Seafood Gumbo:
1 cup bacon drippings Tabasco sauce to taste
1 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup ketsup
8 stalks celery, chopped One 16 oz can whole tomatoes
3 large yellow onions, chopped 2 tablespoons salt
1 bunch green onions, chopped 1 large slice of ham, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped 2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 cup parsley, chopped 1/4 teaspoon rosemary
1 pound okra, sliced 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
2 tablespoons shortening 1 pound claw crabmeat
2 quarts chicken stock 3 to 4 pounds boiled shrimp
2 quarts water 1 pint oysters, optional
1/2 cup worcestershire sauce 1 teaspoon brown sugar
Lemon juice to taste
Heat bacon drippings over medium heat, add flour slowly and stir constantly until roux is a chocolate-like brown (or longer for darker). This takes a long time. Add celery, onions, green pepper, garlic, parsley and cook 45 minutes to 1 hour stirring occasionally. Fry okra in shortening until slightly browned. Add to first mixture and stir well for a few minutes. Add chicken stock and water, worcestershire sauce, tabasco sauce, ketsup, tomatoes with juice, salt, ham, bay leaves, thyme and rosemary. Simmer 2 1/2 hours uncovered. Add chicken, crabmeat, shrimp and simmer 30 minutes more uncovered. (If using oysters, add with seafood.) Add brown sugar and lemon juice. Serve in bowls over hot cooked rice (or dirty rice!) Sprinkle some Gumbo File, and more tobasco to taste in your bowl. Serves 20.
Just a note, add a variety of seafood..whatever you can find such as perch, talapia, redfish, catfish etc. use canned crabmeat and whole oysters with their juices. This recipe sounds like it makes a lot, but each day it gets better and better and you'll eat it all. We eat it alone like a soup unless of course we have dirty rice.
