Name: Floyd’s Gumbo
Yield: Serves 4 as a Main course
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 1 oz (25 g) smoked pork or bacon, cubed; 2 sticks celery, chopped; 1½ teaspoons paprika; 1 bay leaf, crumbled; 1 teaspoon salt; 1½ teaspoons cayenne pepper; ½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper; 1 bay leaf; ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 leek; 8 oz (225 g) crab meat; Prawn shells and heads; About 2 oz (50 g) cooked rice per person to serve; 6 freshwater crayfish; 1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce; 10 oz (275 g) onions, chopped; 8 oz (225 g) green peppers, chopped; Oil for frying; 1 carrots; 10 fl oz (300 ml) puréed fresh tomatoes, strained Crab shells to flavour (optional); 2 sprigs parsley; 1 stick celery; 1 teaspoon crushed garlic; Black peppercorns; 2 boudins; 3 tablespoons filé powder (optional); 1 onion; 1 dozen oysters; 1 lb (450g) large prawns (reserve the shells and heads for the stock); Fish heads, tails and trimmings

Preparation info

Serves
4
as a Main course

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Floyd's American Pie

By Keith Floyd

Published 1989

About

Gumbo is a kind of spicy soup-cum-stew, served in bowls with a little rice, which can be eaten as a starter or a hearty main course, depending on the quantity you make. Its name was imported by the Africans in the dreadful days of slavery, and some people reckon that a traditional gumbo should have okra, or ladies’ fingers, in it; however, I don’t go along with that theory, and mine doesn’t! It does contain filé powder, made from sassafras leaves which turns into a kind of stringy substance