Surf & turf gumbo
This is my own expression of gumbo and it's a bit like the people of New Orleans: gregarious and out there. I loved what Leah Chase said to me when we made gumbo together: 'Dishing up a portion of gumbo is like going fishing . . . you get what you get.' I used beautiful blue crabs for this dish, but you can use prepared crabmeat. Make sure you make a nice dark roux and get the 'holy trinity' base of onions, peppers and celery really going, and you can then substitute prawns with crayfish or fish, and use any other type of cured sausage you like. It's the principle of the dish that counts, and swapping ingredients is just fine – in fact, that's sort of the point!
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 18 of 19 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 18 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Pork | 100g cooked | 242 |
| Chicken | 100g cooked | 165 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Shrimp | 100g cooked | 99 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Okra | 1 cup (100g) | 33 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Chili | 1 tsp (2.7g) | 8 |
| Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Celery | 1 stalk (40g) | 6 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Thyme | 1 tsp dried (1.4g) | 4 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Bay Leaf | 1 leaf (0.6g) | 2 |
| Parsley | 1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g) | 1 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Sauce | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 16-20 raw king prawns, from
- , ask your fishmonger, preferably shell on
- olive oil
- 500 g spicy cured sausage, sliced into 1cm rounds
- 3 litres organic chicken stock
- 5 heaped tablespoons plain flour
- 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 large green peppers, deseeded and finely chopped
- 3 stalks celery, trimmed and finely chopped
- 5 fresh bay leaves
- 1 small bunch fresh thyme, leaves picked
- 8 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
- 200 g okra, sliced into rounds
- 300 g picked crabmeat, from
- , ask your fishmonger, plus 4 claws if you can get hold of them
- 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 small bunch fresh curly parsley