Instant Pot Shrimp & Sausage Gumbo (HAPPY MARDI GRAS!)

Happy Mardi Gras, y'all!

Tree at New Orleans International Airport (MSY).

This year, I was able to make it down to Scott, LA for their parade.  This is always my favorite:  the floats aren't anything amazing like what you see in New Orleans, but my friends live on the parade route, and they throw a big shindig with lots of food and I get to see some of my favorite people on the planet.

Yes, that is a Minion Porta-John.

Robin wins for best catch--hula dancing dolphins with coconut bras.

And I got to meet this lil' cutie, my friend B's new baby!

As per usual, since I am no longer a resident of the great state of Louisiana, I have to work on Mardi Gras. In fact, I will be in training all day learning how to use our new accounting software.  HOWEVER, we will be taking a break over lunch to have the annual Mardi Gras Potluck (coordinated each year by yours truly, because I just can't give it up.)

Last year, I made a boudin king cake, before that it was bacon gouda grit fritters w/pepper jelly sauce, then it was king cake cupcakes, and before that it was another king cake (sans boudin).  This year, a coworker is picking up a king cake kringle from Supreme Bakery here in town, so I decided to make gumbo.  I've done gumbo several times here (see list at the bottom of this post for links), but I've never made it in my Instant Pot.  So I figured...why not?

INGREDIENTS: (makes about 8-10 two-cup servings) 
* Note: if cooking for a smaller group, you can halve this recipe...or you can freeze part of it. It freezes really well.

• 4 cups cooked brown rice (aka 2 cups uncooked rice, cooked)
• 1 lb small or medium shrimp, tails/shells removed
• 1 lb smoked sausage (andouille if you can find it), cut into 1/2 inch pieces 
• 1 tsp olive oil (as needed) 
• 1 onion, diced 
• 1 bell pepper, diced (I used both red & green since that’s what I had on hand) 
• 2 stalks of celery, diced 
• 1 cup water 
• 1 cup instant roux 
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock (or 2 cups regular + 1 cup water)
• 6 cups water 
• 2 cups chopped okra, strung* 
• 4 cloves garlic, minced 
• 2 bay leaves 
• 2 Tbsp parsley 
• 1 tsp basil 
• 1/2 tsp thyme 
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper 
• 1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning (or more to taste after cooking)

DIRECTIONS:

1) Cook the rice in your preferred method (I used the Instant Pot) and set aside.

2) Set the Instant Pot to Saute and cook the sausage (about 4 minutes). Once browned, remove the sausage and set aside in a medium bowl.

3) Put the okra in the pot and stir for about 3 minutes.  You'll see "strings" of slime coming off the okra--this is good, as cooking out the slime now will keep it from being slimy in the gumbo.  It will start to brown a bit as well, which is a good thing--adds flavor.  After the 3 minutes are up, remove the okra from the pot and set aside--you can put it in the same bowl as the sausage so you're not making extra dirty dishes for yourself.

4) Add the olive oil, onion, bell pepper, and celery to the pot and saute until softened and the onions start to go translucent (about 3-5 minutes).

5) Mix 1 cup water & instant roux together and then add to the pot, stirring until the roux thickens (just a minute or so).

 

6) Add the sausage, okra, rest of the water, chicken broth and spices to the pot and stir well--make sure nothing's sticking to the bottom of the pot.  Then lock the lid on, make sure the lid is set to "Seal", Press "Manual", and cook on "High" for 10 minutes.

7) Let the pot de-pressurize naturally (about 10 minutes), then open the lid and throw in the shrimp.  The residual heat from the gumbo will cook them without letting them get too tough & chewy.

Serve over rice (or with the rice mixed in, because my co-workers are a bunch of Yankees who aren't used to assembling their own gumbo bowls), with a side of potato salad and french bread.  

...and a side of red beans, jambalaya, veggies, Jimmy Johns, and king cake....  Because it's a potluck. And you start Keto tomorrow...so one last hurrah!!!

My Other Gumbo Recipes:
Chicken & Sausage Gumbo (made from scratch)
Pressure Cooker Gumbo
Gumbo Risotto
Duck & Sausage File Gumbo
Slow Cooker Gumbo

Daniel Fast Days 10 & 11

Today’s Devotion: “Day 10- Seeing The Big Picture Genesis.50:20 ‘But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.’

I believe I can say with certainty that Joseph had no idea of all the adversity that his dreams would take him into & if he had of known I’m not sure he would have even began the journey. But as it is with any dream it will take great faith to walk it out. The things that he faced, the rejection of his brothers, sold into slavery, accused of adultery, cast into prison, would be enough to make some of us quit before we ever got started, but as it is with most things in life we don’t necessarily control everything that happens & I believe that is where the sovereignty & the providence of God comes in. If we will continue walking toward His purpose no matter what trouble we encounter we will eventually run into our destiny. This is exactly what happened with Joseph. His ability to stay faithful to the Lord in every trial eventually exalted him to second in command in all of Egypt & the purpose of his promotion was bigger than his life alone. Some of the things you’re walking through may not make any sense to you either but like Joseph you have to stay faithful in the journey. Open your eyes today & begin to See the Big Picture.”

I can empathize with Joseph. I’m sure we all can.  “Dreams” very rarely include the nasty bits of reality that come along with achieving them.  The recent college grad doesn’t think about the menial, mind-numbing tasks they’ll be given at their first job. The desperate “wannabeamom” doesn’t focus on morning sickness, or the complete lack of sleep after the little one comes, or “Baby’s First Blowout in the Bathtub”.  The new groom typically doesn’t stand at the end of the aisle  thinking about the fact that someday, he is going to see his blushing bride on the crapper--she may be 30, she may be 90, but it WILL happen.  The new entrepreneurs don’t think about the hours they’ll spend fending off advertising offers and requests for donations, or screaming at Quickbooks for generating duplicate entries, or trying to figure how many “servings” are in a head of lettuce *raises hand*.  At some point on every journey, there comes a moment, however fleeting (or not fleeting) of, “OMG…why did I do this to myself? This was my DREAM!  This was SUPPOSED TO BE FUN!!! WHAT WAS I THINKING???”  And in those moments, it can be near impossible to think about the Big Picture.  That each little crappy thing that happens to you is part of a bigger Plan.  That each of those crappy things changes you, in a way that you will need for the future.

As the second season of having The Scoop nears (assuming it ever warms up), I feel those knots re-tying themselves in my stomach. I think about all those un-fun moments that are surely waiting for us:  unexpected equipment failures, employee call offs, purchase orders, finding a new food vendor, and customer complaints and customer “suggestions” (‘I realize you only have this 500-square foot building and no extra space anywhere, but maybe you should get an oven bake your own bread, and get a giant ice cream maker, and you should probably install a drive thru on this building you don’t own, and maybe make your own waffle cones by hand, one at a time as people order them while you have a line out the door...’)… okay, maybe my thoughts on that one are transparent.  It weighs on me a lot.  But I know that God never gives us more than we can handle, so whatever His will, as long as I keep the faith, he’ll bring us through it.

--

Breakfast: Smoothie, made from strawberries, banana, blueberries, orange, pineapple juice, and spinach.  Yes, this would be a pretty spot on representation of the “Christmas Poop” smoothie I mentioned the other day.  But don’t judge by the color—it’s actually really tasty.

You can see now why I cried.

Lunch:  Vegan Minestrone

Dinner:  Trivia night again!  I tried to pick up some brown rice veggie sushi rolls for the Hubs & I, but when I got to the market they were already shut down and there weren’t any in the case.  So the Hubs (being the wonderful man he is) brought me some chips & salsa & a banana from home.  Then we split an order of herbed fries at trivia.

Best Fries On The Planet.  Thank you Finnegan’s Wake!

~~~

Woo—over halfway through!!!

Today’s Devotion: “Day 11: Enduring Mercy --Psalms 136:1 ‘O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever.’

If you look up Endure in Webster’s dictionary you will find that it means to continue in the same state; to last; to abide; to submit; to sustain; to bear; to undergo; to tolerate; That is an amazing fact especially when we are talking about the Mercy of God. His mercy is able to tolerate whatever foolishness you get yourself into. Mercy is “not getting what you deserve.” Now that is good news, not that you are living your life in foolishness, but that even in times when wisdom is not employed the Lord’s mercy never changes. His promise to us is that he will never leave us nor forsake us. We need to be thankful for his great mercy & allow that same mercy to flow out of our lives to others.”

Mercy is a true blessing.  We’ve all needed it from time to time, whether from God or from others.  I am the first to admit that I am flawed, however well intended.  One only need look as far as this morning, when I accidentally dropped an F-bomb while grabbing hot bread from the toaster.  If we tried to keep track of all our shortcomings throughout the day, we’d end the day feeling like utter failures.  But just as the troublesome screaming toddler is still loved by his stressed-out mama at the end of the day, God still loves us too, no matter how bad we screw up.  I’ve heard some agnostic/atheistic people state that “God” is just a substitute parent for immature & emotionally needy adults, because the God/Follower relationship so closely mimics to that of a parent/child relationship.  But the Bible states that “we are made in His likeness”; it just makes sense that our most hard-wired, intimate human emotion-- the unfailing love of a parent for a child (no matter how demanding & seemingly unreciprocated at times)-- would be the same that God, who created us, has for us.  Perhaps that’s circular logic, but it makes sense to me.  As teens, our parents are uncool and overbearing…but as we grow, we realize just how wise they truly are, and just how forgiving they’ve been to us. So we try to show them more appreciation, and try to love them as hard as they love us.

Breakfast: ½ whole wheat flatbread + 1 tbsp natural peanut butter, and an apple

Lunch: I had high hopes of getting a brown rice veggie sushi roll at the local supermarket….but alas, the Sushi Dudes told me they were out of brown rice.  They politely pointed at the brown rice rolls that were already out on display, but all of them contained meat.  BOO.  So it was a salad bar instead, with some Greek dressing with no sugar that I found after several minutes of searching (seriously…nearly all dressings seem to contain sugar. Even the “olive oil & vinegar” dressing I picked up.  Stop with the sugar!)

Dinner: Salsa Rice!

 

This is probably the ONE dish that we’ve had since on the Fast that was already a regular in my repertoire. We LOOOOOVE this dish.  So fresh and still filling.  And here, you get a little glimpse into my Typical Thursday evening routine—looking through the sale ads while we chow down.  I know, I know…our lives are uber-glam.

$1.68/lb for asparagus?  Looks like I’m cookin’ some asparagus next week!

So…tomorrow….Valentine’s Day!!! (…???)  Perhaps you’re wondering how we’ll navigate the Day of Chocolate & Champagne & Oysters & Cheese & Other Delectable Non-Fast Friendly Things?  ….Yeah, us too!  Tune in & we’ll see how it goes!

Salsa Rice: Versatile Dish Extraordinaire!

Once upon a time (i.e. 2009), there was a recession.  Wait, what?  Are we still in it?  I can’t tell—plenty busy here…
ANYWAY…in this Once-Upon-A-Time land, there were two friends:

(I promise she’s not naked.)

…who worked for a consulting company that catered to oil-drilling clients.  And crude oil prices had bottomed out to $40/barrel.  And you know what happens when the price of oil drops below $60/barrel, my friends?  Oil-Drilling Companies don’t drill.  It’s not cost-effective.  So our phones weren’t ringing, and we weren’t working overtime, and we were even FORCED to take one-hour lunches and leave when we hit 40 hours at the end of the week.  Tough times, I tell you.

(Clean desk = not enough work.)

So what to do, when you’re not working, but you still have to BE at work?  Well, these two friends invented a game called “Google Dat”.  Which basically involved spending a lot of time on Google.  Don’t know the answer to a question?  Just Google dat.  What was the name of the guy in that one movie?  Google dat.  How long does it take to fly to Hawaii?  Google dat.  What’s the lunch special at Chung King today?  You should Google dat.  What’s on the Green Dragon Roll at Osaka?  Google dat.
So when one of these friends (aka: me) decided to test out Dr. Ian’s “Detox Diet” for two weeks, I needed a plethora of recipes that involved brown rice and beans, and no meat.  What’s a girl to do? 

You got it:  YOU GOOGLE DAT.

You know…because Pinterest didn’t exist yet.  Also, there were dinosaurs.

I still have a stockpile of recipes that we downloaded during this period of time, but this one is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE. 

I still make it all the time because it’s quick, easy, super-flavorful & just really fresh-tasting.  And it goes with anything—or, is totally awesome on its own, because garbanzo beans are a nice protein source (1 cup gives you 29% of your daily requirement).

And normally, I make this with Minute brown rice for a quicker cooking time, however, we were out of that so instead, I finally used up the last of my Louisiana “popcorn rice”.

This rice was a gift from my friends the Trahans (pronounced “Trah-hahns”, not “Tray-hands”) and it comes from one of my favorite lil’ towns in Louisiana: Gueydan.

Which is, of course, pronounced “Gey-don”, not “Gooey-dan”.  Just FYI. It’s a fun word to say.  Particularly if you have or can mimic a Cajun accent.

ANYWAY…it’s a long grain rice that supposedly smells like popcorn while cooking…thus the name.  And it’s an authentic Louisiana product.  And it’s delicious and fluffy & cooks perfectly. If you’ve got the cash & the means, I highly recommend picking some up.

Ingredients (makes eight 1-cup servings):
2 cups uncooked rice
1 can beans (we used garbanzo this time, but black beans are equally awesome)
1 cup your favorite salsa (can add more to taste)
1 cup corn kernels (sweet Missouri corn preferred!)
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp black pepper
Juice of 1/2 lime

Directions:
Bring 4 cups of water to boil, add your rice, then drop the heat to simmer, cover, and let cook for 20 minutes. 
Then remove the lid, check for doneness, fluff with a fork, and remove from heat.
(Updated 2019: You can alternately make your rice in the Instant Pot--I like to use brown rice, which takes 2 cups rice and 2.5 cups water, for about 18 minutes, and then let pressure release for 10 minutes.)
Add all the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Taste for flavor—add more salsa or seasonings as needed.
Then NOM down!

NutriFacts: (per 1 cup serving)
Calories 233.3
  Total Fat 1.2 g
  Saturated Fat 0.2 g
  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 0.3 g
  Cholesterol 0.0 mg
  Sodium 323.2 mg
  Potassium 269.1 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 49.6 g
  Dietary Fiber 3.9 g
  Sugars 0.7 g
  Protein 6.5 g

Gumbo Risotto.

I’m a fan of testing out recipes that are break from the usual.  Hybrid or fusion dishes that put a new spin on old flavors really appeal to me, so when I saw this recipe for a gumbo risotto on Pinterest, I had to try it out.

 

Ingredients:

• ¼ cups olive oil, divided
• 1 cup Okra, frozen Or fresh, sliced
• ½ whole Bell Pepper, chopped
• ½ pounds Raw Shrimp, peeled & tails removed
• ⅓ pounds smoked sausage, sliced into 1/2 pieces & then cut in half
• ½ whole chopped onion
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• ½ teaspoons Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 cup Arborio Or Risotto Rice (NOTE: my local health food market sells this in a bulk bin, so you can buy only as much as you need—check your market for similar deals!)
• ½ cups white wine Or beer
• 1 Tablespoon Cajun Seasoning
• ½ cups Tomato Sauce Or Puree
• 5 cups Liquid (half Chicken Broth, Half Water To save $$$ And sodium)
• ½ pints Cherry Tomatoes, Quartered, Or 2 Roma Tomatoes, Diced
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• Hot Sauce, Optional
• Salt And Pepper

(Bulk bin rice—great because you can get only what you need & not have yet another random box cluttering your pantry!  And cheaper than buying a full bag of rice too!)

 

Directions:

In a large skillet (or wok) heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat, and then add your okra.  Saute for about 3 minutes—the okra will get a wee bit slimy & you’ll see “strings” as you stir.  When it gets a bit brown, remove from the skillet & set aside in a bowl.  (we do this separately so that it everything else doesn’t get slimy.)

Then add a little more olive oil, if needed, and saute the bell pepper, shrimp, and sausage until the shrimp is pink & the pepper is somewhat softened.  Remove from skillet & set aside in the same bowl. (We have to cook all these pieces first, because the risotto rice takes so long to cook that everything else would be mush if you left it in.)

Now add your onions, crushed red pepper, & garlic & cook for about 3 minutes.  This will be the beginnings of the base for our rice.  When the garlic & onions are soft but not brown, add the dry rice & tomato sauce.  Stir until rice is coated.  Now add your wine or beer & stir until completely absorbed (no worries—the booze will cook out before it’s finished.)

Now would be a good time to tell you:  You’re going to be stirring a LOT.  So you should probably just pull a chair up to your stove.  Risotto rice needs to be stirred pretty well constantly to ensure that it doesn’t burn.  So just grab a book with your free hand & settle in.

(PS—please don’t judge our choice in beer—we went canoeing a couple weekends ago & therefore had “river beer” leftovers in our cooler.)

Using 2/3 cup at a time, start adding the chicken broth / water, alternating between the two.  Stir the rice until all the liquid is absorbed, then add more liquid and repeat. If the pan gets too hot (the liquid boils fully), reduce the heat.

After about 25 minutes, check the rice for doneness.  Continue to add liquid until the rice is tender but not mushy and does not have a crunch or stick to your teeth.

When the rice is cooked through, add the cherry tomatoes, okra, bell pepper, sausage, shrimp, butter and hot sauce. Stir for 2-3 minutes to heat through and taste for seasonings, adding more Cajun seasoning, salt, or hot sauce if you need.

Serve with a bit o’ garnish & a big spoon, and you’re ready to go!

Cook’s Notes: This recipe took a Loooooooong time to make, with all the prep and the separated cooking and the stirring, but I kid you not when I say it’s one of THE tastiest dishes I’ve had in a really long time.  The rice is amazingly creamy and delicious, and captures so many of the flavors of gumbo, with a hint of tomatoey goodness (not an ingredient in standard Cajun gumbo).  If it didn’t take forever to make, this might become a staple recipe in my kitchen.  But I think I’ll just save it for special occasions.

Overall, a great meal—a hearty serving but only 250 calories each!

Nutrifacts: (makes 6 servings)

Calories 251.4

  Total Fat 10.3 g

  Saturated Fat 1.7 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.4 g

  Cholesterol 80.8 mg

  Sodium 876.1 mg

  Potassium 381.1 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 19.4 g

  Dietary Fiber 1.8 g

  Sugars 11.6 g

  Protein 17.1 g

“Cook Some Rice.”

A quick confession.  I’ve noticed that the vast majority of my Cajun recipe posts involve me giving the direction “cook some rice”.  Because, yes, there’s a lot of rice in Cajun dishes.  But in all honesty, it’s a teensy bit of an inside joke, and I write it that way because it makes me giggle to myself.

But if you’re not from Louisiana and haven’t scoured the outer rims of YouTube, then you probably haven’t heard of PooPoo Broussard, Louisiana’s own version of…say…Justin Bieber, as viral YouTube sensations go.

Okay, so maybe not that extreme.  But he is pretty well known locally down there.

So, here you go.  Readers, meet PooPoo & his buddies, & their rendition of the Spielberg classic, “E.T.”

 

I’ll let you peruse the rest of PooPoo’s YouTube channel on your own time. :D

 

Oh, and…go cook some rice.

Cajun Stuffed Bell Peppers

ItshereitshereitsfinallyHEEEERE!
…okay.  I got that out of my system.  But yes, my free copy of the cookbook that my recipes were published in finally arrived at my house!

(It gets the place of honor on the kitchen easel for a while.)

See?  My name & stuff!  (well, my maiden name.  I submitted these recipes over a year before the wedding.

(Note: if you’re interested in getting a copy of this book, see the bottom of this blog post.)

So I figured it was only appropriate to make a recipe from my new cookbook! 
Not one of my recipes, mind you, because the ones that were selected for the book were already done on this blog back in 2008-2009.
I’ve been craving stuffed bell peppers, so I flipped through the book & sure enough, a lovely lady named Jill from Baton Rouge had submitted her recipe for that very dish.
Jill’s recipe doesn’t use tomatoes, which a lot of recipes do.  I personally like to have tomatoes in my dishes because a) canned tomatoes are an inexpensive way to add some nutrition to dishes, and b) I love tomatoes.  However, I really wanted to be true to the original recipe & give it a whirl.

Ingredients:
4 large red or green bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise & cored
1 lb 93% lean ground beef or turkey
2 slices bacon (optional) – we didn’t have any bacon on hand, so I used 1.5 tbsp bacon grease, which we ALWAYS have on hand
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 tsp Louisiana Gold hot sauce (not in the original recipe—I added this for more heat & flavor)
1/3 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese
1/4 cup skim milk (original calls for half & half, but we didn’t have that)
1/2 cup italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup cooked rice (we like to use brown rice)

Directions:
Okay, the prep for this dish can be a little labor intensive, so you may want to enlist some help, otherwise there’s a lot of pots to balance.  I had my wonderful husband prep the peppers & do the dicing for me.

(We didn’t use all that celery, he was just cutting up the rest for me to take to work as snacks.)

Once your prep work is done:
First: Cook your rice. Also, preheat your oven to 350.
Second: In a separate pot, boil water & then drop in your bell pepper halves.  Boil for about 4-6 minutes. Afterward remove them w/tongs and place them on a paper towel covered plate, upside down to drain out the excess water.



Third: In a skillet, brown your meat.  Because the beef (or turkey if you choose to use it) is so lean, the addition of the bacon (or bacon grease, in our case) really helps add flavor and a little bit of fat which this dish needs to cook everything without scalding or burning the veggies.  And you’re going to end up with 8 servings, so it’s a pretty piddly amount of fat when it gets portioned out.
Then add the onions & celery & cook for 5-10 minutes, or until the veggies are tender. Remove from heat, then add the remaining ingredients, including the rice, and stir until well combined.  Taste for seasoning and add more spices if needed.

Fourth: Put the peppers into a lightly sprayed glass baking dish (9x13 should work if you’re using 4 peppers—if you only make a half batch, an 8x8 square should probably do) with the hollow sides up, and scoop the filling mix into the peppers.  Portion it out evenly between the peppers, if it mounds up a bit from the top, that’s okay.
Then sprinkle a little bit of extra grated cheese across the tops.

Finally: Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown.

One half is a serving.  Makes 8 servings.  Serve with a side salad or steamed veggie, and a hot roll.
This recipe turned out REALLY well.  The peppers were perfectly tender and the meat was really well seasoned.  As you can probably tell from the pics, we only had 3 peppers on had, so we actually had leftover filling.  So I mixed some leftover pasta sauce (So I got my tomatoes after all!) into that for meals later on this week.  It was really tasty both ways.  I might like to try it again some time with the pasta sauce or tomato paste mixed in, as I think it would help as a binder.

Nutrition facts:
Calories 202.8
Total Fat 10.1 g
Saturated Fat 2.1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g
  Monounsaturated Fat 1.6 g
  Cholesterol 7.2 mg
  Sodium 288.5 mg
  Potassium 187.7 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 10.6 g
  Dietary Fiber 1.2 g
  Sugars 1.0 g
  Protein 19.1 g
 
As noted above, this cookbook is currently available on Amazon!
Thanks for reading guys!  And happy cooking!