Best Mamas Gumbo Recipes

MAMA'S SEAFOOD GUMBO

Steps:

• Fry okra in oil for 30-45 minute.
• Add onions and celery and cook until soft.
• Stir in tomato sauce, parsley, bay leaf, thyme and water. Simmer 30 minute.
• Add shrimp, crabmeat and oysters. Simmer another 30 minute.
• NOTE: This is better if cooked in the morning and allowed to stand. Serve over rice.

AUTHENTIC NEW ORLEANS STYLE GUMBO

Steps:

• Make the Roux*: In a large, heavy bottom stock pot combine flour and oil. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring constantly for 30-45 minutes. This part takes patience--when it's finished it should be as dark as chocolate and have a soft, "cookie dough" like consistency. Be careful not to let it burn! Feel free to add a little more flour or oil as needed to reach this consistency.
• Brown the sausage. In a separate skillet on medium-high heat place the sausage slices in one layer in the pan. Brown them well on one side (2-3 minutes) and then use a fork to flip each over onto the other side to brown. Remove to a plate.
• Cook the vegetables in broth. Add 1/2 cup of the chicken broth to the hot skillet that had the sausage to deglaze the pan. Pour the broth and drippings into your large soup pot.
• Add remaining 5 1/2 cups of chicken broth. Add veggies, parsley, and roux to the pot and stir well.
• Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for 5-7 minutes, or until the vegetables are slightly tender. (Skim off any foam that may rise to the top of the pot.) Stir in cajun seasoning, to taste.
• Add meat. Add chicken, sausage, and shrimp.
• Taste and serve. At this point taste it and add more seasonings to your liking--salt, pepper, chicken bullion paste, garlic, more Joe's stuff or more chicken broth--until you reach the perfect flavor. Serve warm over rice. (Tastes even better the next day!)

MAMA'S GUMBO

Steps:

• 1. I recommend having all your ingredients out and pre-chopped. Makes it very quick and easy to get through the preparations steps. ( In this photo I made a 1.5 batch-serves 18. Don't let the large amounts scare you.)
• 2. For roux: Start with a large soup pot. Combine flour and oil with wooden spoon til smooth. Adjust amounts of flour/oil for texture. Stir constantly over med heat until roux cooks to color of a penny. Smells like popcorn. 15 mins or so.
• 3. Stir in Onion, celery, green pepper, garlic, pepper and cayenne. Cook over med 3 mins.
• 4. Add sausage. Cook another 3 mins.
• 5. Stir in broth. Add half the okra, the chicken and bay leaves. Bring to boiling, reduce to simmer for 15 mins.
• 6. Add remainder of okra. (The first half was a thickener and the second half gives more chunky texture.) Simmer for 10-15 mins til last okra is crisp-tender.
• 7. Add raw shrimp. Simmer 5 mins. (If using cooked shrimp, remove finished gumbo from heat. Stir cooked shrimp into gumbo to heat through.)
• 8. Salt gumbo to taste. Ladle gumbo into soup bowls over hot cooked rice.

MAMA'S SEAFOOD GUMBO

Steps:

• In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour, stirring slowly and constantly, and cook to a medium-brown roux, about 30 minutes.
• Add the onion and bell pepper and stir to combine. Cook until the vegetables have wilted and are lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add the water and tomato paste and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to low and cover. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until flavorful and thickened, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Add the shrimp and crabmeat and stir to combine. Continue cooking over very low heat until the shrimp are cooked through, an additional 10 minutes. Season with hot sauce and stir in the filé powder, if using. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve with rice pilaf.
• Seafood soup, stew, and gumbo all taste better when prepared with homemade stock as opposed to bottled clam juice, the favorite stand-in to freshly made stock. When you peel the shrimp, save the shells (heads also, if you are fortunate enough to have them), and rinse with cold running water. Place the shells in a pot and add enough water to cover. Add a few fresh bay leaves, sprigs of parsley and thyme, a quartered onion, chopped carrot, and chopped celery, and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat to low and simmer until fragrant and flavorful, about 30 minutes. Strain the stock in a strainer layered with cheesecloth, discarding the solids. If I don't need to make shrimp stock every time I peel shrimp, I save the shells for later in a sealable plastic bag in the freezer. For fish stock, it's the same principle, but use bones instead of shells. Do not use oily or heavy fish such as mackerel, skate, mullet, or salmon; their flavor is too strong and heavy. Use approximately 4 pounds of fish bones to 10 cups of water to make 8 cups of stock.