Shrimp, Crab, and Okra Gumbo Recipe

[woodyz]

Shrimp, Crab, and Okra Gumbo Recipe
By Melissa Martin on June 28, 2016

Instead of a traditional flour-based roux, New Orleans chef Melissa Martin thickens her rendition of this classic stew with fresh okra that’s been cooked down for hours on the stovetop. She tackles the recipe in advance, and not just because it’s time-intensive: “Gumbo’s good the first night, but it’s always better the next day,” Martin says.
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Makes 8 to 10 servings
5 pounds fresh okra, trimmed and chopped
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large tomato, chopped
3 pounds yellow onions, cut into ¼-inch dice
4 stalks celery, diced
1 large bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
6 cloves garlic, minced (about ¼ cup)
2 quarts chicken or seafood stock
5 pounds large (26–30 per pound) wild shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 small blue crabs, cleaned
2 teaspoons cayenne or to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Hot sauce, such as Original “Louisiana” Brand Hot Sauce*
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves only, finely chopped
1 bunch scallions, green and white parts, sliced lengthwise then finely chopped
6 cups steamed white rice

1. In a large heavy-bottomed pot over lowest heat, combine okra and 1 tablespoon oil. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until okra has completely lost its shape and is a dark, swampy-green color (the seeds will still be visible), 6 to 8 hours. Add tomato and cook for 30 minutes more. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, combine onions and the remaining 4 tablespoons oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and translucent, about 15 minutes. Add reserved okra-tomato mixture and stir to combine; cook for about 15 minutes more. Add celery, bell pepper, and garlic, and continue to cook until vegetables are soft, 30 to 45 minutes more. Add stock and simmer uncovered for 1½ hours. Meanwhile, place shrimp and crabs in two separate bowls and season with cayenne and salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste.

3. Add seasoned shrimp and crabs to stock mixture and bring to a boil, stirring to combine. Reduce heat to low and allow gumbo to simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes. Just before serving, stir in parsley and scallions. Serve gumbo hot, ladled over steamed white rice.

[angelhelp]

Interesting. I'd try it, but without even a hint of pepper or hot sauce. Knowing me, I'd probably double or triple the garlic, use the parsley stems anyway, and use a bunch of celery rather than just a few stalks. It sounds like a seafood stew of sorts.

[missasip]

The rue is not to thicken. It's mainly for flavor. Okra has always been in gumbo regardless of what kind of gumbo. She has no sausage in it either. Also she has no file'. It's not seafood gumbo without those 3 items. Most cooks can't make a proper rue. It is on the edge of overcooked but not....

Sorry, been making gumbo for nearly 40 years and mine is considered another food group around here. About $70 to make 3 gallons.

And if you really want traditional, should include oysters.

I'm not saying it's not good, but too many Chefs want to put their own spin on recipes.

The celery, bell pepper and onion are called the Trinity, in this neck of the woods. Used in many Cajun/ Creole recipes.

Jimmy 

[cajunlady87]

I know Jimmy's gonna pound me however, I always say to each his own.

I make a roux for stews and etouffe's, basically one and the same to thicken my gravy.

I do use okra to thicken my gumbo if that's the kind of gumbo I want. That requires quite a bit of smothered down okra to my taste.

I do make gumbos without roux'x or okra. It gets thickened with the ingredients such as diced sausage, chicken, crab meat, shrimp, etc.

As to file', once the gumbo is cooked I may add some to the pot. Mostly I just add file' to my bowl of gumbo. It all tastes the same. Again, to each their own.

As to a gumbo not being one unless oysters are added, I eat oysters raw and grilled. Mostly grilled since our waters nationwide are becoming more and more polluted and contain the brain eating microbe.

[woodyz]

The Gumbo I make starts with the roux, and many times I through out the roux and start it over

Mine is liked by all who try it, but I make a whole turkey roaster or fryer at a time.

oysters, crab, chicken, sausage, shrimp almost everything I can find goes into it plus almost every vegetable, there are about 10 spices I use at different times

I cook a whole chicken separate with its seasonings until it falls off the bones, then I score and bake the bones in some different seasonings then boil them down to a thick soap which I add to the pot.

Lots of okra and it cooks down thick.

I spend two or three days when I make mine, but I get to freeze some and it comes out good then too.

I posted by recipe on here once

This one was one I found in a Farm Magazine and it sounded good, but I have not tried it yet and probably won't, if I make Gumbo I'll just make mine.

[woodyz]

And the file' is added individually because most who eat my Gumbo don't like it cooked in.

[cajunlady87]

When gumbos or soups get cooked, we usually do so in a fairly large pot. Lots of ingredients except the kitchen sink. Woodyz, like you, unless we're cooking for an army most of it gets frozen which was the reason for cooking so much from the get go.

[woodyz]

My reason is also so I can have more later, but started because when I started experimenting with what I ended up with I had about 5 different recipes I had collected, each a little different and I took some from them all. Most were restaurant recipes and had lots of quantity.

Plus I would put too much of something in for my taste and adjust the other stuff with more to compensate.

I am not any Cajun in me, but I like good food

I had been on a business trip to New Orleans and I had had some Gumbo I really liked. So I had wanted some when I got back to TX at the time

Only Gumbo I could find made was good but it wasn't what I was looking for, so I started collecting recipes and trying each one, then started mixing them up some and adding some of what I liked and after a couple of years settled with what I fix now.

[cajunlady87]

And that my friend is how it's done, adding your own personal touch. Great job!!

I ate chicken, sausage okra gumbo for dinner which I had in the freezer. Besides the chicken parts I added a pint of chicken gizzards which I love plus my kicker was pickled Tabasco peppers. Yum Yum!

[missasip]

Ok ok I just pointed out that that this chef was using okra like no one else ever used it. That's the inflection I got. Plus ingredients she left out.

I base my gumbo on the old school "file' gumbo" recipe that my ex's great grandmother from old Bucktown used her whole life. I learned to love it so that's why mine gets it all.

As far as using less or more of anything is a personal thing for sure. Guess I have issues with big shot chefs putting their spin on something so tradional and claiming it's the cats meow.

Sorry if I stepped too hard. Wasn't out to do that.

Jimmy

[woodyz]

Gizzards!

Now that brings back some memories.

I was at Fort Gordon Ga in the late 60's in MP School

My wife and I were living off base in a shotgun house community outside the back gate. I swear these houses used to be slave quarters and were back in a field behind a gigantic mansion you would think about when you think civil war south.

I could not understand a thing the widowed owner said, she had such an accent. I had never been east of Mo or anywhere south but OK before then.

Most of the people staying there were black from the Fort, and some people were just appalled I lived there.

Any way I am getting off the point.

Some friends who lived there introduced us to this little shack that served fried chicken gizzards. Now I was used to eating all of the parts from a chicken including the gizzard, but these were a box full of the best tasting fried gizzards I had ever ate. They sold the rest of the chicken fried just as good there too, but we could get a box of gizzards for a $1 and PFC's in the USMC back then made $109 a month and I was livin' off base and $1 was a lot.

Some people though it was just crazy that I lived there, that I went to the part of town where the shack was and that I like gizzards. I just thought they were crazy.

side note. There was a white Army Captain who came to see this beautiful young black girl who lived there and he was from the deep south and would go eat gizzards with us sometimes too.

[cajunlady87]

Jul 26, 2016 9:44:43 GMT -7 missasip said:

Ok ok I just pointed out that that this chef was using okra like no one else ever used it. That's the inflection I got. Plus ingredients she left out.

I base my gumbo on the old school "file' gumbo" recipe that my ex's great grandmother from old Bucktown used her whole life. I learned to love it so that's why mine gets it all.

As far as using less or more of anything is a personal thing for sure. Guess I have issues with big shot chefs putting their spin on something so tradional and claiming it's the cats meow.

Sorry if I stepped too hard. Wasn't out to do that.

Jimmy

Dude I was just messin' with ya. So sorry, maybe I should of added bunches of smileys. I wouldn't dare mess with anyone's recipes but I do see where you're coming from. I went to a restaurant in Nola where they didn't finish cooking the rice and was debating that issue with the executive chef. There's no such thing as rice cooked al dente'. I hate eating anything al dente'.

[woodyz]

I didn't think you stepped too hard on anything.

It's your Gumbo, your the one making it so you can eat it so you make it like you like it

Now if Gumbo was owned by John Deer you would have to eat it their way

Chill out its all good

that's why we make it at home instead of going to the cafe, cause we can "hold the pickle, hold the lettuces, special orders don't upset us" all we want

[woodyz]

And I would probably even like yours if I got to try it.

But I like to eat and that's a fact

[cajunlady87]

It's all those damn hormones!!