Here’s my little gumbo recipie… Its a little different than a few others, and I like it a lot… I’ll just give proportions so you can figure it out yourself…
You generally want about two bags of frozen shrimp and a bag of frozen okra. I don’t think you can get it fresh this time of year. Take a look at your okra… You want your celery and green peper, and onions combined to be about that volume (when frozen not cooked)
This is for what I’ve heard is called “green gumbo” because there’s no tomatoes and I think it makes it easier to get the okra taste to it.
put some olive oil in the pan and saute the okra for a long time on medium heat. It gets stringy and gooey, and my mom tells me it has get past the stringy stage (ie there are no strands of goo connecting the okra when you stir it. This will take a while (like 30 minutes) Then throw in the veggies all diced up and whatnot. Sautee this till you get them all soft. Throw in some cajun seasoning while you are at it too…
My recipie always uses seafood. The best, is truely with crab and shrimp. That stuff comes out tasting really good. You can throw in andoullie sausage if you like, though. But here’s the info on the shrimp. Notice I said two bags of frozen shrimp. Sure, that’s about the amount you want, but if you want it to be really good you need fresh shrimp with the heads on. Otherwise just get some shrimp that are raw and haven’t been peeled. This is important. You do this while you wait on the okra to soften. Peel the shrimp (devein if you feel like it) you can also cut them up into smaller pieces too. Now, take the shells and put them in a pot. When you are done peeling the shrimp, put them in a bowl and cover in salt, black pepper, and cajun seasoning. stir them up a little. Then fill the shell-filled pot with water and boil it for a while. This is obviously to get the flavor of the shrimp into the broth.
Now, back to the veggies cooking in the pot. That’s where you should cook them by the way. once they are all nice and sauteed, then you’ll strain out the shells, and add the shrimp water into the pot. You may need more water, if you want to. Boil this for a little while and then turn it down to simmer for a bit. Basically you’ll want to simmer it until it gets to the consistency you like. Also, at this point you’ll want to salt to taste. The cajun spices have salt in them, but if you put in too much it won’t be good. Normally I add normal salt. If its not spicy enough, of course add more cajun spices. I normally use Tony Sachere’s but I hear you can’t get that very far out of the south. Zatarains is also good. Emerils is a last resort.
Once you got the gumbo looking like it has a good considtency, then just put in the shrimp and most importantly, the fresh crabmeat. This stuff is expensive, but it is well worth it, because it really is essential in seafood gumbo if you ask me. the little pieces of crab meat really spread all over and give it a really good seafoody taste. I buy it in these little clear cans that are in the fresh seafood section of the supermarket. Don’t get the immitation meat or whatever that stuff it. That just looks nasty to me.
Then just let it simmer there until the shrimp are cooked. You can pick a few out and tell by feeling how hard they are. Or you can taste one if you are like me.
There you go! Serve over rice and prepare for the compliments! I like to eat it from a bowl, which means about 2 to 1 gumbo to rice ratio.
It will have a kind of green look, which is cool, I think and it has a good okra-like taste.
Honestly, if you think of the ingredients, I am not sure how unhealthy it is… Especially since I always use olive oil. I know must cajun cooking uses butter, but I’ve always though olive oil goes in gumbo. Whatever the case it tastes good, and doesn’t seem that bad for you! The crab is expensive, but worth it though.
