Great gumbo to go

Taking inspiration from New Orleans, she makes dish rich.
By LEAH ESKIN
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
You've provisioned the backpack: fresh socks, sharp crayons, sparkly notebook. You've filled out the tag: Girl, age 8. It's ready to accompany someone, somewhere. Someone hurricane-tousled. Somewhere unknown. Your own girl, age 8, has accounted for such uncertainty. All girls, she swears, like sparkles.
You wish the old backpack well. Here, it ferried many a soggy sandwich and crumpled art project. There, you hope it takes up the same line of work.
Packing the care package makes you feel better. It also makes you feel worse. Will the socks fit? Is this girl, 8, too old for crayons? How will she fill the pages between the sparkly covers? Perhaps with a story too heavy for the delicate scaffolding of dotted blue lines.
And so, you cook. In tribute: gumbo, that high-wind swirl of sweet and spicy, land and sea, north and south. It is, like a city staked below sea level, implausible and delicious.
All stews thrive on improvisation. But gumbo, by local statute, must begin with roux. Not the quick mix that thickens fancy sauce or plain mac and cheese. A Louisiana roux cooks down deep, dark and mysterious as mud. It can be conjured over low heat from flour and butter, given patience. It can be rendered over high heat from flour and oil, given nerve.
NEW ORLEANS TO GO GUMBO
1 pound medium shrimp in their shells
5 cups water
1 small yellow onion, quartered
2 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 large, sweet onion, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
1 green pepper, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup flour
1 28-ounce can plum tomatoes in tomato puree, drained, liquid reserved, and tomatoes coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 pound smoked andouille sausage, cut into chunks
1/2 pound okra, fresh or frozen, cut into 1/2-inch lengths
Hot pepper sauce
2 cups cooked white rice
Shell: Working under cold running water, strip shells off shrimp and reserve. Devein shrimp, rinse, drain and refrigerate.
Boil: Tumble shrimp shells into a medium saucepan. Add the water, yellow onion, parsley, thyme sprigs and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, partially cover and simmer until flavorful, about 45 minutes. Strain out and discard solids. Keep shrimp stock warm. (You should have about 3 cups.)
Prep: Pile up the chopped onion, celery, green pepper and garlic in a bowl. Keep these supplies at the ready.
Brown: Melt butter in a large dutch oven. Add flour and cook, whisking, over medium-low heat until peanut-butter colored, about 10-12 minutes. Making roux takes patience. So, apparently, does living in Louisiana.
Soften: Tumble in the chopped vegetables, cooling the roux. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Inhale.
Simmer: Stir in tomatoes along with 1/3 cup of the reserved tomato puree. Stir in hot shrimp stock. Season with salt, oregano, thyme leaves and red pepper. Add sausage and simmer for 20 minutes. Add okra and simmer another 10 minutes. Add shrimp and simmer until just cooked through, 3 minutes.
Serve: Scoop hot rice into each bowl. Inundate with gumbo. Splash with pepper sauce, if you like it hot. Enjoy.
Serves 6.