Sunday, February 15th - Spicy Creole Shrimp Gumbo

Breakfast/Brunch was at Elements Urban Tapas Lounge. The service sucks. I cannot emphasise that enough. It sucks. Robbie is a rude manager. We were sat at the bar which was bumped every two minutes. The food is good which is why we go back. I had their famous Stuffed French Toast. It's stuffed with a hunk of brie wrapped in smoked salmon. Well, the menu is black forest ham and they charged me 4 bucks extra for the salmon. Actually, they originally told me 3 and then told me after the fact that they'd charge me 4. Nice. D had the Montreal Smoked Mean Eggs Benny. The eggs were done perfectly and their little potato cake they serve with is great!

Dinner was Spicy Creole Shrimp Gumbo.

SERVES: 4-5

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup vegetable oil (not olive oil)
1/4 cup flour (now that it's done. I might have added more flour to make it thicker. this was slightly thicker than chili)
1/3 white onion, minced
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped or 1T dry
1/3 cup sliced green onion (2-3 green onions. I left one for the top)
1/3 cup chopped celery, two stalks
4 pods of diced garlic
2 cups veggie broth, i used a cube
3 cups fresh okra, sliced (half a pound. I probably used more cuz i luvs okra)
1 large cans (28 ounces each) tomatoes, mushed with your hand. use 2 fresh tomatoes if you like but then add an extra cup of water.
2T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 T Louisiana hot sauce
1 teaspoons dried sage
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme and a few sprigs of fresh if you have it
1 tsp salt
1 jalapeno..(optional)
1 teaspoon ground red pepper or cayenne (this is to my taste and it was mild at best)
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 pound any white fish cut in 1inch cubes (firmish to firm)
3 cups freshly steamed rice or any grain to serve it on.
Garnish
Parsley sprigs or green onion

PREPARATION:
Heat a dutch oven or heavy crockery pot. Cook over medium-high for 20 minutes, stirring constantly, until roux is dark brown. I went to tan because I was afraid of burning. Be very careful to keep the roux from scorching (you can add a little more oil to make sure it doesn’t)
Add chopped onions, chopped parsley, celery, carrots, green onions and garlic to roux
Cook over medium-high heat 5 to 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Add broth, tomatoes, okra, Worcestershire sauce, Louisiana hot sauce, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, sage, salt and red and black pepper. Cover, simmer two hours (1 hour will do if you don't have the time. The heavy pot will keep heat so 3-4 on the dial that goes to 10 is fine. Stirring occasionally. Add shrimp and fish and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaves.

Serve over hot cooked rice. or barley or couscous or with cornbread.