Fourth of July and Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible's Real Deal Gumbo

I love the Fourth of July for a number of reasons.  One is that it is right smack in the middle of the summer and gives you a reason to celebrate country, family, friends, and fireworks.   Second is that it gives you license to eat yummy food with the Food Police's blessing.   This year we decided to celebrate at my Dad's pool  with Husband Fred, Food Police, Son-in-Law, and Crazy Aunt Susie.  You know it is a party if Crazy Aunt Susie is in attendance!!  I must do a blog post on Susie!!  She is something else. 

Our menu was simple - Susie's wonderful ribs, crock pot pulled pork sandwiches and vinegar slaw from www.southernplate.com, potato salad, and Food Police's Healthy Corn Salad and Publix's Key Lime Pie.  I am surprised she let us have Key Lime Pie.  That is the best doggone pie I have ever had. If you have not had one, you must go get one right now.  They even have mango-key lime pie.  I getting off subject.  I must be hungry!

After gorging ourselves, we decided to head out to the pool.  Now this family is competitive, and no gathering would be complete without a little sports action.  I had purchased a pool volleyball set that had a bonus basketball goal.  We got it situated, divided up into unfair teams of the young vs the old, and got the game started.  Well.....can you say we should have hired an athletic trainer for this event to treat the injuries that occurred??  It reminded me of the movie - Meet the Parents - when they are all in the pool playing volleyball, the game gets heated, and Ben Stiller's character spiked the ball and broke the soon-to-be bride's nose!!  Son-in-Law must have thought it would be oh so funny to spike the ball as well.  He didn't count on spiking it right into my chest.  For a split second, I thought I was in ventricular defibrillation.  I couldn't catch my breath for a minute or so, but I recovered, gave him the old teacher evil eye, and said "OK Buddy!!  Game on!"  I get mad any time my team is losing.  We were losing in dramatic fashion this day so at one point I got even madder when I couldn't hit a ball back and instead of throwing it lady-like back to the young ones, I proceeded to heave it across the net and hit Food Police right in the face!!  Needless to say, she thought I did it on purpose.  She started screaming "Concussion!", and I started screaming "Ventricular fibrillation!"  Daddy started screaming "Stop yelling!!  A nice preacher man lives behind me!"  I asked "What does it matter if a preacher lives behind you Daddy?"  He replied "I don't want him to think we are heatherns!"  Really!!  What would make him possibly think that??!! The game continued, and the oldies lost in a bad way!!

Then Son-in-Law had the grand idea to transform the volleyball net into a basketball goal.  He wanted to play HORSE.  Now his idea of HORSE is to jump off the diving board and shoot the ball or run along the side of the pool, jump, and dunk the ball in dramatic fashion.  I said "Nope! I am out!!  I know my limitations!!"  Husband Fred, on the other hand, thought he could go toe-to-toe with a 29 year old ex-high school basketball star.  I tried to talk him out of it by reasoning with him, but that only made him want to do it more.  I thought to myself  "This ought to be good!"  Well, Husband Fred hung in there pretty well until the showboating started.  Son-in-Law made the shot where he started out of the pool, ran 3 or 4 steps, leaped, dunked, and landed gracefully in the water.   Husband Fred, of course, missed the shot and landed hard on his right leg in the pool while at the same time creating a tsunami.  For a minute, I thought he had for sure broken his leg.  He had this weird look on his face like the time he sat on the ceramic Christmas tree star in the attic and made a huge puncture hole in his buttocks, but that is another story for another day.  I examined him and decided that he had aggravated his knee which he had already aggravated at Body Pump but that is another story too.  He limped out of the pool, sat down, and asked for the Ibuprofen.  Really????  I shook my head and headed up to the house to eat some Key Lime Pie.

Now on to the recipe...........I decided I would cook out of  Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible.  Can I say that this one fantastic cookbook??  Man oh man!!  I still using the Eeny Meeny Miny Mo Game to select what I will cook.  This time "it" chose The Real Deal Gumbo, and Paula is right!!  It is the real deal.  I have eaten a lot of wonderful gumbo in my day, and this recipe stands up against any of them.

Here she is in all her glory!!  This picture looks a little small!  Sorry I was messing around with my I-Phone and Instagram!!

You will need shrimp, smoked sausage, butter, garlic, onion, bell pepper, flour, okra, and chicken broth.  I forgot to put the Cajun seasoning in the picture.  Good grief.

Saute the okra for about 3 minutes to get rid of the slime!  I hate okra slime!

While the okra is de-sliming, chop up a bell pepper, an onion, and 3 cloves of garlic.

You get to make a roux by mix cooking flour and butter.  It takes about 5 minutes to get it this color.

First, you add the chopped onion, bell pepper, and garlic to the roux and cook for 2 minutes.  Then you add the rest of the ingredients minus the shrimp, and cook for 20 minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.  I added a can of diced tomatoes at this point.  She did not have this in her recipe but I have always had tomatoes in gumbo!

Add the shrimp for the last few minutes and simmer until they turn this pretty pink color.

 

Here is the finished product.  I served it over rice, and it was delicious.  This is going in the recipe rotation.

Now here's the recipe......

The Real Deal Gumbo

Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible

1 T vegetable oil

1 C chopped okra, fresh or thawed frozen

3 T butter

3 T all-purpose flour

1 large yellow onion, chopped

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

1 T chopped garlic

*I added a can of diced tomatoes.*

4 C chicken broth

3/4 pound smoked sausage, chopped ( I used Turkey sausage)

1 tsp Cajun Seasoning

Salt and black pepper

1 pound, large shrimp, peeled and deveined

4 C cooked rice, for serving

Hot sauce, for serving

In a small skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. 
Add the okra and cook, stirring frequently until no longer slimy, about 3 minutes.  Set aside.

In a large suacepan, met the butter over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until it is a light chocolate color, about 5 minutes.

Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the okra,  broth, sausage, and Cajun seasoning and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Add the shrimp and simmer until they are pink and cooked through.  Serve over the rice.  Pass hot sauce at the table.

Now go have a great day......