This recipe and instructions come from "The Cotton Country Collection", a renowned cookbook made by the Junior Charity League of Monroe Louisiana.
I have cooked it many times with great success. It may look alittle intimidating at first, but it sure taste great and can be a fun family project to boot. The seafood can also be replaced with chicken and sausage if you prefer.
Seafood Gumbo
5 lbs. Peeled shrimp, cut in thirds
2 cups okra, sliced thin
1 large white onion, chopped fine
3 cups minced green onions
2 cups celery, chopped fine
½ cup bell pepper, cut finely
2 or 3 garlic pods, mashed
1 cup Crisco Oil
½ cup flour
2 cans Chicken Broth
8 cups boiling water
2 Tablespoons salt
1 Teaspoon black pepper
1/3 Cup catsup
1 tablespoon Lea and Perrins
1 teaspoon McCormick Seafood Seasoning, season to taste
Crabmeat: 2 packages frozen Alaskan King Crab
or 2 cans fresh or frozen, lump crabmeat
First of all, Gumbo should be a two day affair. Peel and cut your shrimp and chop your vegetables one day, cover and refrigerate them. The next day, making the gumbo will be a happy thing.
Start with two heavy iron skillets. In one, start the roux by combining ½ cup Oil and ½ cup Flour over a low fire, KEEP THE FIRE LOW, and stir constantly. It usually takes an hour and fifteen minutes to make roux. Stir it until it becomes brown and flour sort of separates from the grease.
At the same time, in the other skillet, put in the other ½ cup of oil and saute’ the okra and white onions until they are wilted. Add the remaining vegetables with salt and pepper, and stir them until they are wilted and soft.
When the roux is brown, add it to the vegetables and mix well. Transfer all to a large soup pot. Add the chicken broth, boiling water, half of the peeled shrimp, and all of the remaining seasonings. Let this simmer for about an hour. Cook the remaining shrimp in a saucepan with ½ cup boiling water and 1 tablespoon salt until they are pink. Add shrimp and water to the gumbo. Remove from fire.
Last of all add the crabmeat, as much or as little, as you want. Serve over rice with chopped green onions.
Good Luck!!!
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" I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more war. " Abbie Hoffman
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Weeze's Gumbo
This is from my old and falling apart copy of Pirates Pantry from the Junior League of Lake Charles, LA
3/4 cup bacon drippings (I use margerine)
3/4 cup flour
2 packages frozen cut okra (or fresh if you have it)
2 onions, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
4 green onions and tops, chopped
Fresh parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon garlic salt
4 bouillon cubes any flavor
8 cups water
1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
2 pounds peeled medium shrimp or craw tails, raw
Make a roux in a heavy pot with the bacon drippngs and flour. Cook til it's dark brown. Add everything except the shrimp. Simmer with the lid cracked for 2 hours. Add shrimp or craw tails about ten minutes before serving.
Serve with French bread.
- Roberta
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"Anglers are born honest,
but they get over it." - Ed Zern
Chicken and Duck Gumbo
(You can use any meat, poultry, of fish)
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
4 duck breasts
2 chicken breasts and 4 chicken wings
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves of fresh garlic
2 cups Dark Brown Roux, see How to Roux, recipe follows
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped bell peppers
2 teaspoons Sea Salt
1/4 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
2 bay leaves
10 cups of chicken stock
2 cans 15 oz. Swanson Chicken Broth
2 cans 15 oz. Hunts Diced Tomatoes
3 pounds boneless chicken meat, cut into 1-inch chunks
2 teaspoons Sea Salt (coarse ground)
2 teaspoons Emeril's Bayou Blast, recipe follows**
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup chopped green onion tops
1/2 cup chopped fresh okra
You can put 1-2 cups okra if you like
2-3 tablespoons of Tabasco Brand hot sauce (Amount determined by taste)
4 tablespoons of Pickapeppa Sauce (We purchased this brand from grocery)
Steamed Brown Rice, for serving
2 teaspoons of Zatarain's Gumbo FILE
**Creole Seasoning Recipe
Use only 2 teaspoons of this mixture and save the rest in an airtight container.
1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Combine all ingredients thoroughly. Yield 2/3 cup. Use only 2 teaspoons of this mixture. Save
in a airtight container.
*How to Make Roux:
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Directions:
(1.) Make chicken broth using 2 chicken breasts and 4 chicken wings with 11 cups of water and 1 can of Swanson's chicken broth. Add one stalk of celery and 1/2 onion, garlic and salt and pepper. Season to taste. Once broth is made strain it and de-bone the chicken. Set aside.
(2.) While broth is cooking, make your Roux. In a large black cast iron skillet, pour 1 1/2 c. vegetable oil and slowly add 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour to the warmed oil. Stir constantly until it becomes copper color. This takes about an hour.
(3.) Transfer roux to a casserole dish, use black skillet to saute duck breasts that have been cut into 1-inch cubes in Olive Oil with 1/2 onion and 2 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper to taste. (You may use vegetable oil, we preferred Olive Oil.)
(4.) Place the roux in a 10 quart Dutch oven or stockpot over medium heat. When the roux is hot, add the onions, celery, and bell peppers and cook, stirring constantly for 4 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables. are wilted. Add the browned duck, cayenne, salt, pepper, and bay leaves. Continue to cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the stock in a slow stream, whisking until incorporated. Add 2 cans of 15 oz. diced tomatoes along with 1 can of chicken broth. At this time add 2 teaspoons of Zatarain's Gumbo File as well as the 2 teaspoons of Pickapeppa Sauce and Tabasco Hot Sauce.
(5.) Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally for 45 minutes to an hour. Skim off any fat that rises to the surface. Season the chicken that was set aside with Creole seasoning and add to the pot. Return the gumbo to a simmer and cook an additional 45 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in parsley and green onions. Remove bay leaves.
Serve in warmed bowls with steamed white (we used brown) rice. Pass the hot sauce at the table, if desired.
Yield 6-7 Qts.
if you cannot find the roux in the store you can make your own
1 cup cooking oil
1 cup flower
cook in iron skillet on medium high heat you must stir constantly until mixture gets a little bit darker than carmel color then take out of skillet it will still cook while out of skillet and give it a darker color
The Roux is the hard part. Everything else is easy. My wife is from a little town between Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Her family and everyone she knows from down there make Roux by browning flour with dry seasoning in a cast iron skilet without oil. You sit and stir until you arm falls off. Takes 1.5-2.5 hours. Turn away for a minute, burn it, and start over. People back home make large batches and freeze it. They give it for Christmans presents and it is a very welcome gift. Her brother has perfected a microwave version but I don't know how well it works. Juston Wilson and many other self proclamed experts use oil and flour but Wilson was a fake in the end.
Lisa wouldn't want you to know but now she uses Zatarans, New Orleans style Gumbo base. Its is as real as it comes and just as good. I say that since she dosen't read this fourm. She has never let anyone see her use it though. I honestly don't think you can make anything better and why try. Just don't let anyone know..............................Seeya, Don http://www.zatarain.com/
If you have the time, a trick I learned is to make your roux in the oven instead of the stove top.
Mix equal parts of oil and flour in a cast iron skillet and place it in a 325 degree oven until it is deep brown color.
Doing it in the oven takes a little longer than the stove top but, you don't have to worry about burning it and constantly stirring it.
Once you have your roux done, move it back to the stove top and stir in your okra, celery, onion and bell pepper.
Cook the them until the okra starts gooo'ing and then transfer to a large stock pot.
Add chicken broth and water to equal 4-6 qts. and season with pepper, paprika, garlic, bay leaf, parsley, orageno, a couple shots of tobasco, salt or whatever you want to make it taste good.
Simmer till its good and melded to gether and add some blucrab (or canned), a pint of oysters with the liquor and 2 lbs of peeled shrimp and or crawtails.
you can leave out the orageno bay leaves and parsley. you start putting to much seasonings you change the gumbo taste. stick to the basics red pepper,salt,and garlic but wait till after you put the chicken in till you add to much salt chiken will make it taste salty
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Weeze's Gumbo
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