Cajun Gumbo – How to make Classic Cajun Gumbo

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup Cooking Oil
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 Chopped Onion
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
4 Cups Water
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon Louisiana Hot Sauce
1 Cup Chopped Celery
1 Chopped Bell Pepper
3/4 lb Andouille Sausage
12 oz. Okra
1-2 lbs Shrimp
12 oz. Crawfish Tails
2 1/2 teaspoons Salt

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Hello and welcome to rustic recipes today I’m going to show you how to make a classic Cajun gumbo when doing research for this recipe I find that there’s a lot of opinions about what does go into a gumbo and what does not go into a gumbo and the farther back I

Dig for recipes I find just as much variation to the old recipes as what I see today and that’s because like a lot of old recipes this is a dish that has its origins in many home kitchens so finding consistencies across all these old recipes is real challenge and

That makes it very difficult to say what is an authentic style gumbo and what isn’t so what I’m going to show you today is just one variation of the classic Cajun gumbo recipe so let’s get started we’re gonna start by making a roux but before we get going with that

Make sure your onion is already chopped up and ready to go you don’t want to have to stop and do that when you’re ready to add it for our Roux we want to use a heavy pan I’m going to do everything right here in my Dutch oven

So if you don’t have a heavy pan you can start off with a heavy skillet and then transfer it to a large stockpot after the roux is done first we want to heat up our pan so set this on a high heat and let it get hot

Once that pot is hot we’ll put in our cooking oil 3/4 of a cup now we’ll start mixing in our flour one-and-a-half cups total I like to start with a whisk to keep it from lumping up right at the start and then switch to a wooden spoon

Once that gets going you want to turn the heat down to a medium high you don’t want to cook this too fast or you can burn that flower very easily you’re gonna need to cook this for about 20 minutes or so until it’s a nice dark brown about the color of a dark

Chocolate milk while this is cooking do not walk away from it and don’t let it sit unstirred for too long or it will burn in my research I came across a lot of opinions about ruse some said that you can’t make a Cajun roux with olive oil other recipes specifically call for

Olive oil honestly any cooking oil will do fine some folks also recommend cooking the roux on a high heat but I think that’s just a really good way to burn your roux and have to start all over and if you burn that root your gumbo is just gonna taste bad so stick

With the medium to medium-high heat and take your time now there’s also some old recipes for gumbo that don’t start with a roux and I’m sure a lot of people today would say well that’s just not a real gumbo then but I think it all boils

Down to what you grew up with and what you’ve been taught now once your roux is nice and dark turn your heat off and add your onions in that thick pan we’ll hold the heat and continue to cook the onions keep stirring until those onions are looking translucent

Now I had a teaspoon of garlic powder and stir that in for a minute and now it’s time to transfer to a larger pot if you need to is we’re gonna add four cups of water now two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and some Louisiana Hot Sauce about a teaspoon ish

Now I’m not adding much more spice than that for a few reasons one the earlier recipes didn’t call for a lot of spice and two my sausage and the crawdads that I’m using already have a bit of spice in them and I know some people like to go

All out on the spices but if this is your first time making this I suggest you hold off it’s very easy to overdo it instead let the flavor of your ingredients come through you can always add some kick to it on your plate when you serve it up and next time you make

It if you want it spicier by all means go for it now I’m gonna add my chopped celery and my chopped bell pepper now I’ve chopped these quite fine but you can cut yours coarser if you prefer you’ll also notice that I didn’t saute these before putting them in some

Recipes call for it others don’t it’s up to you and now the okra now this is a 12 ounce package of frozen okra if you’re not a fan of the okra leave it out it won’t hurt nothing but again there are folks that’ll say you can’t have a

Gumbo without the okra don’t listen to them if you don’t like it don’t put it in now we can add the sausage this is three-quarters of a pound of andouille sausage this is a spicy smoked Cajun sausage I haven’t browned this up in a pan or

Anything but you can if you like if you can’t find the Unduli sausage you can substitute some kielbasa or anything similar now I’m gonna let that all simmer for a few minutes then we can add the shrimp this is just over a pound of shrimp now for the

Crawfish this is 12 ounces of crawfish tails if you don’t want the crawfish you can add more shrimp or you can substitute crab meat whatever you like add two and a half teaspoons of salt now I’m going to top the pot off with four cups of wine I’m using a sweet Moscato

But any kind of sweet white wine would work or if you don’t want to use wine you can just add more water or use a chicken or seafood stock now we’ll bring all that up to a simmer and let it cook for 20 to 30 minutes when it’s done your

Shrimp should be nice and pink and your veggies all tender and tasty and there you go a nice classic Cajun gumbo serve that up on a bed of white rice and we that’s some goodie and right yeah anyway if you’ve enjoyed this recipe please be sure to leave a like and subscribe for

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