Waiting on BamaLuver's Gumbo recipe

[JH-ATL]

Patient and waiting.......

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[BamaLuver]

My mother makes delicious gumbo!! As always, the secret is not burning the roux! If you burn it -- throw it away and start fresh.

SEAFOOD GUMBO

¾ c. Chopped onion
2 - 3 bay leaves
¾ c. Chopped celery
3-4 lbs. Shrimp
1 stick butter
1 lb. Crab meat (claw meat)
tomatoes (chopped well) -- canned or bagged of course from spring.
FILE

Sauté onions and celery in a stick of butter. Cook until tender - stirring constantly so they don’t burn. Add this to about 2 quarts of water in a pot. Add tomatoes, salt (about 1 tablespoon), and pepper. Let cook about ½ hour. Put 2 or 3 bay leaves in, and add seafood. Cook about 15 minutes. Brown flour in oil to make a roux (stir well so it doesn't burn). When it's the consistency and color you like (I like mine dark brown) add to gumbo mixture and let cook about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle about 2 tablespoon's of FILE on top. Stir after FILE has dissolved.

We have some in our family who like it hot, and some don't -- so we've always added hot sauce individually.

 

[BAMAFAN IN NY]

Whats FILE???

 

[bayoutider]

Whats FILE???

Pronounced Fee' lay - It is ground sassafras leaves.

I was instructed by Chef John Folse to place your rice in your bowl first then sprinkle your file on top of the rice then ladle the gumbo on top. He is a Louisiana historian and he is adamant that you put file on the rice and not in the gumbo pot.

 

[TideBeliever]

Not my recipe, but I have made it several times. If I try a recipe more than once, it is because I enjoy it.

Seafood Gumbo

1 qt. water
1 tsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp. dried whole thyme
1 tsp. salt
2 bay leaves
1 dried hot pepper
2 lbs. med. shrimp
1/2 lb. Polish sausage, sliced
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 tsp. dried whole thyme
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. chicken-flavored bouillon granules
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 (11 oz.) can crab soup, undiluted
2 c. tomato juice
1/8 tsp. hot sauce
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 lb. lump crab meat
Hot cooked rice
File powder

Combine first 6 ingredients in a Dutch oven; bring to a boil.
Add shrimp, and cook 3 to 5 minutes. Drain well, reserving 3 cups liquid; discard bay leaves and hot pepper.
Rinse shrimp with cold water. Chill. Peel and devein shrimp; set aside.
Combine sausage and next 3 ingredients in a large Dutch oven; saute until sausage is browned. Drain, if necessary.
Stir in flour and bouillon granules. Add reserved shrimp liquid, cream of chicken soup, and next 4 ingredients, mixing well.
Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes.
Add crab meat, simmer 5 minutes. Serve over rice after sprinkling rice with file powder.
Yield: about 3 quarts.

 

[bama579]

BamaLuver's Gumbo recipe

My mother makes delicious gumbo!! As always, the secret is not burning the roux! If you burn it -- throw it away and start fresh.

For those of us who are novices at the roux making thing, would you be willing to include the portions of flour, oil, etc. for this?

Thank you.

 

[derek4tide]

Re: BamaLuver's Gumbo recipe

For those of us who are novices at the roux making thing, would you be willing to include the portions of flour, oil, etc. for this?

Thank you.

Ingredients needed:

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour
Essense

In a large pot, heat the oil. When the oil is almost smoking, whisk in the flour. Cook the roux for 12-15 minutes, stirring constantly for a dark roux.



Yields: 1 cup

- Emeril Lagasse (we use this one)

 

[bayoutider]

Knowing how to make a roux is fine and dandy. I know how to make roux but seldom make one from scratch since I found roux in a jar. This stuff is good, foolproof, has a long shelf life and is inexpensive.

Pick one

One works as well as another, I have tried them all. Rule of thumb is use light roux for seafood and darker roux for chicken, duck and sausage. Some Cajuns say you should not put sausage in seafood and some say you can.

Some like boiled eggs in their gumbo, some like a scoop of potato salad in their bowl. Just about everyone I know that has tasted gumbo likes it.

 

[derek4tide]

Knowing how to make a roux is fine and dandy. I know how to make roux but seldom make one from scratch since I found roux in a jar. This stuff is good, foolproof, has a long shelf life and is inexpensive.

Pick one

One works as well as another, I have tried them all. Rule of thumb is use light roux for seafood and darker roux for chicken, duck and sausage. Some Cajuns say you should not put sausage in seafood and some say you can.

Some like boiled eggs in their gumbo, some like a scoop of potato salad in their bowl. Just about everyone I know that has tasted gumbo likes it.

I just ordered the light and dark. Now, I'm looking at the turducken.....wow. Thx for the link!

 

[bayoutider]

I just ordered the light and dark. Now, I'm looking at the turducken.....wow. Thx for the link!

I have eaten quite a few turduckens. I guess the novelty of them has worn off. I have had some really good ones and some that were just so so. I remember when you could buy one for $25 and now they are probably close to $100. I had a good friend who had a little mom&pop grocery store where they had an actual meat counter who made them but they lost the store when Hurricane Rita removed the store from the face of the earth. Turducken doesn't taste as good after the novelty wears off and you don't have to pay for it. Lately we have been getting boneless chickens stuffed with seafood dressing, cornbread dressing, oyster dressing, crawfish dressing, dirty rice dressing or eggplant dressing. All of them are good and cost about $10.

 

[BamaLuver]

Re: BamaLuver's Gumbo recipe

-Ingredients needed:

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour
Essense

In a large pot, heat the oil. When the oil is almost smoking, whisk in the flour. Cook the roux for 12-15 minutes, stirring constantly for a dark roux.

I do the same without the essense. Am quite willing to try Bayou's suggestion of jarred roux though!

 

[JH-ATL]

BamaLuver. Thanks for the recipe.

CS, I am going to try BL's recipe with the roux (light) ordered from your link.

Thank you both.

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[bama579]

Gumbo recipe

HuntsvilleTider & bayoutider:

Thanks for such rapid and complete responses to the roux making inquiry. Gonna try the home-made way.

Being a recent transplant to the eastern shore (Fairhope), it is likely the local grocers have canned roux. Reassuring in view of my lack of expertise.

 

[bayoutider]

For anyone not wanting to smoke up their kitchen making stove top roux there is the oven method.

Use a heavy cast iron skillet, turn the oven up to 325, spread flour (2 to 6 cups) in thin layer on skillet and cook between 30-45 minutes depending on the color you want. Stir every 15 minutes but as you get closer to the end stir more often to check color.

This dry flour can be mixed with water to make gravies, gumbo or stews with no oil. The dry roux can be stored in a jar for several days.

You can also make wet oven roux by first making a paste from oil and flour and following the same directions for dry roux. This can also be stored in jars.

 

[derek4tide]

Re: Gumbo recipe

HuntsvilleTider & bayoutider:

Thanks for such rapid and complete responses to the roux making inquiry. Gonna try the home-made way.

Being a recent transplant to the eastern shore (Fairhope), it is likely the local grocers have canned roux. Reassuring in view of my lack of expertise.

When's the next jubilee? I lived in Mobile during the early 90's and attended 3 of these and had a blast. We made some great gumbo with those catches.

Jubilee is the name used locally for a natural phenomenon that occurs occasionally on the shores of Mobile Bay, Alabama, United States. During a jubilee, blue crabs, shrimp, flounder, stingrays, and eels swarm toward the shore in such numbers that the shallow water near land seems to boil with life. People living near the shore ring bells and call out to alert their neighbors so that everyone can rush down to the water with washtubs, gigs and nets, and gather a bountiful -- and easily reaped -- harvest of seafood. As jubilees only happen on warm summer nights, often in the early pre-dawn hours, the event takes on the aspect of a joyous community beach party, with lights shining into the Bay water.

 

[bama579]

Re: Gumbo recipe

When's the next jubilee? I lived in Mobile during the early 90's and attended 3 of these and had a blast. We made some great gumbo with those catches.

Being a relatively new arrival, I am less than certain about the local customs. I think we need a little more warm temperatures, though. Any longer-term locals are invited to jump in with a reply.

 

[derek4tide]

Re: Gumbo recipe

Being a relatively new arrival, I am less than certain about the local customs. I think we need a little more warm temperatures, though. Any longer-term locals are invited to jump in with a reply.

A jubilee can occur from May - October. On a warm night (if the conditions are just right) a sudden lack of oxygen at the bottom of the bay causes the sealife to go to the surface. Almost like an eruption. The sealife are caught up in the tide and wash ashore. You can pcik them up off the beach, truly amazing.

 

[BamaLuver]

Looks like the last good Jubilee was in August of last year!

Eastern Shore Jubilee

 

[derek4tide]

Looks like the last good Jubilee was in August of last year!

Eastern Shore Jubilee

How did I miss that thread??? Man, I miss that and crabbing on the bay.

 

[gerry dorsey]

Pronounced Fee' lay - It is ground sassafras leaves.

I was instructed by Chef John Folse to place your rice in your bowl first then sprinkle your file on top of the rice then ladle the gumbo on top. He is a Louisiana historian and he is adamant that you put file on the rice and not in the gumbo pot.

i too have always been taught that it goes in the bowl upon serving, though i've never heard on the rice specifically. bayou, do you like file on your gumbo?? it was always in my family's kitchen, but it never got used. by the time i was old enough to care i was too set in my ways and didn't care for it.