Creole Summer Recipes

Chef, best-selling cookbook author and restaurateur JJ Johnson stops by the TODAY kitchen to whip up some of his favorite summer recipes, showing us how to make Creole-spiced barbecue shrimp, classic red beans and smoky sausage with rice, and a refreshing pineapple lemonade cocktail.

This is a summer favorite! You can even take your cast iron skillet outside and put it on the grill. You can see the smoke coming out of the pan while these beautiful large shrimp cook. This is what I call “summer in the skillet.” Open your favorite beer and cook with it. It’s so easy to make while entertaining and everyone will be fighting over these shrimp.

My grandfather, who lived on the Louisiana-Mississippi border, cooked the best casserole of spicy, hearty, hearty red beans and rice when I was a child. He said red beans and rice was traditionally made every Monday in New Orleans homes because it was a tasty way to start the week using leftover pork bones or ham from Sunday dinner. It was also an easy meal for a hardworking woman to make, since Monday was laundry day.

This rich, creamy bean dish is packed with the flavors of smoked Andouille sausage and ham hocks, as well as the Cajun holy trinity of bell peppers, celery, and onions. Because it’s a revered dish in both Cajun and Creole cuisine, every aspect of a red bean and rice recipe must be examined for authenticity, from whether you serve the rice on top of the beans, the beans on top of the rice, or both side by side (I like to mix them up). This protein-packed dish works great as a main or side dish, and the beans are the perfect pairing with simple fluffy white rice.

Pineapple Ginger Lemonade has been a big hit at my rice bowl shop, Field Trip, for years, and at our new location in Atlantis, Bahamas, you can add your favorite spirit to it. It’s a refreshing, punchy lemonade that’s also versatile enough to be used in cocktails.

If you like these summer entertaining recipes, you might also want to try these: