Shrimp Gumbo

Shrimp gumbo is a a classic dish from Louisiana. All soups and stews are comforting but this is even better since you can make it all your own, however you want to. You don't have to make it with shrimp, try it with chicken or both, or no meat at all. You can add anduille sausage as well, to give it a nice smokey flavor. This rich stew is great to eat on that cold, cold evening while you watch the sun set. Get your blood running hotter by putting in a few dashes of tabasco sauce.

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 pounds shrimp
* 2 tablespoons oil or butter
* 3 tablespoons flour
* 2 1/2 cups okra, chopped
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 1 rib of celery
* 2 tablespoons oil
* 1 can tomatoes
* 1 bell pepper diced
* 2 quarts water or fish/chicken stock
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3 gloves garlic (optional)
* Red pepper (optional)

How To Make:

Peel shrimp uncooked and devein. Make dark roux with the flour and butter by melting the butter in a large pan and sprinkling the flour in, whisking until combined and until the butter and flour mixture darken. Add shrimp to this for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside. Cook up the onions, okra and celery with the oil and add tomatoes and pepper when okra is nearly cooked. Then add water, bay leaf, garlic, salt, and pepper. Add shrimp mixture to this. Stir together to mix and cover and cook slowly for 30 minutes.
Serve with rice.

Meatloaf

Oh man, nothing satisfies my grumbling belly more than a plate of meatloaf with gravy. I can even eat it cold the next day (if there is a next day). Now ketchup is the traditional topper for meatloaf but be inventive, try more sweeter sauce, like barbecue sauce, or try a nice melted cheese topper. Whatever you like! Alright, enough talking, here's the meatloaf recipe.


Ketchup and Tomato Sauce:
Oil (canola/vegetable/olive oil)
1 medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
1 large red bell peppers, finely diced
2 tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 cup of mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
12-ounce bottle ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Meatloaf:
3-4 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into chunks by hand
1/4 cup whole milk
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs
Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 or 3 hard boiled eggs, pealed (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the sauce:
Coat a skillet with the oil and place over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and bay leaves for a few minutes. Add the red pepper and cook until softened. Add the tomatoes and stir in the parsley, ketchup, and Worcestershire; season with salt and pepper. Let sauce simmer for 5 minutes. Remove it from the heat.

For the meatloaf:
Place the torn pieces of bread in a bowl with the milk and mix until they are incorporated (adding more milk if needed). Let sit.
Now, in a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef and pork with 1 - 1 1/2 cups of the ketchup sauce, the two eggs, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread and add the soaked bread to the meat mixture. Use your hands to mix it, makes it much better to judge its consistency. Take a little piece and fry it up (to taste that it has enough seasoning and that it is well incorporated.)

Lightly oil a cookie sheet (or use a real loaf pan). Transfer half the meat mixture to the center of the cookie sheet and place the hard boiled eggs in the middle, lengthwise, and place other half of meat on top and form into a log about 9 inches long and about 4 inches wide. Coat the top of the meatloaf with another 1/2 cup of the tomato ketchup sauce.

Bake the meatloaf for about 1 1/2 hours until the meatloaf is firm. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and let it cool a bit before slicing. Serve with the remaining ketchup sauce on the side. The hard boiled eggs give a nice presentation when you cut into it. You can serve this with mashed potatoes and gravy, mac and cheese, or roasted vegetables (to make it healthy...)