2 cup chopped onions
2 cup green onions, chopped *
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped
6 cl garlic, chopped
6 7-oz catfish fillets, cut in
3 7-oz catfish fillets, for st
1 lb crab meat, (claw)
1 lb shrimp, (peeled)
1 1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup flour
4 qt hot water
1 salt, to taste
1 cayenne pepper, to taste
Directions
* separate and reserve greens.
In separate pot, simmer 3 (7 oz.) catfish fillets in 1 quart of
lightly salted water for 15 minutes. Strain through cheese cloth and
reserve liquid. Chop catfish and reserve meat. In heavy bottom gumbo
pot, add oil and flour. Cook over medium high heat stirring
constantly until golden brown. Caution, do not scorch!
Add all seasonings except green onions tops. Saute for 5 minutes.
Add all fish stock and chopped catfish. Add hot water, one ladle at a
time, until consistency of thick soup is achieved. Add claw crab
meat, and half of shrimp. Reduce to simmer. Cook approximately 45
minutes, stirring occasionally. Add catfish, remaining shrimp and
green onions tops. Cook 10-15 minutes. Season to taste using salt and
cayenne pepper. Add water if necessary to retain volume. Serve over
white rice.
Serves 10.
Servings: 10 servings
Cajun Catfish Gumbo Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cajun; Fish; Gumbo; Seafood; Soup
The History of Recipes
Written recipes as an idea can be traced far back into ancient history, in fact as far as the ancient Egyptians, and potentially, even further back. In practice though, sadly, these old cookbooks were just simple pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing food.
In an interesting twist, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to academics are some clay tablets in ancient Sumerian which describe the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made those who drank it feel `blissful`. As we move into The time of the roman empire around 25BC a man called Apicius compiled some scripts describing recipes cooked by wealthy roman citizens. He recounts how the roman meals were separated into hors d`oeuvres, main meal and dessert, something we still use today. He also recounts how the ancient cooks made use of a wide range of herbs, including a few that will be familiar to modern chefs like thyme, mint and asafoetida. Moving our culinary historical trip onwards, we have a couple of interesting recipe books which appeared in the 14th Century - a cookery book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another entitled `Curye on Inglish`. Don`t be fooled by the titles though, these books have no connection with the indian food that is familiar to us all today, but instead recipes for the types of meals served to the rich people of the period. In the 15th century, knights returning from the crusades brought us many foods and herbs from middle-east cuisine, such as coriander, basil and rosemary. These new culinary innovations caused an explosion in recipe manuscripts, most of which are kept safe in private collections. Over the next few hundred years, the rich families of Europe competed with each other to lay on the most extravagent meals, and because of this cooks and their recipes were much in demand. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the 19th century that fine cookery and recipe books reached a high level of popularity. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Farmer in the USA, dedicated the best years of their lives to assembling, verifying, and publishing recipes that were common in the better off homes of the day. When we get to the 1900s, recipe books were in high demand, mostly as a result of higher levels of literacy, people having more spare time and having more disposable income. The arrival of TV brought us cooking programs and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, allowing us all to search through massive numbers of recipes just like those on the site you are now reading. |
We hope you enjoy this Cajun Catfish Gumbo recipe.
