Recipe - Jessamines Crab Gumbo

1 pound Claw crab meat; fresh
preferred
1 cn Okra
1 cn Stewed tomatoes; (Cajun or
Mexican)
2 One half cup Chicken broth
1/8 teaspoon Soda; To counteract acid in
tomatoes & okra. When hot,
will fizz
2 cn (16 oz) water
1 Onion; chopped
1 Stalk celery; chopped
1 Green bell pepper; coarsely
chopped
6 Cloves garlic
4 tablespoon Bacon grease*
3 tablespoon Flour; plus a little
One fourth cup File powder
One fourth teaspoon Thyme; or to taste
Salt
Pepper
Tabasco sauce (or other hot
pepper sauce); to taste

* You can use cooking oil, but the original recipe called for bacon grease,
and I think it's better.

Put tomatoes, okra, chicken broth, and water and thyme in large pot. If
crab is frozen, add it now. To make roux, melt bacon grease in heavy
skillet. Add garlic, onion, & celery to skillet. Cook on medium heat til
onion is clear do not brown. Add flour to onion mixture. Cook on low to
medium heat. Stir occasionally (later, frequently). Add salt (just a
little) and pepper (not too much), and soda to tomatoes. Keep cooking roux
until onions are an even, dark amber color. Mother always said "Cook 'til
just before it burns." It's very important to use less flour than grease
or gumbo will taste of flour. Turn off roux. Add some of tomato mixture to
roux, stir. If using fresh crab, add to tomato mixture now. Add roux to
tomato/crab mixture. Add chopped bell peppers. Add file, ("until it looks
like it doesn't want any more"). Most gumbo recipes do not add file until
after cooking. It is said to make gumbo "stringy". I've never found that to
be so. Add more water if needed. Add Tabasco. ( Watch it here. Some people
like their gumbo really hot, others don't. I put in a few drops and then
put the Tabasco on the table.) Simmer covered one hour. Correct seasonings
~ simmer a few minutes more. Make a day ahead, if possible. It's better the
next day. Serve over rice. The most important things are to use bacon
grease, not oil, to use less flour than grease, and to cook file with
gumbo. Mother's original recipe does not call for celery or green pepper,
but I like it. Also, hers called for canned tomatoes. I use canned stewed
Cajunstyle tomatoes.

Serving Ideas : Serve over rice

NOTES : My mother's basic recipe with some changes. This is definitely a
dish to experiment with. Gumbo is one of those dishes that you develop a
"feel" for. Can, of course, add shrimp, oysters, or any other stuff
people put in gumbo. Use more or less of anything you like or don't
like. I use chicken broth because it's handy. If you have seafood stock,
so much the better. This recipe uses claw crab meat. If you're lucky
enough to have crab bodies, put them in! We have a set of antique silver
spoons, which have been "the gumbo spoons" in our family for years. They
are just regular soup spoons, but they are a bit rounder and deeper than
presentday soup spoons. Note to RecipeLu: This gumbo breaks several
traditional gumbo rules, but it's the way we like it best. First, instead
of equal parts of grease (or oil) and flour for the roux, we use a bit less
flour than oil. Keeps the roux from tasting too "floury." Second, we use
both okra and file. Third,. against almost all (but not all) recipes I have
seen, we put the file in from the beginning. The conventional wisdom is
that it becomes "ropey" but we don't find that that happens.)
Recipe by: Jessamine Hale Birdwell (by Lou)

Posted to recipeludigest Volume 01 Number 412 by Lou Parris
lbparris@earthlink.net on Dec 28, 1997