Three’s Hawaiian Seafood Gumbo

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

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.