Three’s Hawaiian Seafood Gumbo

Prep time: 1hr Cook Time: 2.5 hrs. Yield: 1 gal or 13-10oz servings

Ingredients

1.5 Cup all purpose flour

¾ C vegetable oil

4 slices bacon

½ lb. Portuguese sausage chopped

½ lb. chicken diced large

1 yellow onion diced

1 green bell pepper diced

2 celery ribs diced

1 -16 oz can diced tomato with juice

1 tbsp garlic minced

1 tsp dried thyme

3 bay leafs

Worchesire

Tabasco or hot sauce

1 tbsp gumbo file

Seafood stock

3 qts chicken stock

1 # shrimp heads and shells or fish bones

Per order

1 tbsp chopped pohole fern

3 Kauai shrimp

1 tbsp crab meat

1 scoop rice

Procedure

Procedure

• The key to gumbo is a dark roux or browning the flour with fat (vegetable oil) until a dark milk chocolate like color and nutty aroma is achieved. This can take over an hour in a heavy duty pot with constant stirring to prevent burning. A great short cut is to brown the flour in the oven. Take the flour and pour it evenly on a sheet pan lined with parchment. Bake at 350 degree for one hour, stirring occasionally until dark golden brown in color.
• While flour is browning, infuse the stock. Start with a good quality chicken stock and add your seafood bones to it. Place pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Drop to a simmer and cook for 45 min and strain. The chicken adds body and seafood adds layers of flavor.
• In a large heavy duty pot add bacon and sausage and render until brown and crispy, using a slotted spoon remove meat. Add cooked flour to pot + additional vegetable oil. Cook over med high until dark brown- the color of chocolate. **NOTE- Roux can be burnt and it requires constant stirring, do not rush this process and be careful not to splash oil on yourself** At the point where roux looks almost too dark add chicken, onions, peppers, celery and garlic. This will keep the roux from over cooking. Cook for 5 minutes at medium heat.
• Add tomato and dried herbs and bring heat back up to high. Add stock slowly about 2 cups at a time to achieve a smooth consistency. Once all stock is added, bring to a boil, season with salt, pepper, hot sauce and worchesire to taste. Allow to simmer on very low for 2 hours to allow flavors to marry.
• Do a final seasoning and add gumbo file. This is your base, better cooked the day before.
• To serve. Heat small sauce pot over high heat. Add tbsp. vegetable oil and saute shrimp and pohole fern for 1 min. Add 10 oz gumbo base and bring to a boil. Ladle into soup bowl and serve with scoop of white rice, and crab meat on top.