Born on the bayou, but it's just as good made by you
"Smothered" seems an inhospitable way to describe the charms of an etouffee, the Louisiana dish that begins with the aromatic trinity of onion, celery and green bell pepper, builds on a rich roux and serves up a seafood-studded blanket over rice.
This dish riffs on that tradition but keeps things simple.
It calls for less fat than usual and adds a bit of texture on top in the form of toasted bread crumbs. You can file this under "twofer": If you chop shrimp, the recipe could serve as a hot-dip appetizer as well as a quick main course.
Using bottled clam juice for the roux rather than fish stock will increase the amount of sodium significantly, so if you have 15 extra minutes, think about buying shell-on shrimp so you can first make a seafood stock of your own by boiling the shells with a little onion and whole black peppercorns.