Cajun Stuffed Bell Peppers with Shrimp

Earlier this spring I traveled to Louisiana to visit my family.  It was a beautiful time of year with mild temperatures, azaleas blooming, and crawfish in season.  One evening my sister Taina treated me to a dinner of bell peppers stuffed with a cornbread and crawfish dressing.  When I arrived, she had already prepared the cornbread from a simple boxed mix. I asked if I could help.  Taina put me to work coring bell pepper halves while she chopped the onions, celery, and bell pepper for the “trinity,” the way most Cajun meals begin.  Soon we had created a delicious cornbread and seafood stuffing ready to be spooned into pepper halves.  After baking for a short time in the oven, the peppers were ready, complemented by a salad on the side.

Making the peppers my own

When I returned to Denver, I wanted to make the peppers for my family.  Taina sent me a recipe for a cornbread and crawfish casserole that she had based her stuffed peppers on.  Instead of the buttermilk cornbread featured in her recipe, I turned to my own trusty cornbread recipe. I had all the pantry items on hand, and it makes a smaller batch, allowing the seafood to be more prominent in the finished dressing.  Since crawfish are not plentiful in markets here, I also opted to use shrimp for the filling.

While the cornbread cools, there’s time to prepare the peppers. The first time I tried this recipe, I used a mix of green and red bell peppers.  The next time I made the dish, I used a mixture of red and yellow peppers. Their bright colors bring a festive note to the baking dish.

After a few minutes of parboiling in water, the peppers are soft enough to easily eat, but firm enough to keep their shape.

The trinity gets to work

As the pepper halves boil, you can chop the vegetables for the trinity. While some people throw all the vegetables in the pan at the same time, I prefer to cook them in stages.  I sauté the onions for a while before adding in the diced bell pepper and celery.  Garlic and chopped fresh thyme go in last.

At that point, the shrimp join the party.  The shrimp pieces turn a faint shade of pink after just a few moments in the pan.

Then it’s time to add in the crumbled cornbread and seasonings.  Broth and beaten eggs moisten the cornbread and shrimp dressing.   Dried sage, minced parsley, sliced green onions, and Tabasco further flavor it.

Filling the peppers with stuffing comes next.  I like to use a medium size spoon to make sure that dressing gets into all of the curves of the peppers’ insides. Then I carefully mound the dressing that fills each pepper half.  A few dabs of butter atop the dressing ensures that the filling will be flavorful and bake up to be golden brown.

Each bite of the stuffed pepper is well seasoned and generous with shrimp.

If you don’t want to go the route of stuffed peppers, you could always just make the cornbread and shrimp dressing and bake it in a casserole.  Taina says that she’s used other proteins— ground beef, cooked chicken, etc.— instead of seafood as well.

But I love the way these stuffed peppers become attractive little packages of Cajun flavor.  I cook up a full recipe of these peppers, then share or freeze extras. They make an easy meal for later on, a reminder of the creativity, talent, and generosity of my sister.

Cajun Stuffed Peppers with Shrimp

Sunnyside Cook

Dawn Dobie

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

For the cornbread

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup corn meal
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg

For the stuffed peppers

• 6 bell peppers various colors, sliced lengthwise, seeded and cored
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 tablespoons butter divided (see below)
• 1 onion diced
• 1 red or green bell pepper diced
• 2 stalks celery diced
• 5 green onions thinly sliced, greens and whites separated
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 1/2 pounds medium peeled and deveined shrimp cut into 3/4-inch pieces
• 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning like Tony Chacere, divided (see below)
• 8 cups crumbled cornbread recipe above
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 large eggs beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce or to taste
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• 2 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

Instructions

 

For the cornbread:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat the bottom and sides of an 8 X 8 baking pan with cooking spray or butter..
• Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a different bowl whisk the milk, vegetable oil, and egg together until well combined. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until the batter is moist and almost lump free.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.

For the peppers:

• Fill a large Dutch oven with several inches of water. Bring to a boil. Boil half of the bell pepper halves for 7 minutes. Remove from the water and allow to drain and cool. Repeat with remaining bell pepper halves. Allow to cool. Dump water from Dutch oven and return to stove to use with remaining steps of the recipe.
• Meanwhile, place shrimp in colander and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning. Stir to distribute seasoning, then allow shrimp to sit while you cook the trinity.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Decide what size baking pan will work best for the number of peppers you want to bake. (You may want to freeze some prepared peppers for later baking.)
• Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add chopped onion and cook, stirring now and then for 5 minutes. Add chopped bell pepper, celery, and white parts of green onions. Sauté for another 5 minutes until vegetables are wilted. Add garlic and chopped thyme and continue cooking for 1 minute.
• Add shrimp pieces to vegetable mixture and cook until the shrimp pieces are just turning pink. Remove the pan from heat.
• Add crumbled cornbread to the shrimp mixture and stir. Add 1 cup of broth, eggs, sage, Tabasco, sliced green onions, chopped parsley, and remaining 1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning to cornbread and shrimp mixture. Fold to mix well. If more moisture is needed, add remaining broth in increments of about 2 tablespoons until desired consistency is reached.
• Using a spoon, scoop cornbread-shrimp mixture into bell pepper halves, making sure to get stuffing into curves and crevices of the hollowed-out peppers. Mound stuffing on top for a rounded appearance. If you are going to freeze any peppers, move them to a plate to prepare for freezing later.
• Place peppers to be baked stuffing-side-up in an appropriate size baking pan. Dot the top of each pepper’s stuffing with 1 teaspoon of butter divided into small pats.
• Bake the peppers uncovered at 375 for 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Garnish with additional parsley and fresh thyme, if desired.

Notes

Stuffed peppers freeze well. Place plate of any unbaked peppers in freezer for 1 hour. When solid, transfer peppers to a freezer container. Defrost the peppers in refrigerator for 24 hours before baking, then follow baking instructions above.

Adapted from Taina Adamson's recipe, which is adapted from the website Louisiana Cookin