4 lg. white onions, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
6 outside stalks of celery, chopped
2 pkgs. frozen baby okra (sliced while frozen) or 50 pods fresh okra, sliced
3 fresh tomatoes, chopped (or a #2 can of tomatoes)
1" thick slice of ham, diced, or if you have ham butts, or shoulder, it is as good for the purpose and less expensive, you want about 1 lb.
1/2 c. dried parsley flakes
4 bay leaves
3 lbs. cooked shrimps
1 pepperoni sausage, coarsely ground (opt.)
1/2 lb. dried shrimps (opt.)
Shortening (or drippings), flour, salt, pepper, etc.

Have ready a big (8-10 qt.) soup kettle. When you have chopped all the things that need chopping, rest a little while. Brown the chopped onions in 1/2 cup of shortening, and then fish them out with a slotted spoon, and transfer them to the waiting kettle. Stir 1/2 cup of flour into the fat (adding a little to replace what stuck to the onions) and carefully brown it (very dark brown, but don't burn it) over medium heat. You now have made a roux, which is an important element in Creole cookery. Congratulations.

Set the roux aside to cool a bit, and in another (big) skillet, melt about 4 tablespoons of fat. Slowly saute the okra, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, until it literally begins to fall apart; add the green pepper and celery, then cover the pan, reduce the heat and simmer until the pepper and celery are tender. While this cooks, scrape the roux out of the other skillet into the soup kettle with the onion. Add 3 quarts of water to it, and put it over a 200 degree controlled burner if you have it (put the heat higher until the soup boils, then reduce to 200). Add the cooked okra mixture to the kettle and cover same.

Now, in whichever skillet is handy, cook the ham in a very little fat, throw in the tomatoes, parsley, dried shrimps (if you are lucky enough to have them) and the sausage, and simmer this mess while you get another beer. Now, dump this ham, tomatoes, etc., into the now simmering kettle, throw in the bay leaves, add a few paper thin slices of lemon, a good tablespoon of thyme and a crushed clove of garlic. Recover the kettle and let the gumbo simmer some (3-5 hours), while you clean up the kitchen and get you another beer.

After about the first hour of cooking, check the gumbo for seasoning: salt, black pepper, a little Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce as you like it. If by any chance the gumbo looks pale (it shouldn't if your roux was brown enough), color it with a little Kitchen Bouquet. (Easy there, that stuff is SWEET). Now get you another beer.

Now when the gumbo has simmered at least 3 hours, it should be fit to eat. Then you add the cooked shrimps (you know how to cook the shrimps, huh?) about 30 minutes before serving time, and a little of the water (1 cup) won't hurt, especially if you have not had the dried shrimps for flavor.

Now when your gumbo is ready to serve, if it should seem a little thin to you, you can thicken it with file powder. To do this, take the gumbo off the fire and stir in about 2 tablespoons of the powder. You must never return gumbo to the fire after you have put file into it. For that reason, it may be safer to skip this characteristic Creole condiment (it is simply the powdered leaves of the sassafras tree) so that you can reheat any leftover gumbo.

Gumbo is served in a soup bowl, with a spoonful of fluffy boiled rice in same. Don't get carried away with this rice business. Gumbo is a soup, not a gravy.

P.S. You can stretch this with oysters, crabs, boiled chicken - anything that is good.