- [Speaker] Gumbo is in my heart.
It's in my soul.
I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana,
and in my family, gumbo season starts
around Thanksgiving time.
It has served for every major holiday leading all the way
up to Mardi Gras and sometimes a little bit afterwards.
What makes gumbo extra special to me, is its diverse roots.
The dish is over 300 years old and has several
cultural influences from all over.
From the Caribbean, France,
Germany and Native Americans.
But many believe its origins
are in the West African cuisine.
The word gumbo actually derives from the word for okra
in some West African languages,
and its use of rice also indicates its ties directly
to Africa.
Rice was brought over during the transatlantic slave trade
and became a highly cultivated crop in America.
There's no right or wrong way to make gumbo.
Well, there definitely is a wrong way to make gumbo,
but today the version we're making is gonna have you
falling in love with gumbo done the right way.
So let's jump into the kitchen to make some gumbo, baby.
So today we're making seafood filé gumbo
and it all starts with a homemade stock.
Now you can buy chicken, seafood,
vegetable or even beef stock,
but people will look at you a little funny if you put
beef stock in your gumbo, but, hey,
we're not here to judge.
However, most families make their own stock at home
using the vegetable scraps and the seafood scraps.
To make it from scratch,
we start with heating up some oil
in a heavy bottom five quart pot over medium heat.
Once it's hot, we'll add three blue crabs.
You can find blue cool.
These crabs in the Gulf of Mexico.
There's definitely something magical going on
in those murky waters that make them taste amazing.
So don't use Dungeness or stone crabs.
Trust me, it won't taste the same.
Let these guys cook until their shells
turn a bright orange.
Then we'll add shrimp shells with their heads.
These will make for a far more superior stock.
We'll cook these until the shells turn pink.
Now, it's time to smash the shells.
It's similar to mashing potatoes. Doing this is
going to help release all those extra juices.
So really get in there and take out
your daily frustration.
And finally, we'll add some vegetable scraps,
and some seasoning.
Cover this all with water and bring it
to a slight boil.
Then bring it down to a simmer
for at least 30 to 35 minutes.
Now we'll strain it and set it to the side.
You see making your own homemade stock
isn't that hard.
And I know you're smelling the difference.
Next we'll will move on to our own seasoning.
We're gonna make our own Creole-Cajun blend.
And if you ever get a blend from someone else,
make sure that they're from Southern Louisiana.
I'm talking new Orleans, Opelousas, Lafayette,
Baton Rouge, or the surrounding areas.
Outsiders put weird stuff like chili powder and cumin in it.
That's a big, no no, babe.
We don't do that around here.
Our blend is a combination of kosher salt,
white pepper, black pepper, cayenne, paprika,
garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme, and oregano.
We'll whisk all of these together in a bowl, man
it is starting to smell like home.
Now we're ready to start cooking this gumbo.
Now grab a large pot, place it over medium
high heat and add in some canola oil,
cook this until it reaches a smoke point.
You're looking for a faint white smoke.
Anything thicker is going to burn our roux.
The smoke is so faint.
The camera couldn't even capture it.
So pay real close attention.
This next step can be controversial.
We're gonna add in some okra, not all families add okra
to their filé gumbo, but some people believe
a gumbo without okra, just isn't gumbo.
We're team okra over here. Fry these for
a couple of minutes until they turn
an army green. This will remove all the slime.
You don't need to eat slimy okra.
After a few minutes, remove them from the
pot and drain them on a paper towel.
Let's move on to the roux.
This is my favorite part right here,
besides eating. A roux is a mixture of flour and fat.
That's used as the thickener in all sorts
of recipes from fancy Mac and cheese, to soups
and stews. Rouxs can be a variety of shades
from blonde to dark brown
Gumbo requires a dark brown roux,
So we're using the oil for this.
Typically it takes about 30 to 45 minutes to get that kind
of roux, but I'm gonna teach you a technique to
get that dark brown roux in five minutes.
Yeah. I said five minutes.
We'll turn up our heat and get it back to
that perfect smoke point.
Remember, we're looking for a faint white smoke.
Heating the oil before adding the flour
will fry the flour quickly, giving it that
classic nutty flavor. Whisk the flour
until it turns at dark cocoa brown.
If the roux is browning too fast,
remove the pot off the heat,
while continuously stirring and reduce your heat
to medium low look, you didn't believe me.
Huh? A beautiful, perfect cocoa brown roux in five minutes.
So next we'll add onion, bell pepper and celery.
This vegetable trio is known as the holy trinity.
This is the backbone of Creole-Cajun cooking.
Two tablespoons of our seasoning blend.
We're gonna stir this for two to three minutes
and then add some garlic, bay leaves,
and the rest of our seasoning blend.
You want to add your seasoning in layers
to add depth of flavor to your gumbo.
Turn up the heat to medium high
and gradually add the seafood stock.
If you don't have a whisk, stirring
in different directions will break up any clumps.
We want a nice, smooth gumbo.
Don't nobody have time for no lumpy gumbo.
Then it's time to add our okra, smoked sausage,
crabs, thyme, and Worcestershire sauce.
Now there's a variety of proteins,
you can add to your gumbo.
Personally, we love the smoke sausage, crab,
and shrimp combo.
Typically, you don't add chicken to your seafood gumbo
but hey, do what makes you feel great.
If you don't like seafood or have an allergy,
you can simply go with a chicken and sausage gumbo
which is also known as gumbo Yaya.
All right, now let's bring our mixture
to a boil and then reduce the heat
to a low simmer for one hour, uncovered.
Your house is about to smell
like a New Orleans grandmother's house.
Skim off any foam residue that rises to the top.
This is just the flour cooking out,
nothing weird.
After about an hour,
your gumbo should have thickened and
reduced by a quarter.
We are in a home stretch now, but
before we get to that last step, we're going to
take a quick taste just to make sure it's seasoned properly.
So delicious.
Then we'll add our shrimp and remove our pot from the heat.
The gumbo is gonna be so hot
that the shrimp will cook in 10 minutes.
Now it's time to eat baby.
Call your family over and get a bowl.
We love to serve our gumbo over rice.
Some people like more rice than gumbo others like it, 50 50
I'm a more gumbo than rice guy.
Do what you love.
Garnish with parsley, green onions, and finish it
off with some filé powder.
Filé powder is ground Sassafras leaves.
This a native American part of the dish,
it is going to add that final distinct layer
of flavor that can only be found in
filé. Let me tell you now, this is a bowl
full of love, flavor, family, heritage,
memories, and everything else that's
good and lovely in the world.
I hope you love sharing a piece
of my family history with your own family.
Check out the recipe on tasteit.co , and let us know
if you make this delicious seafood filé gumbo baby.
- Oh, yes.