Papa Richards Seafood Gumbo Recipes

Steps:

• In a large, heavy saucepan or dutch oven melt butter and whisk in flour until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until roux is a peanut butter color, about 20 minutes.
• Immediately add onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic, and bay leaves and cook until vegetables are very soft, about 8 minutes. Add stock and whisk to combine. Bring to a boil, skim surface, and reduce heat to a simmer. Add crabs and cook for 1 1/2 hours, until thickened and flavorful. If gumbo seems too thick, thin with water or seafood stock.
• Add shrimp and fish and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, or until shrimp turn pink and fish is cooked through. Add oysters (with their liquor), parsley, and green onions, and cook until edges of oysters curl, about 5 to7 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary, and serve in large bowls over hot white rice.

Steps:

• Make a roe with the oil and flour in a skillet. Add more of either flour or oil as necessary. It should be a medium dark brown, and a thin syrup. You should have approximately 3 cups of roe when finished.
• Add celery, garlic and onions to the roe and cook until translucent. Pour this into a very large 20 gallon stock pot.
• Add white wine, and approximately 1 gallon water. Add more as necessary, this is hard to measure but it should be about 2/3 water and 1/3 wine.
• In your original skillet, brown the sausage. Add this to the pot.
• Add seasonings to taste.
• Boil for 1-2 hours on medium high. When it starts to smell good, you know you are starting to get there. Start tasting at this point and add more seasonings as necessary.
• Add okra and oysters.
• Let cook for another 40 minutes or so.
• Add shrimp and crab.
• Let cook until shrimp is pink.
• Serve over white rice.

Steps:

• Make a roux by melting the butter in a small sauce pan over low heat and gradually sprinkling in the flour and immediately start stirring constantly until it reaches a nice golden brown color. This may take 10- 20 minutes. Remove from heat and continue stirring until cool. If black specks appear it is burned and you will have to start over.
• Add onions, celery and peppers and roux to a large pot over medium heat and saute until the vegetables are tender.
• Add in water, rice, tomatoes, okras, seasonings, Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce.
• Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add fish, raw shrimp and crawfish.
• Add more seasonings if needed.
• Continue cooking for an additional 10 - 20 minutes.
• Add the mussels and simmer an additional 5 minutes, once the mussels open, they are ready.
• The longer this cooks the better it tastes.

Steps:

• Make the spice mix: Place all ingredients in a bowl and stir until combined. Set aside 2 tablespoons to add to the gumbo and reserve the rest for another use in an airtight container.
• Make the gumbo: In a heavy 4- to 5-quart pot, heat the butter and oil over medium heat. Once the butter begins to bubble slightly, add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula to form a smooth paste.
• Cook the mixture, stirring continuously, for 10 to 13 minutes to make a chocolate-colored roux. Make sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pot to avoid burning. It is important to keep a very close eye on the roux during this step. The roux can go from a nutty color and aroma to burnt beyond repair in a matter of minutes. Lower the heat as needed.
• Immediately add the onion, garlic, celery, bell pepper and tomatoes and stir well. The vegetables will stop the roux from overcooking and burning. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables start to stick to the pan, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the dried shrimp, if using, tomato paste and 2 tablespoons spice mix and cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes.
• While whisking, slowly add the stock and whisk until the stock is completely blended with the roux and vegetable mixture. Add the okra, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce and let simmer for 50 minutes over very low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Add the lobster, crab, scallops and shrimp and simmer just until cooked through, about 10 minutes more.
• Season the gumbo to taste with salt and pepper and serve over rice.

Steps:

• prepare onions, garlic, and okra using food processor to finely chop.
• use cast iron skillet for best roux.
• saute flour in oil until golden brown.
• add onions and garlic, continue sauteing until onions are tender and light golden in color. (For dark roux, continue to brown, be careful not to burn roux).
• add water and all seasonings except gumbo file.
• bring to a rolling boil, reduce heat and let cook for about 40 minutes.
• add crab meat and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
• add shrimp, oysters, and fish. cook for 30 minutes.
• when done, add 1 tbsp gumbo file to the pot.
• server over steaming rice. season to taste.

Steps:

• Light Brown Cajun Roux: In a black iron pot or skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat to approximately 300 degrees F.
• Using a wooden roux spoon, slowly add the flour, stirring constantly until the roux is peanut butter in color, approximately two minutes. Reserve Light Brown Cajun Roux at room temperature.
• Dark Brown Cajun Roux: Proceed as you would in the light brown Cajun roux recipe but continue cooking until the roux is the color of a light caramel. This roux should almost be twice as dark as the light brown roux but not as dark as chocolate.
• When dark brown Cajun roux is done add the onions, bell pepper, celery, and garlic. Sauté until the onions become translucent and the vegetables are tender. Add the tomatoes. Add the smoked andouille or smoked sausage and the seasonings, and about ½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper, and continue to cook another 10 minutes.
• Fry okra with a small amount of grease and salt until okra is soft. (Avoid sticking.) Stir okra into gumbo and cook for another 15 minutes, and then add the stock. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer and cook another 30 minutes.
• With the gumbo on very low heat, add the Light Brown Cajun Roux and tomato paste. You'll find the greatest success when whisking the cool roux (that's room temperature cool, not refrigerator cool) into the hot gumbo. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes.
• ----------> Freeze here for future use (if desired).
• Add blue crabs. Remove the hard top shell from the crabs (reserving for stuffed crabs or for shellfish stock), and break each crab in two down the middle. Remove the claws. Add to the stock.) Simmer for 10 minutes,.
• Add the shrimp 10 minutes before serving.
• Add the oysters and oyster liquor 5 minutes before serving.
• Add the crabmeat just before serving (don't cook the crabmeat, just stir until it is heated through).
• Add additional Shrimp Stock (or chicken broth) if gumbo is too thick.
• Taste and correct seasonings.
• Place about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of rice in each bowl and ladle the gumbo over and around it. Serve with plenty of French bread and good beer or white wine.
• YIELD: About 16-18 entrée servings or 28-34 appetizer servings (omit hard shell crabs if serving cups of gumbo as an appetizer).

Steps:

• Make the seafood gumbo stock: In a heavy-bottomed 5-quart pot, heat the canola oil over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the crabs and cook until the shells turn bright orange, 2-3 minutes. Add the shrimp shells and heads and cook until the shells turn pink, 2-3 minutes more. Smash the crab and shrimp shells, similar to mashing potatoes, to release any juices.
• Add the bell pepper, onion, and celery scraps, green onion, parsley, thyme, garlic, bay leaves, black pepper, and water. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 30-35 minutes.
• Strain the stock through a large fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl. You should have 12 cups. Set aside until ready to use in the gumbo (if not using immediately, the stock can be cooled, then stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 1-3 days).
• Make the Creole seasoning: In a small bowl, whisk together the salt, white pepper, black pepper, cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and oregano until well combined.
• Make the gumbo: Heat 6 tablespoons canola oil in a heavy-bottomed 6-quart pot over medium-high heat until faint wisps of white smoke come off the oil (if thicker, darker smoke appears, remove the pot from the heat and let cool for 3 minutes). Add the okra and fry for 2 minutes, until army-green in color. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the okra to a paper towel-lined plate to drain, leaving any remaining oil behind in the pot.
• Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the same pot. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until faintly smoking again (do not let it overheat, or the flour will burn). Whisk in the flour to make a roux and cook, whisking constantly, until it turns a dark cocoa brown, 5-6 minutes. (If the roux is browning too quickly, remove the pot from the heat while continuing to stir and reduce the heat to medium-low.)
• Reduce the heat to medium, then add the onion, bell pepper, celery, and 2 tablespoons of the Creole seasoning. Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes, until onions have softened. Add the garlic, bay leaves, and remaining Creole seasoning.
• Increase the heat to medium-high heat. While whisking or stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming, add the seafood gumbo stock, 4 cups at a time. Add the okra, smoked sausage, crabs, thyme, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 1 hour, skimming off any foamy flour residue that rises to the surface. The gumbo should thicken and reduce by one quarter.
• Season the gumbo with the salt and pepper to taste, then add the shrimp. Remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let the residual heat cook the shrimp for 10 minutes.
• Ladle the hot gumbo into bowls. Serve with rice and garnish with parsley, green onions, and filé powder, if using.
• It's important to properly cool and store leftover seafood gumbo, otherwise it will spoil. Fill a clean 2-liter bottle or plastic juice jug with water and freeze until solid. Once finished eating, place the ice bottle in the pot of gumbo and let cool, stirring occasionally to release heat. Transfer the gumbo to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days. 11. The gumbo can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
• Enjoy!

Steps:

• Heat oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over med-high heat.
• Add in chicken; saute 5 minutes or until browned.
• Remove chicken, reserving drippings in stockpot.
• Add onion, bell pepper, and celery; saute 4 minutes or until tender.
• Gradually add 7 cups water, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of stockpot.
• Return chicken to stockpot.
• Combine gravy mix and 1 cup water, stirring well.
• Add gravy mixture, parsley flakes, and the next 10 ingredients to stockpot.
• Cover and bring to a boil.
• Decrease heat, and simmer, uncovered, 45 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.
• Peel shrimp and devein.
• Add fish to gumbo mixture; cook 5 minutes.
• Add shrimp and crabmeat; cook 3 minutes or until shrimp turn pink.
• Add file powder; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally or until thickened.
• Remove and discard bay leaves.
• Remove gumbo from heat; serve over hot rice.