A Familiar Cuisine (recipe: Seafood Gumbo)
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I feel a kinship with Cajun inspired cuisine. In many ways, it mirrors Southern cooking. The idea of make good with what you’ve got is a principal theme of both. No wastefulness. Most of the basic dishes were created by folks who didn’t have two nickles to rub together. Use simple, fresh ingredients. Don’t use fancy ingredients in one dish that you’ll never use again and wind up throwing out after it’s taken up space in your pantry so long that you’re tired of looking at it. Season your food all along the way. Like Granny taught me, “Shug, if it don’t taste good to you, ain’t nobody else a-gonna like it either.”
We didn’t grow up eating Cajun dishes at home. If we veered from down home Southern cooking, it would be in the direction of Italian and that would only be for occasional “spe-ghetti” or “pizzer pie”. My introduction to Seafood Gumbo was at my in-law’s home prior to being married. My mother-in-law made it quite frequently. She usually knew enough shrimpers that she could access to good wild-caught shrimp. Someone in the family would harvest crabs from Mobile Bay. She used a large canning pot to make it. It takes a lot of gumbo to feed the crowd of people that she was used to feeding. Her gumbo had a consistency more like soup than stew because she didn’t start with a roux. Add rice to go along with and some saltine crackers and your meal was done.
In many ways, I feel Cajun and Southern are distant cousins. You are related and know just enough about each other that you have a comfortable relationship. There’s lots about both of you that are the same and there’s just enough differences to keep it interesting. You are polite and respectful of each other and enjoy family reunions and celebrating holidays together.
Our family gathered at our house for Sunday Dinner this past Sunday for Tyler’s last night at home before he heads back to Florida Southern College for his Senior year. Seafood Gumbo is a family favorite and it’s something I haven’t cooked in some time so it was given the starring role in the meal. I’m just as comfortable making this Cajun inspired dish as I am cooking all the dishes that my Granny used to cook. Relatives are always welcome in my home.
Y’all come see us!
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Seafood Gumbo
Their is only one part of making gumbo that can be a little on the tricky side and that’s making the roux. Roux (Cajun) is the same thing as gravy (Southern). The main difference is that roux is going to be part of a larger dish with lots of ingredients added to it. The color that the roux takes on when you’re making it, will change once you start adding lots of other ingredients to it. For gravy, you make the gravy and then pour the gravy over something so you eat the gravy in its original form. If you don’t get your roux brown enough, your dish will have a pale color and just won’t look right to you and will be flavorless. If you overcook your roux trying to get it too brown, it will scorch and be ruined. I didn’t get my roux brown enough initially so I had to fix it. And since I documented it, you’ll see how to fix yours if you don’t get it right the first time. Let me say one more thing about making roux. Once you start making it, you cannot get distracted or you will wind up burning the stuff slap dab up. If your phone rings, don’t answer. If your kids scream, don’t tend to them unless their head’s falling off. Time stands still while you make your roux.
2 Vidalia onions, diced
1 large bell pepper, diced
1/2 bunch celery, diced
1/4 cup olive oil
3 oz. Conecuh sausage
3 oz. Andouille sausage
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 quarts seafood stock, (If you prefer not to make your own, there are some good quality packaged stocks. You may use chicken instead of seafood)
2 pounds tomatoes, diced ( fresh or canned)
1 pound okra, sliced (fresh or frozen)
1 pound raw medium shrimp, shelled
8 ounces crab claw meat
Old Bay seasoning
rice
This is a quick way to dice celery after it’s been washed, of course. Keep the stalks together and run your knife down the stalks lengthwise several times.
Now, run your knife across the stalks in the opposite direction.
You can dice a whole bunch of celery in no time flat. I stop when I get to the white part.
Onions, bell pepper, celery. The Trinity. The base for lots of Cajun dishes. I use a gracious plenty of it for gumbo. This is a dinner plate and you can see it’s slap full.
Heat the pot where you will cook your gumbo. Once it’s heated, add the olive oil and the vegetables. I like to make this a one pot meal. Maybe that’s because I’m lazy efficient. I would have gotten away with one pot had I not messed up my roux. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables get tender.
Sausage goes in next! The sausage on the left is Conecuh Original Smoked Sausage made in Evergreen, Alabama. It’s the best commercially prepared smoked sausage I’ve ever had. On the right is Aidell’s Cajun Style Andouille Sausage.
Add the sausage to the vegetables.
After the sausage starts to cook and release some of it’s grease juice, add the flour. Keep stirring and stirring until the mixture turns the color that you want. If it starts getting too dry before you gotten the right color, add some more olive oil. When you’ve gotten your desired color, start incorporating your stock slowly while stirring constantly.
Here’s where things went wrong for me. I stopped making the roux when it got to the color below. That’s a nice color and it looks lighter in the picture than it really was.
But, add tomatoes to the pot……
……and the color is all wrong. This looks more like tomato soup than gumbo.
Not to worry. We can fix this. Just make some more roux (gravy) in a skillet. That’s exactly what I did. Heat olive oil and add an equal amount of flour. Stir like crazy. I made this roux a little darker than I needed. Just be very careful and don’t let it burn. I kept cooking it until it reached about the same color as my wooden spoon.
I added ladles of the gumbo mixture to the roux skillet and worked it in well. Then the contents of the skillet went in the gumbo pot. WHEW! Crisis averted. Cover this and let it simmer away for at least an hour. I let mine cook for two. Keep checking it to make sure it’s not sticking.
While the gumbo is simmering, peel the shrimp and season liberally with Old Bay Seasoning. Place back in the refrigerator.
Add the shrimp and crab the last 10 minutes of cooking. Taste for seasoning. Serve over rice. Pass the Tabasco Sauce. Isn’t the color nice?
The Seafood Gumbo went great with Buttermilk Pie.
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Girl – That looks absolutely scrum-dili-umpious!!!!!! The tip about the roux is great….I think making roux is what scares cooks off (at least for me it does), but you take the “scary” out of the recipe. Thank you very much!!! Will definitely be making this recipe (Hubby loves Cajun).
The buttermilk pie is perfect for this dish. Thanks-again!!!!!
Mary,
I hope the tutorial helps you out. Just remember that you can fix undercooked roux but you can’t fix scorched roux. When you’re making you roux, if you get nervous, just go ahead and add your stock. Then make a separate batch of roux to add to your gumbo pot. It will be perfect!
Well it does look good, IF you leave out the shrimp and crab!!! Just throw in some chicken and we’d be all set.
Yeah, getting that gravy (or roux) a deep, dark brown does take some time and attention. You can’t get in a hurry, either.
Sue,
Not a fan of seafood, huh? Chicken Gumbo is good, too. I make Turkey Gumbo after Thanksgiving some time. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Wow, missy, you done good. And I have to say cooking a good roux is like makin’ good gravy. And every good southern cook can make her some good cream gravy! As you say, if you don’t watch it, well, pffffft and its burned. I probably would have just pulled that cheese crock filled w/ bacon grease outta my fridge, slapped a big ole spoonful of it in the skillet, and like you, start that roux all over. You got all fancy using olive oil and such, but what good southern cook doesn’t have a coffee can or container of bacon grease in the fridge? And you are quite lucky to be close to the gulf and have access to fresh shrimp. Up here in the dry, hot plains of north Texas, fresh shrimp is difficult at best to come by. Now if’n I lived back in that big ole city of Dallas, I could just probably run out and get some, but out here in the sticks where I’m livin’ now, if it ain’t at Wal-Mart or Brookshires, we probably can’t get it without that hour or so drive into the big city. That requires lots of pre-planning. And with tons of okra in my freezer (thanks to a bountiful garden), the gumbo is usually a spur of the moment ‘thang’ in our house. And of course, I have some Andouille sausage, but the hubs likes his venison sausage instead, so we use that, with equal success. Going to share your post on my page. Great instructional; and great recipe for gumbo! hugs and thanks <3
Betty,
I always have bacon drippings in my refrigerator, too! I try to substitute healthy fats for saturated fats anytime I can without compromising flavor. The Conecuh smoked sausage gives that great smokey flavor like the bacon drippings would, Thank you so much for sharing the post. I greatly appreciate it! <3 Thanks for reading!
Cajun cooking (like Southern Cooking) is a favorite. If you’d
just mumbled one time, “I guarantee”, I’d have sworn that
Justin Wilson was still making roux.
This is a delightful read Jackie, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Somewhere around here, I have Mr. Wilson’s own version of
Seafood Gumbo, and the two are very close to being the same.
I think he added a big shot of Tobasco to the pot and maybe
a dash of Worcestershire Sauce too.
Thank you for always making us smile, and our tummies happy
with your wonderful down-home recipes.
Julia
There really is no other way to make it, and it’s just so good.
Dear Julia,
There’s no greater compliment that you could have paid be than the comparison to Justin Wilson. Now , I’m no Justin Wilson and don’t pretend to be. I just loved his simple, honest, down-home style. That’s the only way I know how to be because I am simple and honest! Thanks, again, Julia for your sweet encouraging words. You are such a blessing to me.
Lovely recipe and you cracked me up when you were talking about making the roux! Love it! Thanks for sharing.
Ann,
Thank you for reading and commenting! Seafood Gumbo is one of our family favorites. Distractions and roux making are not a winning combination!
Seafood gumbo – one of my favs – of course living in Mobile AL I eventually had to learn how to make roux so I could make my own gumbo – and I too have had a few failures along the way. I have a really good recipe that I use that I got from Southern Living and you can do it with chicken, or seafood – it is yummy both ways. I love the Conecuh sausage and love that they have it at Wal Mart!! LOL I like mine a little spicy so I always add some red pepper too! Yours looks wonderful too! I have plenty of okra in my garden so have done a couple of batches already this summer! Maybe due for one this weekend! Thanks Jackie – as always – love what you do!
Ann,
One of the happiest days of my life was when Sam came back from Publix this weekend with Conecuh sausage! That was the first we knew that they carried it. Thanks for letting me know that Walmart has it, too. We have different levels of spice tolerants around her so I make dishes moderately spicy and then pass the Tabasco sauce separately.
You are such a blessing to me, Ann! Thank your for being so supportive. <3
OH MY LORD!! I’ve died and gone to heaven! Thank you Thank you Thank you..for sharing this recipe with us . Your gumbo looks just like my Mee Maw’s and I like that your recipe did not call for gumbo file , not that I’d know what gumbo file is , but I do know my Mee Maw did not use gumbo file in her gumbo. I know this because I have tried several recipes that called for file and I had to call my momma ..who then informed me that the recipe I was trying to make was not like my Mee Maw’s because she didn’t use gumbo file… so to see your recipe and to see the picture of it..it looks just like my Mee Maw’s use to look!! I am soo excited I can hardly stand myself..I want to run out and get the stuff to make us some gumbo right now!! But sadly I can’t I am busy preparing for the hurricane ….but you best believe as soon as this storm passes us I’ll be out getting what I need to spend the day in the kitchen with your recipe in hand and memories of my Mee
Maw all around me. I can not Thank you enough, you have truly made my day …
Ginger
Ginger,
When I first started making gumbo on my own, I used gumbo file because that’s what all the big shot recipes called for. I didn’t know what it was either. My mother-in-law didn’t use it. Well, I came realize that I don’t need it after all and it wound up being one of those fancy ingredients that I referenced in the post that you only use one time.
Please be safe and keep touch with me. We are crossing all appendages and hoping Aunt Irene goes on about her merry way.
Thank goodness…I thought I was losing my mind! This is the one I read yesterday
Chris,
You are cracking me up! Thanks for the good laugh. I’m glad you got it all figured out. You should feel accomplished for “making good with what you’ ve got” and creating a lovely dinner. That takes talent and skill to be able to do that. We;ve gotten so used to the convenience of the store that people wind up picking up things almost daily instead of using up what you have. That leads to a tremendous amount of waste. When I know that I have plenty of food in the house but I’m struggling with something to come up with, I just pretend the store is 100 miles away, or I have 4 flat tires, or someone stole my car, etc. That sounds like a silly game but it gives me a good reason to bear down and make do. I always feel good about the results, too! Thanks for sharing your story, Chris! I appreciate you so much!
Well lookie here, I come to visit and find not one, but two dishes from my region of the south!!
Yes ma’am, Miss Mary. We’re cousins! So glad you stopped by. Come back again. You’re always welcome!
Hi there! I found your blog on Pinterest through your Comeback sauce and have been poking around a little while, thoroughly enjoying my stay. Your writing exudes Southern hospitality, something lacking up here in Boston. My dad’s dad’s family is Southern (TN specifically), and I remember loving to visit my great-grandmommy when I was a little girl, catching crawdads in the river with my cousin. I’ve grown up near Boston my whole life, but I seem to have inherited a knack for Southern cooking and entertaining. This gumbo is going straight to my recipe box… it looks delicious!
Hello Miss Leah! Welcome to Syrup and Biscuits. Make yourself at home and let me know if you need help finding anything. I hope you visit often. You’re always welcome! Please take note of the Recipe tab at the top of the page. I add new recipes at the rate of 3 to 4 per week. Some become a blog post if there is a longer narrative attached like a good food memory story. The recipes that don’t have a significant story are published as pages. Both are categorized in the recipe index. Here’s the link: http://syrupandbiscuits.com/about/