Seafood Gumbo, Birdeye

Biscuit and the gooch....he's swatting the camera wrist holder swinging...

The key to the roux is watching it like a hawk (which drives me crazy)

The gumbo, the bowl looks like I've been eating outta it but
that's the first, fresh bowl......

The chopped ingredients....

This is my dining room table on a Monday morning.  This is
Jackie's way of being a blatant, cocky packer.  He expects me
to pack in a backpack, like this, for 11 days overseas coming up...
What the....????

Sunday, March 20, 2010

What a beautiful day!  After church we all worked in the yard and then I worked on cleaning out my freezer.  Even though it was a little warm today, I made the perfect thing for gettin rid of your freezer, a pot of gumbo.  I have a bad reputation in the past of burning the roux.  This go round, I watched the clock and the followed Terry's recipe to a "t" (except for substitutions you'll see below).   It was easy and low-fat (until I added a polska kielbasa that was in the freezer for 6 months).

Seafood Gumbo, Terry Conlan's Lean Star Cuisine

3 T. vegetable oil
1/4 C. flour
6 cloves garlic, minced (I used 9)
3/4 C. green pepper, diced small (I used 6 small pablanos from my freezer, thawed)
3/4 C. celery, diced small (I only had 3 stalks so I chopped the tops too)
1-1/2 C. onion, diced small
1 lb fresh okra (I used 1 lb frozen, thawed)
1 C. chopped parsley (I didn't have this, so I used cilantro)
4 C. chopped tomatoes (I used 28 oz. can diced tomatoes in juice)
1 small can tomato paste
1 t. Tabasco
1 T. Worcestershire Sauce
1 t. thyme
2 bay leaves
2 quarts seafood stock (I didn't have and substituted 2 bottles clam juice and the rest chicken broth)
1-1/2 lbs. seafood, fish, shrimp, clams (I only had 1/2 lb shrimp so I added 1 lb seared a kielbasa and 1 organic chicken breast, ironic I know with that sausage)
*Cook a pot of rice to accompany gumbo as well as plenty of Tabasco

Cook the oil and flour in a small saucepan over medium low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring constantly.  (Recipe says to cover and stir constantly, but how can you?  So I stirred for 30 minutes and added the veggies and moved on)  The color will go from light to caramel to walnut to dark chocolate.  Don't let it burn, you'll have to start over.  (This roux only went to walnut color, btw)

Have your veggies close at hand and just when you think the roux can't possibly darken any further, add them all at once.  Turn off the heat and stir until all the veggies are well coated.

Heat the stock to boiling in a large pot while roux is cooking, and whisk in the roux/veggie mixture.  Add the parsley (cilantro), tomato products and seasonings and simmer for 45 minutes.

Briefly saute the sliced okra in a skillet using cooking spray.  Add to the gumbo and simmer for 30 minutes.  Just before serving, add the Worcestershire and seafood and cook for 5 minutes and serve.

I served with brown rice.

60 calories, 1.5 grams per 3/4 cups serving.  Add fat grams for the kielbasa.