Do you know what it means?

I spent two weeks at home in New Orleans before my wedding and it wasn't easy to leave my family and my hometown to head back to D.C. I think I must be homesick, because all I can think about is New Orleans food. During the two weeks I was home, I ate my fair share of jambalaya, fried seafood po-boys, boiled crabs and crawfish. So in an effort to recreate a little hometown feel in my own town I decided to cook a traditional New Orleans treat for my husband and I. Luckily for me, Cooking Light magazine gives several "shout-outs" to New Orleans cuisine. Well "shout-out" may be a little street for a healthy cooking magazine, but you get the point - they feature several recipes from New Orleans. So tonight I whipped up a very classic cajun dish with a twist - New Orleans Shrimp Remoulade Po'boys. The twist part of this meal is that Remoulade is a condiment that is usually served cold with boiled shrimp on top of iceberg lettuce as a salad. This recipe calls for the same type of sauce (with a healthy angle, of course) served over grilled shrimp on a po'boy. It was delicious! Forrest mentioned that it was in the top five. He didn't specify top five what (top five best things he has ever eaten, top five shrimp remoulade sauces, top five po'boys, or top five things I have ever cooked), but no matter which am still sure it was a compliment. It was just what I have been craving, a taste of home. So even though New Orleans is where I left my heart, it is comforting to know that I can bring a little piece of it to our home in D.C. through my cooking.

Shrimp Rémoulade Po'boys
Cooking Light July 2007

Ingredients

Rémoulade sauce:
1/3 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons finely chopped green bell pepper
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon minced fresh basil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small garlic clove, minced

Remaining ingredients:
24 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Cooking spray
4 (3-ounce) French bread loaves, sliced horizontally
1 cup chopped iceberg lettuce
1 cup chopped tomato

Preparation

To prepare sauce, combine first 11 ingredients in a medium bowl. Chill.

Prepare grill.

Thread shrimp onto 4 (10-inch) skewers. Place skewers on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 2 minutes on each side or until shrimp are done.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Hollow out bread halves, leaving a 1-inch-thick shell. Place bread on a baking sheet; bake at 350° for 5 minutes. Place 1/4 cup lettuce, 1/4 cup tomato, and 6 shrimp in bottom half of each loaf. Spoon 1/4 cup sauce over each sandwich. Cover with top bread halves.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 sandwich)

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 290(17% from fat); FAT 5.4g (sat 1.3g,mono 1.5g,poly 2.2g); PROTEIN 14.1g; CHOLESTEROL 64mg; CALCIUM 91mg; SODIUM 799mg; FIBER 3.2g; IRON 3.5mg; CARBOHYDRATE 46.5g


This dish was super easy to create and so worth it! Even if you don't miss New Orleans - I highly suggest trying it out. I grilled the shrimp using my new Cuisinart Panini maker (a grill pan would work just as well) and I combined the ingredients for the remoulade sauce in my mini food processor in order to get the onions and bell peppers small enough to achieve the right consistency. If you are on a no carb diet or just think bread is the devil like my Daddy does, then you could serve the grilled shrimp and remoulade sauce over iceberg lettuce New Orlean's style.