Goodie, goodie, gumbo!

Cold winter nights have traditionally meant soup or chili at our house.  Tonight was that kind of night!!  Last night we enjoyed a wonderful fried oyster, boiled shrimp, crabmeat & hot butter meal.  Since I cooked enough shrimp for Cox's army, we had leftovers!!!  Now, my family is not made up of leftover eaters, so I have to get creative. All day long I was thinking about how good those shrimp tasted & how good some seafood gumbo would be.  Alas, I have never made gumbo.  The roux, the file', all that chopping...it just seemed daunting to me.

When finally home for the day, a quick trip to the internet and cooks.com yielded a seafood gumbo recipe that was really easy!  I fudged the ingredients a little as this was a "refrigerator/pantry" meal, but the outcome was outstanding!  We cooked rice to have with ours.  I also took some out before adding the seafood & made a small pot of chicken gumbo for our non-seafood eater!  Some crunchy rolls would have been good, but none in the kitchen :(

Seafood Gumbo (from cooks.com)

5 qts. water
2 bell peppers, chopped
2 c. celery, chopped
6 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce  -  I used 2 cans diced tomatoes & a can of Rotel for a browner gumbo
3 tbsp. black pepper
8 slices bacon, cut fine
3 c. green onions, chopped
3 lbs. shrimp, crabmeat or both  (I also added some leftover baked chicken)
1 cup flour
2 lg. onions, chopped
4 tbsp. garlic, chopped
3 tbsp. salt
3 tbsp. red pepper
3/4 c. parsley, chopped
10 pods fresh cut okra
7 or 8 tbsp. vegetable oil (or sausage or bacon grease)

Make a roux stirring vegetable oil and flour until well browned.  Add 2 cups water and stir.  Add 3 more cups water and all other ingredients.  Let cook until vegetables are done.  Add seafood 15 minutes before gumbo is ready and let cook.  Add more water if necessary.

My changes that worked:
no bell peppers
canned diced tomatoes instead of sauce
cooked bacon I had in the freezer
no green onions
some fresh garlic & some garlic powder
frozen breaded okra (yes!  it worked great)
chopped chicken and 2 chicken bullion cubes