Jeff Carollo's New Orleans Seafood Gumbo Recipe

Makes 4-6 large bowls suitable as a main course

Introduction:

I should lead with the fact that I was born and raised in New Orleans. The following is an authentic recipe which I'm proud to serve in my mother state (with slightly more spice than is called for below.) This seafood gumbo is my go-to dish in Seattle when entertaining a small group. Check with guests ahead of time to make sure that they have no seafood allergies. 

The ingredients called for can all be found in large Asian groceries on the west coast, and sometimes in larger supermarkets as well. I avoid chicken or duck gumbos (even though they're my favorite,) as those go best with Andouille sausage, which cannot be found in its proper form outside of the Gulf Coast.

My style of gumbo is very thick, in contrast to most modern restaurant gumbo styles. Some restaurants strain off the vegetables before cooking the seafood in the sauce, adding back a few pieces of okra in some instances. I prefer to leave all of the vegetables in place, but dice them thin so as not to give too chunky of a texture. I elaborate more on gumbo and my style below this recipe to give context. Please use this information to help vary this recipe to suit you and your guests' preferences for texture and flavor.

Ingredients:

Seafood:

2 pounds head-on large gulf shrimp or prawns (can find at Uwajimaya Asian grocery stores on the west coast.) Remove heads and squeeze orange shrimp fat into a small cup for later. Peel and devein shrimp, then cut in half. Rinse in strainer, then set aside.

3/4 pound fresh lump crabmeat (I prefer Dungeness crab, but any real crabmeat will do.) If you can get small whole crabs, then remove half of the meat by hand, rinse, then cook the whole crab (cracked in half) in the gumbo along with the crabmeat.

Salt seafood, turning shrimp to get both sides and flipping crabmeat once. Lightly dust it with cayenne pepper and paprika as well - it doesn't take much. As the seafood is added at the very end of cooking, it does not have time to soak up the spices from the dish, so this seasoning step makes a big difference.

You can soak or boil the shrimp and crab shells in the fluid from below and strain off to get even more seafood flavor into the dish.

Roux:

1 cup (by volume) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup canola oil or clarified butter (or 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup clarified butter.) If you cannot find clarified butter and don't have the patience to clarify your own, salted butter works best. Sweet cream (unsalted) butter gives a sweeter taste to the gumbo, along with a modicum of sweet milk - this can give the dish a wonderful sweetness.
A traditional gumbo roux will have about 1:1 ratio of flour to fat by weight. Flour is less dense than fat, so, by volume, it's more 2:1 or 2.5:1.

Vegetables:

1 yellow onion, chop into 1cm cubes

1 bunch green onions, throw out root strands, thinly slice white parts to go in with veggies, thinly slice green tops and set aside with fresh herbs below. The middle 1/3 of the green onion bunch can be saved for future dishes - using the entire bunch of green onions will overpower the dish. Omitting green onions will ruin the dish.

1/2 to 3/4 green bell pepper, remove stem, seeds and white insides, then chop into 1cm cubes.

1/2 head of celery, pluck and dice leaves and set aside with fresh herbs. Chop celery stalks to go in with veggies, about 1cm thickness keeping stalk shape. Some people like to peel the celery with a potato peeler, as it improves the texture of the gumbo.

1 pound fresh or frozen okra, cut into 1.5cm rings. I use a lot of okra as I like the thick texture. 1/2 or even 1/4 pound okra would be enough if you're not a huge okra fan like me.

1 or 2 small fresh tomatoes, cut into 1cm cubes. Can substitute 4 ounces of tomato paste.

Dried Herbs:

2-3 bay leaves

1-2 Tbsp ground file` (can find at seafood counter at Uwajimaya, used as a thickener)

1/2 to 1 tsp tarragon (optional)

Fresh Herbs:

1 cup destemmed curly parsley, finely diced

Green onions tops from above, sliced into 2-4mm rings

Celery leaves from above, finely diced

Traces of fresh thyme, oregano, and basil are allowed, but should not be used to flavor the dish, only to accent it. A trace amount of ground cardamom is also allowable.

Spices:

3 tsp cayenne pepper

3 Tbsp paprika

3-6 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 tsp white pepper

2-3 Tbsp kosher or sea salt (2 in at the beginning, rest at the end to taste)

Fluid:

4-6 cups water

2 cups seafood stock. Can boil down shrimp heads and shells along with crab shells with vegetables to make your own, but store-bought is fine. It's also okay to omit the stock if you don't have it on hand.

Rice:

1 cup basamati or other long-grained rice, rinsed and pre-soaked if you'd like.

Preparation:

Chop all veggies as indicated above and have them handy. In a large (8-12 quart) thick-bottomed pot, start the roux. Pour oil or butter into pot and melt over medium heat. Slowly incorporate flour whisking vigorously with a large steel whisk. Make sure that clumps don't form and that nothing sticks to the bottom and burns. Continue stirring for 5-10 minutes until roux is desired color. I prefer a darker roux, many shades darker than peanut butter, just before the flour begins to blacken. Some people prefer a blond roux, which is slightly lighter than peanut butter.

Once roux reaches desired color, immediately add the onions, bell pepper, and celery. Stir vigorously, allowing the vegetables to cool down the hot roux. Continue to stir occasionally for the next 10-20 minutes as the vegetables are reduced, and even caramelized. Hotter heat allows for caramelization, which I prefer. Lower heat allows the vegetables to become translucent without burning. I also add 2/3 of the spices at this point. Be careful not to add them too early or they may burn on the hot pan surface (unless you prefer this technique.) Once the onions are translucent, stir in the okra and reduce the temperature to just below medium. Let cook 5-10 minutes longer this way, stirring regularly. Okra will make everything stick together. This is normal.

Add most of the fluid at this point and raise the temperature to medium-high. I set a little bit of stock and water off to the side to help adjust for thickness and flavor later on. Stir everything together, using the fluid to break up the sticky okra/roux clumps. This is a good time to add the half of the ground file` powder and all of the tarragon and cardamom. Allow pot to come to a boil, add the bay leaves and tomatoes, then reduce temperature to medium heat until it boils a second time, then reduce to medium-low and let simmer for remainder of cook time, stirring occasionally. If using tomato paste, wait to add until simmering and use to adjust for thickness. Once dried herbs have begun to soften (a couple minutes into the simmering stage) it's a good time to taste for salt and spice. Add whatever spices necessary to taste, but don't overdo it - there's more time to taste and adjust later on.

At this point, there's about 20-30 minutes of cook time remaining while things simmer. That's a good time to start the rice. Read the rice packaging to figure out how much water to rice ratio is required. I usually add another 5-10% fluid to what the packaging calls for, as I prefer fluffy rice to al dente rice for gumbos. Add suggested water to rice pot, then seafood stock to make up the extra 5-10%. Add salt and stir in shrimp fat, then bring everything to a boil. Once boiling, immediately reduce to low heat, add rice, stir a few times so that no rice sticks together, cover with a lid that makes a seal, then steam for 16 minutes. Once rice is done, remove from heat, remove pot top, and stir for a minute to help it cool (otherwise it continues to cook and becomes mushy.) Feel free to stir in some of the fresh green herbs to give contrast to the orange and white rice.

Independent of the rice, there's some stuff left to do with the gumbo. Working backwards from serving time, here's what needs to happen: With about 10 minutes left, it's time to taste the fluid and make sure it has the right salt and spice levels. Add file` powder and/or tomato paste if too thin, seafood stock and water if too thick (it should be thin enough that a spoon cannot stand in it, but much thicker than most soups.) It's safe to pick out the bay leaves at this point. Whole crabs go in with 8 minutes left. Stir continuously at this point, raising the heat to medium-high then down to medium to boil off some of the water and to help lock in the juices of the seafood. Shrimp go in 5 minutes before serving, as do the remainder of the fresh herbs. Crabmeat goes in with 4 minutes left. Give everything one last taste to adjust for spices. Your rice should be coming off with 2 minutes to go. Once it's done, it's done. Turn the pot off and remove from heat. Stir another 30 seconds so that nothing sticks to the bottom and burns.

Serve gumbo over rice in bowls. I prefer 2 parts gumbo to 1 part rice. Some restaurants place bowls of rice in front of customers seated at the table, then pour the gumbo over the rice in front of them. Have guests stir everything together as the gumbo cools. It will be a couple minutes before it cools to an edible temperature. Feel free to garnish gumbo with fresh herbs. 

If enjoying with wine, I suggest a white wine with some character to compliment the seafood and spice. The dry Alsacien TrimbachGewurtztraminer is best. A dry chardonay with tannins also compliments the dish. A sweeter Chenin Blanc can work as well. Try to identify something that is not too sweet or fruity, as this can overpower the palate. Also avoid anything that is too bitter or astringent, as this can clash with the semi-sweetness of seafood gumbo.

A Quick Culinary Introduction to Gumbo:

"Gumbo" is said to be the word for okra in some African tongues. Gumbo is a Creole dish, having both African and French origins. Cajun (southern Louisiana) gumbo is considered to be different in style to Creole gumbo. These two styles of gumbo are quite similar, but varying slightly in their use of thickeners, ingredients and preparation style.

The three thickeners used are okra, roux and file` powder. My recipe uses all three. I'm heavy on my use of okra. I'm about in the middle range in my amount of roux (twice as much could be used, at the cost of one's health.) I'm also somewhere in the middle on my use of file`powder. One or two of these thickeners could be omitted (even the okra) and the dish would still be considered a gumbo. The roux is almost never omitted, though. Without any of the thickeners, we're left with a stew.

The Cajun "holy trinity" of vegetables consists of onion, celery and bell pepper in roughly equal proportions. This is in contrast to the French Mirepoix, which consists of onion, celery and carrot.

Cajun gumbo tends to have a darker roux and more spice, creole gumbo a semi-dark roux and less cayenne. My gumbo is Cajun in its use of roux, but Creole in its use of spice to suit the palates of my non-Southern guests. There is a west-coast style of gumbo which strays a long way from its New Orleans origins. I've never gained a taste for this style of gumbo, and cannot really elaborate on how it's different or why one would ever use ingredients on such a thing.

Some folks strain out the vegetables before cooking the seafood and serving. This is delicious and varies the texture. It's commonly done in fine restaurants in New Orleans. I don't do this as I like the texture of the vegetables.

As far as roux goes, I prefer mine pretty dark (this is the Cajun style, but is also quite popular in restaurant gumbos.) Some folks make their roux in the microwave to avoid burning and to save their arms from 5 minutes of intense stirring. Others buy their roux pre-made. One of the most common mistakes I see made in gumbo preparation outside of Louisiana is the roux color. People use too little of it, or don't darken it long enough. Yes, it will look and smell like the flower is burning. No, that's not a bad thing. Just don't turn it into charcoal and you're safe.

The method of using the shrimp fat to color the rice is my own invention, though I'm sure I'm not the first or only one to do so. I often invite my guests into the kitchen with me, having them help out in the preparation of this wonderful dish, and teaching them as I go. If you like to do the same, I might suggest that you assign a man to peel the shrimp, or do the task yourself. I know that's very Southern of me to say. It is the most arduous step, and can be unsettling to the more squeamish among us.

Poultry Gumbo vs. Seafood Gumbo:

There are two main classes of New Orleans-style gumbo: seafood and poultry. 

Seafood gumbos tend to include shrimp and crabmeat. They also optionally include a few oysters, cut in half to expose their insides for flavor. Fish is rarely used. I've never seen mussels other than oysters. Lobster could be used in theory, but shrimp and crab are by far the preferred shellfish. The smallest of the blue crabs in Louisiana are often marketed as "gumbo crabs," as they bring great flavor to the dish, but are often too much work to peel for the small amount of meat they yield.

Poultry gumbos are just as common as seafood gumbos. The most common varieties are chicken and sausage, and duck and sausage. Cajun Andouille sausage is by far the most common sausage used. Tasso is sometimes used in place of Andouille. Duck and Andouille gumbo is perhaps my favorite dish on earth. I make my own duck stock by reducing the bones from the carcasses of the ducks, which I carve by hand. Mallards and black ducks taste great, teal are also good. Be sure to remove the shot before serving.

I believe that roux for seafood gumbo is traditionally oil-based, whereas the roux for poultry gumbo is traditionally butter or lard-based. However, it's safe to use whatever you have on hand. Try each and identify which you like best. I tend to mix the two so as to straddle the middle-ground.

In Conclusion:

This is just my take on gumbo, borrowing techniques and ingredients from a number of accepted variations. I've identified a number of things which can be varied. I encourage you to use this recipe as a starting point in discovering your own gumbo style.