Creole Okra Gumbo Recipe - Creole Gumbo with Shrimp | Hank Shaw (2024)

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Course: Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: American, Creole

Servings: 8 people

Prep Time: 1 hour hour

Cook Time: 3 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

• ▢ 2 to 4 deer shanks or other similar meat (about 3 to 4 pounds)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• ▢ Salt
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon cayenne or red pepper flakes, (or a few dried hot peppers, broken)
• ▢ 2 bay leaves
• ▢ 2 tablespoons paprika, smoked if possible
• ▢ 12 ounces shrimp, with peels
• ▢ 2 tablespoons bacon fat, lard or vegetable oil
• ▢ 1 pound okra, sliced
• ▢ 1 yellow onion, chopped
• ▢ 2 stalks celery, chopped
• ▢ 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• ▢ 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ▢ 1 to 3 Scotch bonnet (habanero) pepper, minced (optional)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups tomato puree, fire-roasted if possible
• ▢ 1/2 pound crabmeat (optional)
• ▢ 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• ▢ Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• ▢ Gumbo file, to taste (sassafras leaf powder)

• Preheat the oven to 400F. Coat the shanks or other meat with a thin sheen of oil, then salt well. Arrange in a roasting pan. Roast in the oven for 1 hour.

• Remove the roasting pan and add the shanks to a large soup pot. Cover with water and turn the heat to medium-high. Add some water to the roasting pan and, when it has loosened up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan, use a wooden spoon to scrape them off. Add all that to the soup pot. Stir in the cayenne, bay leaves and paprika and bring to a simmer. Add salt to taste, then cook gently for 1 hour.

• After 1 hour, add the shells from all the shrimp to the soup pot. You will likely need a total of 3 hours to render deer shanks tender, but most other meats won't take that long.

• When the shanks are reasonably tender, get a large frying pan out and heat 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat over medium-high heat. Arrange the sliced okra in the pan and sear hard without stirring for 5 minutes. Stir, then let them cook like this another 5 minutes. You want a little char and lots of browning.

• Add the chopped onion, celery and green bell pepper and keep searing on high for another 3 to 5 minutes. Now it's time to add the garlic and Scotch bonnet peppers, if you are using them. Cook all this for another 2 minutes, stirring often, then turn off the heat.

• Pull the meat off the bones of the deer shanks and shred into pieces you'd want to eat in gumbo. Strain the broth the meat cooked in. Wipe out the soup pot and return the strained broth into it, along with the shredded meat and the vegetables in the frying pan. Stir well and taste for salt.

• Add the dried thyme, the tomato puree and let this cook 20 minutes. Add the shrimp and and crabmeat, if using, and let this cook 5 minutes. Stir in the chopped parsley and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Add about a tablespoon of gumbo file if you're using it. Serve over rice or with grits.