Name: Shrimp, Crab, and Okra Gumbo
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients: ½ cup vegetable oil; 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced; ½ cup flour; 2 scallions, chopped (green parts only); 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped; ½ cup chopped green bell pepper; 2 cups rice, boiled until al dente; 1 pound peeled shrimp; 5 whole allspice; ½ teaspoon ground or, preferably, grated nutmeg; 4 cloves; 1 tablespoon vinegar; Cayenne; Salt; 1 crumbled bay leaf; 6 sprigs thyme; 1 pound okra, topped and tailed; 1 pound fresh blue crabs, smashed with a cleaver; 4 cups water; 1 kielbasa, sliced; 2 canned Italian tomatoes, seeded and chopped

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Cook’s Canon

By Raymond Sokolov

Published 2003

About

Okra and gumbo are both words from West African languages imported by slaves to this hemisphere along with okra itself (in French okra is gombo, its botanical name is Abelmoschus esculentus).^* On this side of the Atlantic, the okra belt stretches from Brazil to the American Old South, where slavery flourished and left behind a bitter legacy, bitter except in its musical and culinary contributions to the larger cul