Southern Gumbo Recipes

AUTHENTIC NEW ORLEANS STYLE GUMBO

Steps:

• Make the Roux*: In a large, heavy bottom stock pot combine flour and oil. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring constantly for 30-45 minutes. This part takes patience--when it's finished it should be as dark as chocolate and have a soft, "cookie dough" like consistency. Be careful not to let it burn! Feel free to add a little more flour or oil as needed to reach this consistency.
• Brown the sausage. In a separate skillet on medium-high heat place the sausage slices in one layer in the pan. Brown them well on one side (2-3 minutes) and then use a fork to flip each over onto the other side to brown. Remove to a plate.
• Cook the vegetables in broth. Add 1/2 cup of the chicken broth to the hot skillet that had the sausage to deglaze the pan. Pour the broth and drippings into your large soup pot.
• Add remaining 5 1/2 cups of chicken broth. Add veggies, parsley, and roux to the pot and stir well.
• Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for 5-7 minutes, or until the vegetables are slightly tender. (Skim off any foam that may rise to the top of the pot.) Stir in cajun seasoning, to taste.
• Add meat. Add chicken, sausage, and shrimp.
• Taste and serve. At this point taste it and add more seasonings to your liking--salt, pepper, chicken bullion paste, garlic, more Joe's stuff or more chicken broth--until you reach the perfect flavor. Serve warm over rice. (Tastes even better the next day!)

SHRIMP AND SAUSAGE GUMBO RECIPE

Steps:

• Place sausage in a large Dutch oven over medium; cook, stirring often, until browned on both sides, about 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove sausage to drain on paper towels; reserve drippings in pan.
• Add butter to hot drippings in Dutch oven, stirring until melted. Gradually whisk in all-purpose flour, and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is caramel colored, 20 to 30 minutes.
• Add onions, bell pepper, celery, and garlic, and cook, stirring often, until vegetables are very tender, 15 to 18 minutes. Gradually stir in broth. Stir in sausage, okra, tomatoes, bay leaves, salt, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, thyme, and pepper.
• Increase heat to medium-high, and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, about 3 hours. Remove and discard bay leaves. Stir in shrimp, and cook until shrimp turn pink, about 5 minutes. Stir in parsley, and remove from heat. Serve gumbo over hot cooked rice. Garnish with sliced scallions and filé powder, if desired.

SEAFOOD GUMBO RECIPE

Steps:

• Slice the green onions, reserving green tops.
• Heat bacon drippings in a Dutch oven over medium; gradually whisk in flour. Cook, whisking constantly, until flour is chocolate colored (about 30 minutes).
• Add the sliced green onions, bell pepper, onion, celery, garlic, and tomato to the roux, and cook 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add 2 quarts plus 2 cups water, parsley, table salt, ground black pepper, and ground red pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 30 minutes.
• Pick the crabmeat, removing any bits of shell.
• Increase heat to medium-high, and add the shrimp, oysters, okra, and green onion tops; simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in fresh lump crabmeat and gumbo filé; let stand 15 minutes. Add water, if necessary, for desired consistency. Serve over hot cooked rice.

SEAFOOD GUMBO

Steps:

• Peel and devein shrimp, placing shrimp shells in a large pot. Refrigerate shrimp until needed.
• In a large pot, melt 1/4 cup butter over medium heat. Add shrimp shells and cook until pink. Then add broth.
• Bring broth to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and keep warm until needed.
• In a large Dutch oven, cook sausage until browned. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon and set aside.
• Add oil and remaining 1/4 cup butter to Dutch oven. Heat over medium heat until butter is completely melted.
• Add flour and stir with wooden spoon until smooth.
• Reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring frequently until roux is a dark caramel color. This will take 30 to 40 minutes.
• Add onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Add green pepper and celery and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring often.
• Add garlic and cook 1 minute.
• Add beer and stir in well.
• Pour shrimp stock through a fine-meshed sieve into Dutch oven. (I like to add it in 3 separate additions, mixing well between additions.
• Add Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and bay leaves, plus the reserved andouille sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
• Add green onions, parsley, and shrimp. When shrimp are pink, remove from heat and stir in crabmeat.
• Serve with white rice.

GOOD NEW ORLEANS CREOLE GUMBO

Steps:

• Make a roux by whisking the flour and 3/4 cup bacon drippings together in a large, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat to form a smooth mixture. Cook the roux, whisking constantly, until it turns a rich mahogany brown color. This can take 20 to 30 minutes; watch heat carefully and whisk constantly or roux will burn. Remove from heat; continue whisking until mixture stops cooking.
• Place the celery, onion, green bell pepper, and garlic into the work bowl of a food processor, and pulse until the vegetables are very finely chopped. Stir the vegetables into the roux, and mix in the sausage. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat, and cook until vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
• Bring the water and beef bouillon cubes to a boil in a large Dutch oven or soup pot. Stir until the bouillon cubes dissolve, and whisk the roux mixture into the boiling water. Reduce heat to a simmer, and mix in the sugar, salt, hot pepper sauce, Cajun seasoning, bay leaves, thyme, stewed tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Simmer the soup over low heat for 1 hour; mix in 2 teaspoons of file gumbo powder at the 45-minute mark.
• Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings in a skillet, and cook the okra with vinegar over medium heat for 15 minutes; remove okra with slotted spoon, and stir into the simmering gumbo. Mix in crabmeat, shrimp, and Worcestershire sauce, and simmer until flavors have blended, 45 more minutes. Just before serving, stir in 2 more teaspoons of file gumbo powder.

SOUTHERN GUMBO

Steps:

• Combine oil and flour in a large Dutch oven; cook over medium heat until roux is the color of a copper penny.
• Stir in celery, onion, green pepper and garlic; add parsley. Cook 45 minutes to 1 hour stirring occasionally.
• Fry okra in 2 T hot shortening until browned. Add to gumbo and stir well over low heat for a few minutes.
• At this stage, the mixture may be cooled, packaged and frozen or refrigerated for later use.
• Add next 12 ingredients; simmer 2 1/2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally.
• About 30 minutes before serving, add chicken, crabmeat and shrimp, simmer 30 minutes. Add oysters during.
• last 10 minutes of simmering period. Stir in molasses.
• Serve over hot rice.

SOUTHERN SEAFOOD GUMBO

Steps:

• In a Dutch oven, saute the onion, celery and green pepper in oil until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the V8 juice, tomatoes and cayenne; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes. , Stir in okra and catfish; cook 8 minutes longer. Add the shrimp; cook 7 minutes longer or until shrimp turn pink. Place rice in 12 individual serving bowls; top with gumbo.

SOUTHERN GUMBO

Steps:

• Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook chicken and sausage separately in hot oil until well browned on both sides. Reserve browned chicken and sausages.
• Turn the heat to low. Make the roux by melting 2 tablespoons of margarine into the oil in the pot. Sprinkle the flour over the oil and margarine and cook, stirring constantly, until roux turns a nutty brown, about 10 minutes.
• Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons margarine into the roux. Stir in the onion, garlic, green pepper, and celery; cook for 10 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 cup chopped parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring often, for an additional 10 minutes.
• Pour the hot water into the pot and add the boullion cubes, chicken, and sausage. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 45 minutes before stirring in the tomatoes and okra. Cover pot and simmer for 1 hour. Stir in green onions and shrimp and top with 2 tablespoons chopped parsley before serving.