Spectacular Seafood Gumbo Recipes

The Recipe

Time to Make

Prep time: 45 minutes. Total time: 3 hours.

The Ingredients

1 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 large bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
1 lb. crab meat, pick over carefully
3 lbs. shrimp, peeled & deveined
1 pint oysters (& liquor)
2 cans (10 oz. each) tomatoes
4 bay leaves
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 packages frozen okra (bags, not bricks)
1 tsp. ground ginger
6 cups water
gumbo filé

Making it a Meal!

In a large stock pot, add butter and flour. Make a dark brown roux, but be careful not to burn. Add bell pepper, celery, onion and garlic; stir well. As the vegetables begin to sweat, add the tomatoes with the liquid, water and the oyster liquor (any liquid with the oysters). Add all the spices (except the gumbo filé) and bring to a boil. Add okra and simmer for 1 hour, stirring frequently from the bottom to prevent sticking.

Add shrimp and simmer for 30 minutes. Add oysters and crab; simmer for 15 minutes longer. Serve over rice and sprinkle with filé powder.

Celebrating National Gumbo Day

I may have missed the official date by a few days, but National Gumbo Day in the United States is on October 12th! Forbes certainly didn’t forget the date though and wrote a great article this year about six different ways to enjoy gumbo. What’s better is that almost all of them are seafood gumbos! Every variation is from a different state, with one from a restaurant in Portland, Oregon! This just goes to show how the dish has spread across the continent, as we have our own variations all the way over here in Alberta!

The first in the list is whole crab & shrimp gumbo from New York City. Served at the Filé Gumbo Bar, this variation includes a whole blue crab, as well as shrimp, rice, and gremolata. Then we have a smoked duck & andouille gumbo from Nashville, Tennessee. The Gumbo Bros serves this one with okra, rice, green onions, and hot sauce. Next is Creole seafood gumbo from Screen Door in Portland. Their chefs use blue crab, gulf shrimp, red snapper, andouille sausage, and local oysters served with steamed rice and scallions.

From Fleet Landing in Charleston, South Carolina, we have ‘Lowcountry gumbo’. This variation, a cousin to the New Orleans one, uses a medley of fish and shellfish along with andouille sausage, onion, green pepper, celery, okra, and rice. Ms. Peach’s in Sterling, Virginia has what they call, “classic gumbo”. This one includes a small twist: turkey sausage instead of andouille. Lastly on the list, we have seafood gumbo from The Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans, featuring Louisiana shrimp, crab, crawfish, and andouille sausage served over popcorn rice. Their Executive Chef, Thierry Connault, provided a quite profound quote regarding gumbo: “In our kitchen, gumbo is a labor of love. It’s where our team’s passion meets tradition, and every stir of the pot carries the spirit of New Orleans. We don’t just follow recipes—we honor legacies. Gumbo brings us together, and we pour our hearts into every bowl.”

If you want to read the article yourself and/or find out more, you can find it here.

What's New and Exciting!

A Small Bowl of Greenish Gumbo with Shrimp

A Bowl of Shrimp Gumbo with Parsley Garnish

My favourite picnic spot for enjoying gumbo is a lovely little place in Millenium Park, St. Albert. It’s a very green spot during the summer, right next to the Sturgeon River, with a pedestrian suspension bridge nearby. It’s usually not too busy here, and the park is well maintained. To get here, just follow the St. Albert Trail North. Eventually you’ll see St. Anne Street on the left. Turn there, and then once you get to a roundabout, go right to the St. Anne Promenade. Millenium Park is on your right! You can find a link to the location on Google Maps here.