Sauce Créole
Tomato sauce with peppers, celery and cayenne
The classical French Sauce Créole and Louisiana creole cooking meet somewhere around the same three vegetables — onion, celery and green pepper. This is the New Orleans version, and it goes with shrimp, rice and very little else.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 cups Sauce Tomate (see Sauce Tomate)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon chopped thyme
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- Kosher salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the onion, pepper and celery and cook for 10 minutes, until soft.
- Add the garlic, paprika and cayenne and cook for 1 minute more, stirring.
- Add the sauce tomate, bay leaf and thyme. Simmer gently for 25 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the scallions off the heat.
Notes
- Onion, celery and green pepper is the Louisiana holy trinity — the local answer to a mirepoix.