Shrimp and Salmon Gumbo

Brita and I were in the mood for some gumbo, and after going through a lot of recipes we just came up with our own. With Salmon :). After all we are from the Pacific Northwest.

-1/4 cup of canola oil
-6 tbsp of flour
-3 garlic cloves, chopped
-1 whole onion, chopped
-1 cup of celery, chopped
-1 cup of green bell pepper, chopped
-4 cups of vegetable broth
-4 cups of water
-2 tbsp (or so) of tomato paste
-1 tbsp salt (plus more to taste)
-1/2 tsp ground black pepper
-1 tsp dried thyme
-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
-2 bay leaves
-1 tsp cumin
-1 tsp celery seed
-1 tsp oregano
-1 tsp white pepper
-1 tsp dried basil
-1 lb of salmon (roasted in the oven heavily spiced with the following: Black pepper, Salt, White Pepper, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Cumin, Celery Seed, Paprika, Thyme, Oregano, Basil, and Cayenne Powder – oh and butter or oil)
-1 lb of shrimp
-2 Andouille sausages (optional really, but a nice addition we think – ours were chicken Andouille sausages from Trader Joe’s)
- extra optional is about 1/2-3/4 cup of heavy cream

-rice – great add in

Preheat oven to 350 F for your salmon to cook.

Add oil and flour to a dutch oven and cook over medium heat until the roux turns brown (think chocolate brown). Once roux is ready add garlic, onion, celery, green bell pepper and saute until veggies are soft, only a few minutes really. At this point we added our broth and our tomato paste, mixing until the paste seems well blended. Then add your spices, salt, black pepper, bay leaves, cumin, celery seed, oregano, white pepper and basil. Bring to a boil and then allow to simmer on low for about 20-25 minutes. At this point we sliced our Andouille sausages pretty thinly and put them into the pot for the 20 minute simmer time, we figure it would be nice to have those spices all simmer together.

Now you can go ahead and crust the salmon with spices, lay it on thick (within reason, remember the spices are just going to add to the flavor of the soup so you shouldn’t be shy, but you shouldn’t go crazy either). Place thin slices of butter or drizzle oil over the salmon, enough to keep things moist. Wrap in foil and place on the center rack of the oven for about 20 minutes. Just be sure salmon is opaque in the middle when testing for doneness.

When your 20-25 minutes of simmer time is up add your shrimp, and as soon as your salmon is done add large chunks of the salmon to the soup (it will break up a lot in the soup). Allow the soup to simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes. If you haven’t already get your rice going in your rice cooker. At the end, Brita expressed her desire for the soup to be creamier, so we added all the heavy cream I had, about 1/2-3/4 cup. Your soup is ready to eat as soon as your rice is!

This soup was yummy good I couldn’t stop eating it… I opted for more soup over dessert.