Andouille Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo

I was sitting on the couch watching "Buying the Bayou" this past week and started craving me some Creole food. I love Creole and Cajun food. Something about those seasonings just makes my mouth water.

I remembered seeing a recipe in my Southern Living Magazine for Gumbo. So I started flipping through my magazine and sure enough there it was. I tweaked the recipe a bit not only for ingredient amounts but cooking technique. I will share with you my carelessness in the kitchen below.

Andouille Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo in the Slow Cooker

Ingredients
1/2 c flour (all purpose)
1 lb andouille sausage sliced
1 (14.5 oz can) diced tomatoes
1 large onion chopped
1 large green bell pepper chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
3 bay leaves
2 1/2 tsp Creole Seasoning
1/2 tsp dried thyme
4 c. Chicken Stock (you can use broth)
3 lbs peeled and deveined, large raw shrimp
1 bunch of green onions
1/4 chopped fresh flat leafed parsley
Garnish- more green onions

Directions

• In a sauce pan place flour on medium heat and stir constantly until flour lightly browns. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. (Now you can do this in the oven... you can preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Sprinkle your flour in a 9 inch cast iron skillet. Bake for 10-15 min until the flour is golden brown stirring once and then letting cool for 10 min).
• While the flour is "browning" cook sausage in a skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat, stirring occasionlly until browned. That is about 5-8 minutes. Drain on paper towel if it is bit greasy. Place the sausage in your slow cooker.
• Add tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, bay leaves, Creole Seasoning and thyme to the slow cooker as well. 
• Now whisk together browned flour and chicken stock until smooth and pour that into the slow cooker. Cover your slow cooker and cook on high for 5-6 hours. Your Gumbo will start to thicken as time goes on. Once your veggies become tender and Gumbo thickens you can add your shrimp, green onions, and parsley. This will be close to the 5 hour mark. Cook an additional 30  minutes. Discard bay leaves before serving. 

Now if you would like to serve your gumbo on some tasty rice, you can make up some rice.Then mix in some fresh chopped parsley into your rice and top it off with some of your tasty gumbo.

Now for my carelessness in the kitchen tidbit. I must confess, I tend to get distracted while cooking. I mean I have a two year old son. :)  Anyhow on the first step of this recipe when you have to brown your flour, it took me three attempts to get this step accomplished. I burnt the first batch. Second batch I mistakenly grabbed a plastic spoon instead of a wooden one and it melted my spoon. So I had to throw that batch out. As frustrating as it was at the time, I moved forward and achieved a tasty batch of gumbo.

I hope you give this recipe a try.