Shrimp and Okra Gumbo

Leslie in Texas's Note:

This is a favorite of ours,great with some crusty French bread and butter.Serve over freshly cooked rice if desired. From a March 1984 issue of Bon Appetit that featured Paul Prudhomme and the recipes of K-Paul's restaurant in New Orleans. Pass the Tabasco, please!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 3 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 1 1/4 teaspoons white pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 cups okra, sliced into 1/4-inch wide slices
• 3/4 cup onion, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
• 2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 1/2 cups seafood stock
• 1/2 cup green onion, thinly sliced
• 3/4 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• salt

Directions:

1. Combine first 8 ingredients in small bowl for seasoning mixture.
2. Heat 4 Tablespoons oil in 4-quart saucepan over high heat 1 minute.
3. Add 2 cups okra and saute until brown, about 6 minutes.
4. Stir onion, green pepper and celery into okra and cook 1 minute.
5. Add butter and cook 1 minute.
6. Mix in garlic and saute 1 minute.
7. Stir in seasoning mixture and continue cooking over high heat 3 minutes to blend flavors, scraping bottom of pan frequently.
8. Add flour and remaining 2 tablespoons oil.
9. Continue cooking until flour is brown,scraping bottom of pan frequently, about 2 minutes.
10. Mix in 1 1/2 cups stock, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pan.
11. Stir in remaining stock; boil 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
12. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
13. Stir in remaining 1 cup okra and continue simmering for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
14. (Can be prepared up to 2 days ahead at this point. Cover and refrigerate.Slowly bring to a simmer before proceeding.).
15. Add green onion to soup and simmer 3 minutes.
16. Stir in shrimp and simmer until shrimp just turn pink, about 1 minute.
17. Salt to taste and serve.

Reviews

[realbirdlady]

This would be good for an unexpected crowd. It looks like a lot of ingredients, but goes together easily (with some flexibility in quantities). We used less hot peppers, so that folks who wanted spicy could add their own tabasco. The texture is a little bit floury - if you had time, it would probably be better to go ahead and make a roux.

[Buster's friend]

Outstanding! Doubled the vegies & used thyme, basil from the garden - so tripled them (used bay leaves from the garden too but kept # the same). Added 3 big long fresh red cayenne peppers I slashed along the sides & dropped into the pot. Made seafood stock by sauteeing a 1/2 pound of minced bacon with the shrimp heads of 2# of shrimp & then adding 7 cups of water & simmering for 30 minutes before picking out the heads (easy to do by grabbing their antennae). Used a slotted spoon to scoop up the bacon nibbits which I sauteed again & added the non-okra veggies to before adding them to the roux along with the okra & the seafood stock. Used the stock to deglaze the saute pan into the roux pot. I cooked my roux to a darker than peanut butter brown before adding the vegies, stock & okra. Added the shrimp shell-on about 5 minutes before serving with basmati rice scooped onto the gumbo served in a wide bowl. Most delicious! Keeper spice combo (Loved serving from the pot with the big long red cayenne peppers up on top. Definitely to be kept & made again! Thank you for posting Leslie!