Pages

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo

A spicy shrimp and sausage stew packed full of veggies. I can only imagine it is as good as the gumbo you can get in New Orleans.



Yesterday did not go very well as expected but it is over now and I am feeling much better this morning.  Thank goodness those days don't happen too often for me. 



We made this shrimp and sausage gumbo this weekend. We were both in the mood. Kind of weird since it was super hot and humid on Sunday when we whipped up this lunch. What do they say, "eat spicy food when it is hot and you will feel cooler afterwards."  Is that right? We were both steaming after we were done. Fitting I guess for the whole New Orleans atmosphere. We were just being authentic.



The gumbo is a one pot dish and you can switch out the shrimp for chicken if you don't like the seafood.  I wish we could have had craw fish but I don't think I have ever, EVER seen craw fish in the store. You can also customize the hotness - spice hot - of this gumbo but adding hot peppers for more of a kick or cutting back on the Cajun seasoning in the recipe. 


The recipe made a ton - 4 heaping servings but I know you can easily halve the recipe for 2 servings with enough for leftovers for one lunch.  I froze about 2 servings and had enough for two lunches the next few days. 

On a side note, when I was little I hated leftovers. I pretty much refused to eat them. I didn't make things easy for my parents.  Nowadays they are the best thing ever.  I love having food ready to grab in the morning for lunch. Oh how the times change.

So this gumbo...it is good.  Real good.


Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo

by Emily Morris
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Keywords: saute entree soup/stew sausage shrimp Cajun
Ingredients (serves 4)
  • 1 LB raw shrimp, skin and devined
  • 6 Ounces Chicken Sausage, precooked and sliced
  • 1 Cup Long Grain White Rice
  • 2 28-Ounce Can Crushed Tomatoes
  • 2 Green Bell Pepper
  • 2 Stalk Celery
  • 2 Yellow Onion
  • 8 Cloves Garlic
  • 4 Tablespoons Butter
  • 4 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
  • 1/2 LB Okra
  • 2 Tablespoon Cajun Spice
Instructions
Remove the shrimp and sausage from the refrigerator to bring to room temperature.

Wash and dry the fresh produce. Remove and discard the stem, seeds and ribs of the green bell pepper. Small dice the green bell pepper and celery. Peel and small dice the onion. Cut off and discard the stems of the okra; cut the okra into ½-inch rounds. Peel and mince the garlic. Place all vegetables in a medium bowl and set aside.

Make the roux: In a medium pot, melt the butter on medium heat. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, 3 to 5 minutes. The mixture will turn a deep brown.

To the pot of roux, add a drizzle of olive oil and the green bell pepper, onion, celery and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, 2 to 4 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened.

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the sausage, crushed tomatoes, rice, Cajun seasoning, okra and 2 cups of water; season with a little salt. Bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes,

Add the shrimp and stir into the gumbo. Cook for about 8- 10 more minutes the shrimp and sausage are completely cooked through. Remove from heat.

Serve immediately.
Powered by Recipage

5 comments:

  1. Looks like a bowl of total comfort! YUM!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I needed something yummy to make tomorrow night. This looks so good!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Being from Louisiana I have to say this looks more like "tomatoe & okra" with sausage and shrimp and not actual gumbo. Traditional gumbo would never be tomato based. Please don't take my critic as criticism or rudeness, just didn't know if you really knew it. You have a beautiful bowl of food and it looks warm and inviting, just not gumbo.

    ReplyDelete
  4. http://southernfood.about.com/od/saucesandseasonings/a/roux-recipes.htm

    This isn't exactly how I do it, but it's a general guide you could follow, just give it a try. Here in Louisiana we LOVE our food. A lot of people tend to always think of our food as "peppery spicey", when actually it's "spicey" because of the LAYERING of flavors. So.... just in case you take a trip and you decide to try some "Cajun or Creole" food, if you have to have something to cool your mouth down it's not OUR food, if you can enjoy it and love the FLAVOR, yeah baby that's us!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a message. I always love hearing your thoughts and comments.