I recently became aware that with all of my experiments in the kitchen, I never try and make cajun/creole food. I don’t get it. It’s my favorite.The thought of a flavorful gumbo or crawfish étouffée sends me over the edge. Almost every week when I was growing up, the cafeteria ladies would whip up a delicious pot of gumbo at my catholic, all-girls school in New Orleans. I loved it. So when I went to boarding school in Pennsylvania, I had a bit of a culinary culture shock. No more gumbo or red beans and rice day. Now students were all excited about things like perogies and soft pretzels. I still don’t get it. Then slap me in the middle of nowhere North Carolina for college and I’m stuck with vinegar based BBQ sauce. Nope. No, thank you. Even at my culinary school, their take on “jambalaya”, if that’s what they want to call it, is a complete joke. I mean it tasted good, but it ain’t jambalaya i’ll tell you that much. Half of the restaurants in New Orleans generally have a gumbo on their menu, served by the cup or by the bowl. During my short visits over the holidays, I often order a little cup as an appetizer to go with my delicious oyster poboy or seafood dish, just to squeeze as many flavors of home into my meals as possible.
I didn’t really think about why I never make cajun food until my chef instructor asked me why I went with fish tacos on “fish your way” day. I told him because I didn’t have any of the ingredients necessary for cajun cuisine, which was pretty much true (because we were given a list of ingredients that would be available to us, and we pretty much could only work with those ingredients) but I could have swung something. So why don’t I ever make these foods if I love them so much? Usual I always come back to the same answer; too many ingredients. I see outrageously long list in most recipes and I quickly close the book or clear my tabs.
Culinary school has definitely made me realize that a lot of these things that I have been too intimidated to make are actually so easy. Like stock for example – or pate a choux. It’s so worth making your own stock because you have complete control over the flavors, and your finished product ends up tasting so much more natural. Don’t get me wrong, I use stock from a box all the time, but it feels good saying everything was 100% homemade. (of course, no one would actually care other than yourself. As long as the finished product tastes amazing!)
At the beginning of level 3, we are required to make an amuse bouche that includes ingredients we are assigned the day before and are required to include in our dish. (An amuse bouche is that fun free thing you sometimes get at fancy restaurants in between meals.) One day we were given clams and chinese sausage. I was like WHAT am I supposed to do with those two things? The only thing I could think of making was gumbo. Because what else includes both sausage and seafood in one recipe (at least that was my train of thought at the time) So I made a mini gumbo shooter in less than an hour, and since then I desperately wanted to try making the full version at home. Because if I could whip it together that easily while also trying to simultaneous make a lemon tart in a restricted amount of time, I could definitely make it at home without a chef or presentation time looming over me. So here is my recipe for seafood and andouille sausage gumbo.
If you can double the recipe for the stock because it makes the most incredible sauces you have ever tasted. With a touch of cream – ugh my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
- Seafood Stock
- canola oil or vegetable, enough to coat the pot
- 6 lobster bodies, gills removed
- shrimp shells
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 small spanish onion, roughly chopped
- 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
- ½ red bell pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
- ½ green bell pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 can diced or whole tomatoes
- 1½ tablespoons of tomato paste
- jar of clam juice (8 oz)
- water
- Roux
- 1 cup of butter or oil
- 1½ cups of all purpose flour
- Bouquet Garni
- Parsley stems
- 1 bay leaf
- sprig of thyme
- Gumbo
- white wine
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
- about 8 cups of seafood stock
- ½ green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
- ½ red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
- 7 cups of seafood stock
- 1 bay leave
- ½ tsp. cayenne
- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar (optional)
- about 30 medium shrimp (1½ to 2 lbs of shrimp)
- 4 andouille (or smoked) sausages
- bouquet garni
- chopped parsley
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup of long grain rice
- 2 cups water
- 3 tablespoons of canola oil
- salt and pepper
- Make the stock pot very hot and then lightly coat the bottom of the pan with oil. Add the lobsters bodies and shrimp shells and cook until deep red.
- Add the onions, carrots, bell peppers and celery and cook until lightly golden and you have some crispy bits on the bottom.
- Stir in the crushed garlic cloves, tomato paste and tomatoes. Then add the water and clam juice.
- Cook for about an hour to an hour and a half. Then strain and reserve.
- Saute the sliced sausage and shrimp separately in a touch of butter or oil. Remove from pan and reserve.
- Add the oil to the pan and scrape off any of the crispy bits at the bottom of the pan - that adds a lot of flavor, but if you leave them at the bottom they can burn. Add your flour and stir vigorously for 20 minutes over medium heat. You can lower the heat and stir slowly, but this will take twice as long. If you pay attention and act quickly, the roux will be ready in no time.
- When the roux is almost the color of chocolate, remove from the heat immediately, as it will continue to cook and darken in the pan. The second you read the desired color, remove from the hot pan and reserve.
- Clean the rice several times until the water runs clear. I had to do this about 7 or 8 times because my rice was particularly starchy.
- In a small pot, add the oil, rice and water.
- Bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
- sauté the onions and chopped garlic until golden.
- deglaze with white wine to get the crispy bits ("sucs") off the bottom of the pan.
- Add the stock and whisk in the dark roux.
- Add the bouquet garni and reduce for about 1 hour and 30 minutes
- Saute the finely chopped bell peppers with a touch of butter or oil. Then mix in the oregano and cayenne pepper.
- Remove the bouquet garni and add the peppers to the soup. Cook for about an hour more or until you have reached your desired thickness.
- Place the rice in the center of the bowl. Surround with hot gumbo and either mix in the shrimp and sausages prior, or place them strategically around the rice. (I like this method, because it ensures that each bowl gets the proper ratio of sausage and shrimp)
- Sprinkle with roughly chopped parsley and serve.
Aubrey says
Sue – this looks AMAZING!! I absolutely cannot wait to try, BUT I was wondering if I didn’t have time to spend a Saturday cooking, could you suggest a way to translate the recipe to a crockpot style gumbo? Keep those recipes coming girl xxx!
Suzanne Bruno says
Thanks babe!!! and yes, you could totally do this in a crock pot! Just do all the things at the very beginning of the cooking process, like make your roux, saute your vegetables separately, and then add everything together and cook it low and slow for 3 hours. You probably don’t even have to saute your vegetables if you don’t want to, but I think the light browning/caramelization of them adds more flavor. My roommate has a crock pot so I am definitely going to try that next time. If you make your own stock though, I think you would still have to do that in a large pot, but I usually make it ahead of time anyway. And the actual prep of that is really quick also.