Today is Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans and a time of celebration. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday and represents a feasting day before the Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday for Christians. New Orleans celebrates Mardi Gras each year with parades featuring beautiful floats. The colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold and many locals and tourists dress in costumes and share these colorful beads. This year people are decorating their homes as house floats since the parade is cancelled because of Covid.
Serving great cajun and creole food is a tradition in New Orleans and seafood gumbo is standard fare. My Shrimp and Sausage Gumbo is hearty, flavorful and bursting with taste. It’s filled with lots of vegetables like onion, green peppers, celery, tomatoes and garlic. You can also add gumbo file powder or okra to help thicken this dish. I make a beige colored roux in a separate pot to thicken it. Let this gumbo cook for at least an hour so all of the flavors meld. Serve it with rice and cornbread. Happy Cooking!
Ingredients
Instructions
-
Chop up onion, bell pepper, and celery into small chunks. Mince up garlic. Slice up Italian sausage into bite sized pieces. Dice up bacon. In a large dutch oven pot add 2 T oil and bacon and turn heat on medium high for 2 minutes. Add all vegetables except garlic to pan. Sauté for 2 minutes stirring frequently.
-
Add sausage and cook till browned for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic, tomatoes, chicken broth, cajun seasoning, thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to pot and stir. Bring pot to a gentle boil and turn down to low heat to let it simmer. Stir pot occasionally.
-
Make a roux in a separate pot by melting butter and whisking in flour until a paste forms. Let roux cook on medium heat until lightly browned, at least 10-15 minutes. Add roux to dutch oven pot.
-
Continue simmering gumbo for 1 hour. Add shrimp to dish during last 10 minutes of cooking time. Serve with rice and cornbread.
