I’m a big fan of cajun/creole food. I really like red beans and rice, muffaletta sandwiches, and andouille sausages. I watched Alton Brown make Shrimp Gumbo on an episode of Good Eats on Netflix at one point. I decided that I would attempt to make it.

I got the recipe from an episode of Good Eats. The written recipe can be found here. I really like Alton Brown’s overall approach to food education on this show. He does a great job of not only giving step-by-step instructions for a recipe, but focuses equally on the culture of the food, the techniques for preparing it, how to properly store ingredients, etc. I could seriously go on for a long time about why I like his show. Suffice to say, there will be quite a few Good Eats recipes posted here eventually.

For those in the Quad Cities area, a good source of seafood (shrimp, in this case) is The Great Midwest Seafood Company. I’ve purchased frozen, de-veined shirmp and various other sea creatures from them in the past and would highly recommend them, both for the quality and prices.

I bought brown rice from HyVee to go with the gumbo. I cooked it according to the package directions. I trust you can do this with a rice that you like from the store.

Without embellishing, I can easily say this was really good gumbo. I have made it since this initial attempt, and will likely make it again.