Mamas Seafood Gumbo Recipes

PAPA'S SEAFOOD GUMBO

Steps:

• Make a roe with the oil and flour in a skillet. Add more of either flour or oil as necessary. It should be a medium dark brown, and a thin syrup. You should have approximately 3 cups of roe when finished.
• Add celery, garlic and onions to the roe and cook until translucent. Pour this into a very large 20 gallon stock pot.
• Add white wine, and approximately 1 gallon water. Add more as necessary, this is hard to measure but it should be about 2/3 water and 1/3 wine.
• In your original skillet, brown the sausage. Add this to the pot.
• Add seasonings to taste.
• Boil for 1-2 hours on medium high. When it starts to smell good, you know you are starting to get there. Start tasting at this point and add more seasonings as necessary.
• Add okra and oysters.
• Let cook for another 40 minutes or so.
• Add shrimp and crab.
• Let cook until shrimp is pink.
• Serve over white rice.

CROCK POT SEAFOOD GUMBO

Steps:

• In a large skillet or browning crock pot (we used our Ninja) add 1/4 cup of oil or butter and heat over medium high heat. (3-5 minutes)
• Add flour and continually stir until flour browns to the color of peanut butter (about 20-25 minutes)
• In a separate skillet heat 2 Tbsp oil.
• Add okra, garlic, onions and celery to oil and saute until all veggies are wilted and onions are clear.
• Add veggies and flour and oil/butter mixture together in your slow cooker and stir.
• Stir in chicken broth.
• Add worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, and Old Bay seasoning and stir well.
• Cover and cook for 3 hours on HIGH
• Add seafood and cook for 30 minutes on HIGH until shrimp is opaque.
• Add creole/cajun seasoning to taste.
• Serve over cooked rice.

MAMA'S SEAFOOD GUMBO

Steps:

• Fry okra in oil for 30-45 minute.
• Add onions and celery and cook until soft.
• Stir in tomato sauce, parsley, bay leaf, thyme and water. Simmer 30 minute.
• Add shrimp, crabmeat and oysters. Simmer another 30 minute.
• NOTE: This is better if cooked in the morning and allowed to stand. Serve over rice.

MAMA'S GUMBO

Steps:

• 1. I recommend having all your ingredients out and pre-chopped. Makes it very quick and easy to get through the preparations steps. ( In this photo I made a 1.5 batch-serves 18. Don't let the large amounts scare you.)
• 2. For roux: Start with a large soup pot. Combine flour and oil with wooden spoon til smooth. Adjust amounts of flour/oil for texture. Stir constantly over med heat until roux cooks to color of a penny. Smells like popcorn. 15 mins or so.
• 3. Stir in Onion, celery, green pepper, garlic, pepper and cayenne. Cook over med 3 mins.
• 4. Add sausage. Cook another 3 mins.
• 5. Stir in broth. Add half the okra, the chicken and bay leaves. Bring to boiling, reduce to simmer for 15 mins.
• 6. Add remainder of okra. (The first half was a thickener and the second half gives more chunky texture.) Simmer for 10-15 mins til last okra is crisp-tender.
• 7. Add raw shrimp. Simmer 5 mins. (If using cooked shrimp, remove finished gumbo from heat. Stir cooked shrimp into gumbo to heat through.)
• 8. Salt gumbo to taste. Ladle gumbo into soup bowls over hot cooked rice.

MAMA'S SEAFOOD GUMBO

Steps:

• In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour, stirring slowly and constantly, and cook to a medium-brown roux, about 30 minutes.
• Add the onion and bell pepper and stir to combine. Cook until the vegetables have wilted and are lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add the water and tomato paste and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to low and cover. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until flavorful and thickened, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Add the shrimp and crabmeat and stir to combine. Continue cooking over very low heat until the shrimp are cooked through, an additional 10 minutes. Season with hot sauce and stir in the filé powder, if using. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve with rice pilaf.
• Seafood soup, stew, and gumbo all taste better when prepared with homemade stock as opposed to bottled clam juice, the favorite stand-in to freshly made stock. When you peel the shrimp, save the shells (heads also, if you are fortunate enough to have them), and rinse with cold running water. Place the shells in a pot and add enough water to cover. Add a few fresh bay leaves, sprigs of parsley and thyme, a quartered onion, chopped carrot, and chopped celery, and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat to low and simmer until fragrant and flavorful, about 30 minutes. Strain the stock in a strainer layered with cheesecloth, discarding the solids. If I don't need to make shrimp stock every time I peel shrimp, I save the shells for later in a sealable plastic bag in the freezer. For fish stock, it's the same principle, but use bones instead of shells. Do not use oily or heavy fish such as mackerel, skate, mullet, or salmon; their flavor is too strong and heavy. Use approximately 4 pounds of fish bones to 10 cups of water to make 8 cups of stock.