Aunt Carrie was my great- Grandmother's cook in Augusta, Georgia. She was known through out the town for her wizardry in the kitchen… it was once said she served nineteen hungry men on one old dead roaster and lots of biscuits & gravy. Aunt Carrie could make anything taste good and all the great-grandchildren (myself included) love to be back in Carrie’s kitchen.
Aunt Carrie and my second cousin, Ganne, 1948
Aunt Carrie was known for something else in the old downtown section of Augusta back in the ‘20s to early 1940’s… and that was for "running" a numbers game. Cabbies, shoeshine boys, railroad conductors, even local preachers came to my great- Grandmother’s back door to get in on the action. Carrie would collect their money and betting slips and then send old ‘Honey Boy’ the gardener down to one of the pool halls on Broad Street to place the bets. Later that day, “Honey Boy” would distribute the winnings to some of Augusta’s finest homes. This went on for years, until the day Carrie got caught. Despite having several Federal Judges in our family… Aunt Carrie was sent to Terre Haute Federal Prison for her numbers game shenanigans and damn if her cellmate wasn’t the famous Tokyo Rose. But that’s another story...
After her incarceration - Aunt Carrie returned to my great- Grandmother’s home and continued to cook until her death in 1968 at the age of 88. Here is one of her specialties and my all time favorite…
Aunt Carrie’s Shrimp Creole
Ingredients:
10 slices thick slab bacon
½ cup chopped onion
¼ cup chopped green pepper
¼ cup chopped celery
1 (28-ounce) can tomatoes in tomato puree
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon Tabassco® sauce (or to taste)
1 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
2 pounds shrimp, peeled and de-veined
Hot cooked rice
Cook bacon in a large iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp; drain bacon on paper towels. Pour excess fat from skillet, leaving about 3 tablespoons drippings in pan. Add onion, green pepper and celery to skillet and cook, stirring constantly, until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.
Stir in tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, Tabassco® Sauce, salt, and bay leaf; cook over medium heat 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shrimp and crumbled bacon. Cook 5 to 10 minutes longer, just until shrimp are tender. Serve over rice.
Serves 4
Aunt Carrie always said, “The secret to the sauce was her old cured iron skillet.” Which I still use to this day!
“y'all come back now ya hear”
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Douglas Moran
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Alan Nothnagle
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Comments
I think I'll try this recipe this weekend. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for this - nothing like an old family recipe for me to try on my own family.
Aunt Carrie was truly a member of our family and I will savor my memories of her always.
So, I'm surprised. Whenever I hear "creole" I tend to expect something time-consuming, but this sounds like something that would take hardly any time to put together. Live and learn. I'll definitely give it a shot.
I think a lot of people confess creoles with jambalaya. Both are staples here in the low country of the South.
Thanks for all your comments & post, because you are special influence, too!
I was always fascinated by how cooking transcended racism in a terribly racist part of the country. Everyone would go to her house to buy stawberry cake. I can still taste it today.
Wow... what are the odds your great grandmother's cook would end up incarcerated with Tokyo Rose as a bunk mate?
I'm now hungry AND intrigued!
Rated.
Dr. Spud… sounds like you may be making a double batch of Carrie’s Creole. Wish I had a Costco need here, because their prices and products are the best. Enjoy!
BoomerB…. That sounds like a perfect cake. I’ll look around, too, for a recipe.
You are so right about the great & wonderful cooks that have come from the Old South… I was fortunate to know several who were part of our family and friends families… each & everyone becoming part of our extended family – and part of theirs. I am glad that racial issues have proceeded as they have – but more needs to still happen. But in many homes of the South – race was never a part of our love & affection we all had for our fellow man. We just lived in harmony & appreciation of our luck knowing one another.
zuma… thanks, you would have love this remarkable woman, too!
Shiral… thanks. Aunt Carrie was quite the woman and she told of her incarceration with so much flare, especial the stories of Miss Tokee. I’ll have to tell them some time.