Soups of the World - New Orleans Creole Gumbo

Gumbo comes in many forms depending on the region it's made in. It always has the Holy Trinity of vegetables (celery, onion and bell pepper), some form of thickener (in this case roux), okra and some meat or fish of some kind. It's usually served over rice and looks delicious!


Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup dripping
1 cup celery
1 onion
1 green pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 smoked sausage
3 stock cubes
1 tablespoon sugar
1 sachet Cajun seasoning
2 bay leaves
1 can tomatoes
1 box passata
1 package okra
1 can crabmeat
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 litre water


To start with, make a roux from 3/4 of the dripping plus the flour. Stir it well while slowly cooking it until it is a golden brown colour. Remove from the heat and continue to stir as it cools.


Now cut up the celery, pepper, onion and garlic. Place in a bowl/jug and blitz it with an immersion blender until it's all finely chopped.



Cut the sausage into thin slices.


Return the roux to the heat and stir in the Holy Trinty of vegetables plus the sausage. Carry on stirring and slowly cooking for 10-15 minutes.


Make up the stock with the water and slowly add a bit at a time to the roux mixture making sure it's blended well before adding a bit more. Now add the tomatoes, passata, sugar, salt, Cajun seasoning, hot sauce and bay leaves. Simmer for about an hour.


Cut up the okra into small bite sized pieces.


Cook the okra in a pan with the remaining dripping plus a tablespoon of vinegar. Then add it to the gumbo along with the crab meat. Cook for a further 10 minutes.


Serve over some rice and tuck in!


It was delicious! The whole dish had a lovely thick, creamy texture meaning the sausage and okra was coated in the thick soup. It was great with the added texture from the rice too. We really enjoyed this one. I like how versatile gumbo is, you can add whichever meat or fish you want, it'd be just as nice with shredded chicken and shrimp for example. I did wonder if gumbo counts as a soup since it seems more of a stew but apparently soup is defined as a dish cooked in an open pan with meat and/or vegetables in stock or water. Either way, I love it :)

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