3 ribs celery, halved
5 cloves garlic, halved
First, get some shrimp stock started (see "Homemade Stock" with the suoup recipes). Peel all the shrimp. Put the peeled shrimp in the refrigerator. Combine all the shrimp shells and the other Shrimp Stock ingredients and cover with water. You will need 5 1/2 cups for this recipe after the stock is fully reduced, so measure your water accordingly. The better the stock the better the flavor, but we have been very pleased with stock that only simmers as long as it takes to prepare the other ingredients.
Second, chop all the vegetables. You will need a total of 8 Tbsp onion, 8 Tbsp green pepper and 6 Tbsp celery. Everything needs to be chopped fine. Put the ingredients for the Brown Rice in one bowl and the ingredients for the Shrimp Sauce in another. Include the minced garlic in the Shrimp Sauce bowl.
Third, get the rice started. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all the Brown Rice ingredients in a cake pan or casserole dish (approximately 9"x5"x2 1/2") and mix them well. Even though the stock has not been simmering long, remove 2 1/2 cups to the rice dish. Seal the pan snugly with foil and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. This is plenty of time to prepare the remaining ingredients.
Finally, start on the Shrimp Sauce. Measure out the salt, white pepper, thyme and cayenne pepper and combine them in a single bowl. Combine the butter and oil in a very large skillet over medium heat. Add the tomato sauce and the contents of both the vegetable bowl and the spice bowl. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the stock and turn the heat up high for 10 minutes; continue stirring. Stir in the cream and turn the heat down to simmer for 4 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the rice, green onions and crab meat, keeping the crabmeat lumps in tact as much as possible. Heat through and serve.
Our comments: Not as hard as it looks. Well worth the effort!