“I know that in Louisiana, “first you roux” — flour and fat slowly browned until the mixture has a nut-like flavor — for their gumbos, but I never use one. There are two camps on how to thicken a gumbo. One camp maintains that filé powder, made from the dried leaves of the sassafras tree, is the only proper thickener. The other believes that okra is the only way to go. I’m with the okra people.”1
Vertamae Smart Grosvenor
Ingredients
2 pounds large shrimp
2 cups water
½ pound smoked sausage
1 small yellow onion
2 celery stalks
1 green bell pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 pound okra
1 can (28 ounces) tomatoes
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Cayenne pepper to taste
Proper Geechee Rice
4 scallions
Handful of fresh parsley sprigs
Instructions
Peel the shrimp, reserving the shells. Make a shallow incision along the back of each shrimp and lift out and discard the vein-like tract. Cover and refrigerate the shrimp.
Place the shrimp shells in a saucepan and add the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve. Set the stock aside.
Cut the sausage into ¼-inch-thick slices. Chop the onion and celery, and seed and chop the bell pepper. Mince the garlic. Cut the okra into ¼-inch-thick rounds. Open the can of tomatoes and drain them. Chop the tomatoes.
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter with the olive oil. Add the sausage and fry until nicely browned on both sides, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove to a plate and set aside.
Add the onion, celery, bell pepper, and garlic to the skillet and sauté until softened, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the okra and the tomatoes and mix well. Pour in the shrimp stock and add the salt, black pepper, thyme, bay leaf, and cayenne to taste. Raise the heat to high. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until all the vegetables are soft, the mixture is thickened, and the flavors are blended, about 1 hour.
About 30 minutes before the gumbo is ready, cook the rice. Chop the scallions, including the tender green tops. Cut off and discard any tough parsley stems and chop the parsley.
Add the shrimp to the vegetables, stir well, re-cover, and cook until the shrimp turn pink and curl, about 8 minutes. Return the sausage to the pan and heat through. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Taste and adjust the seasonings with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
To serve, place the rice in individual shallow soup plates and spoon the gumbo over and around it. Sprinkle with scallions and parsley.
Serves 6
“About Gumbo: The word “gumbo” arrived in the South with the African slaves. It was their name for okra, a vegetable that had been prized in the Old World since prehistoric times. Over the years, the term evolved to where it more commonly was used for a stew made with the vegetable. But in certain Southern pockets, gumbo remains the name for both the tapered green pods and the stew. So when folks tell you they are making an okra gumbo, they are caught up in a culinary redundancy.”2
Vertamae Smart Grosvenor
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Footnotes
- Vertamae Grosvenor, “Shrimp & Sausage Gumbo,” in Vertamae Cooks in The Americas’ Family Kitchen (San Francisco: KQED Books, 1996), 80. Available here.
- Ibid, 82.