Makes eight ample entrée servings. From the cookbook, Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen (1984).
I have varied the ingredients and still had a successful dish. You could replace the shrimp with fresh oysters, replace the sausage with cured or uncured ham and vary the pepper amounts.
Taste the gumbo before cooking is finished and adjust seasoning to suit. If you have leftovers, they will taste even better the next day after reheating.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup bacon drippings or vegetable oil like peanut or canola
2.5 lbs of okra, quartered and sliced to make about 8 cups
1.5 tsp ground white pepper
1.5 tsp ground red pepper
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups finely chopped white or Vidalia onion
10 cups basic seafood stock*
2 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes or 28oz can of chopped tomatoes
2 tsp salt
2 tsp minced garlic
.75 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried thyme leaves
1 tsp file’ gumbo powder (this is dried sassafras leaves)
1 stick butter (or less if desired)
1 lb andouille smoked sausage or substitute with Kielbasa
1.5 lbs peeled medium or large shrimp, preferably fresh
.5 cup chopped green onions
2.5 cups rice. Basmati works well or you could use a sticky rice like Arborrio
Steps:
- In a large Dutch oven (cast iron is best) 5+ qt or more, melt fat/oil over high heat until it begins to smoke, then add 6 cups okra, cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally and reduce heat to medium
- Add 1 tsp white pepper, 1 tsp red pepper and 1 tsp black pepper. Stir in well and continue to cook about 10 minutes, stirring/scraping frequently until browned and okra is softened.
- Stir in onions, cook 5 minutes more and scrape bottom of pot to keep from sticking.
- Add in 1 cup of stock, stir in and scrape again. Cook for 5 minutes
- Stir in tomatoes and cook for 8 minutes
- Add in 2 cups of stock, cook for 5 minutes
- Stir in remining peppers, salt, garlic, onion powder and thyme
- Add in butter and turn heat to high for 5 minutes and continue stirring well and scraping bottom of pot.
- Add in remaining stock and Andouille and let it boil for a few minutes, then reduce to simmer for 45 minutes stirring occasionally.
- Add remaining okra and simmer 10 minutes.
- Finally add shrimp and green onions. Bring to a boil briefly and then remove from heat so as not to overcook shrimp. Let it rest a few minutes.
- Skim off any undesired oil.
Serve while hot over about a ½ cup of cooked rice. Place a mound of rice in middle of plate and spoon 1.5 cups gumbo around the rice.
Filé gumbo might be found in upscale grocer or order online. Zatarain’s is a well-known brand. Careful, a little goes a long way.
*Seafood stock
Next time you have shrimp, buy them “heads on”. For two pounds of fresh shrimp, remove the heads and put them in a large pot and add 10 cups of water, two onions quartered (no need to peel off skins), 3-4 sticks of celery, 2-3 cut up carrots. 1tbl spoon salt, 1 tsp pepper. Boil the heads and the other items until the liquid is reduced by 1/3. Save the stock in plastic freezer bags perhaps 4 cups per bag. Label the bags as to contents and date. The stock will be “full flavor” and can be diluted in your next recipe. Discard the heads and vegetables in a sealed bag. Trust me on this. When making the stock it works best if you can have a hood fan on or the kitchen windows open as it might seem to be an unpleasant odor to sensitive noses, but it is delicious in spite of the fragrance.
If you don’t have this stock, you might find seafood stock in the grocer aisle where chicken or beef stock is sold. No luck with that? You could substitute vegetable stock but your dish will have less depth of flavor.
Lagniappe!