Louisiana Seafood Gumbo

Ingredients

• 2 pounds large shell-on shrimp
• 1 pound lump crabmeat, picked over
• 1 pint shucked oysters with their liquor
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 large onions, finely diced
• 2 green bell peppers, finely diced
• 4 celery ribs, finely diced
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 cups seafood stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon file powder
• 6 cups cooked long-grain white rice

Before you cook

• Peel and devein the shrimp, saving the shells for the stock, and refrigerate the shrimp meat.
• Simmer the shrimp shells in the seafood stock for 20 minutes, then strain and keep the stock hot.
• Dice the onions, bell peppers and celery fine and keep them together in one bowl.
• Pick through the crabmeat for shell fragments.

Steps

1. Heat the oil in a heavy cast-iron Dutch oven over medium heat until it thins and ripples.
2. Whisk in the flour all at once and keep whisking to break up every lump.
3. Stir the roux constantly for 30 to 40 minutes, never walking away, until it turns the deep brown of milk chocolate.
4. Watch for black flecks, and if you see them, throw the roux out and start again.
5. Dump the onions, peppers and celery into the hot roux all at once, which stops the browning.
6. Cook the vegetables in the roux for 8 minutes, stirring, until they collapse.
7. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
8. Add the hot seafood stock one ladle at a time, stirring each addition smooth before adding the next.
9. Add the bay leaves, thyme, paprika, cayenne, black pepper and salt.
10. Bring the gumbo to a simmer and cook uncovered for 1 hour, skimming the oil that rises.
11. Taste the gumbo and correct the salt and cayenne now, while there is still time.
12. Add the shrimp and simmer for 4 minutes, until they turn pink and firm.
13. Add the oysters with their liquor and cook for 2 minutes, just until their edges ruffle.
14. Fold in the crabmeat as gently as possible and heat it through for 1 minute.
15. Take the pot off the heat and stir in the scallions and parsley.
16. Sprinkle the file powder over the surface and stir it in once, off the heat.
17. Ladle the gumbo over scoops of hot white rice in wide bowls.