Seafood Gumbo

Prepare the following stock:

 

7 qt. water

5 dried hot red chilies

1 lemon, sliced

2 large bay leaves

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 Tbsp. salt

 

Mix together in large stock pot.  Bring to boil, and boil 15 minutes.

 

Add:  10 to 12 cleaned or live blue crabs 

 

Cook about 5 minutes.  Remove crabs with tongs. 

 

Add:  1 lb. fresh shrimp (1 1/2 lbs. if heads are on)

 

Add heads and all if you buy shrimp with heads on.  Cook just until shrimp is pink and firm to the touch.  Remove.  Clean shrimp.  Return heads to stock.  Continue to boil the stock until it is reduced to 3 quarts.  Then strain through a fine sieve and discard solids.  Cover pot and keep the stock warm until you are ready to use it.  Pick meat from the crabs in chunks as large as you can manage.  Crack claws but do not remove meat.

 

Roux:      1/3 cup oil

                1/2 cup flour

 

Stir together in heavy pan over moderately high heat, stirring roux constantly until mixture browns to the color of an old  penny or milk chocolate.   Be careful as it is easy to burn.

 

1 cup coarsely chopped onions

1 1/2 tsp. finely chopped garlic

1/2 lb. fresh okra, trimmed, washed, and cut into 1-inch chunks

  (or 1 Tbsp. gumbo file' powder if you do not use okra)

1 cup coarsely chopped green pepper

1/2 tsp. each cayenne pepper and Tabasco sauce, or to taste

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp dried thyme

 

Add onions and garlic to roux.  Cook and stir about 5 minutes or until  soft.  Add okra and green peppers and mix well.  Stirring constantly, pour in the reserved warm stock in a slow, thin stream and bring to a boil over high heat.  Add cayenne, Tabasco, bay leaf, thyme, and salt to taste.

Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 1 hour.  Stir in the crab meat and claws and simmer 10 minutes.  Add the shrimp and simmer a few minutes longer, then taste for seasoning.  If you did not use okra, add 1 Tbsp. gumbo file' powder after you remove the gumbo from the heat.  It will get stringy if you cook it.  The okra or file' thicken the gumbo and give it a unique consistency.

Serve over freshly cooked rice.  4 to 6 cups [2 to 3 cups of raw rice, twice as much water] for this amount of gumbo.

This is definitely worth the trouble.  Scallops, oysters, or cooked fish flakes can also be added at the end.  One memorable batch of gumbo with the kitchen sink thrown in was one our friend John Whaley and I cooked in a large black iron wash pot on an open fire in John and Nell Spratt's yard on St. George Island in the 80s.