Jims Famous 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:

• Thaw shrimp and crab if not using fresh.
• In large saucepan, combine flour and oil.
• Cook at medium low heat stirring for 30-40 minutes until dark red-brown.
• Add onions, peppers, celery, broth, ham hock, tomato sauce, undrained tomatoes, parsley, worcestershire sauce, pickapeppa, oregano, bay leaves, paprika, garlic powder and Tabasco.
• Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour.
• Remove ham hock, cut off meat.
• Chop meat and return to pan.
• Skim off any fat.
• Add oysters, shrimp and crab.
• Continue cooking for 15 minutes.
• Add okra, cook 5 minutes, remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.
• Remove bay leaves.
• Add file powder.

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 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.