Seafood Gumbo is the perfect example of a melting-pot dish.

The recipe starts with a roux*, which originated in France. Choctaw Indians donated the filé powder. The Spanish contributed tomatoes from South America. The Germans offered up sausage. West African slaves introduced okra.

You can see why there are so many recipes for gumbo… seafood or otherwise.

Gumbo is a great weeknight meal. Add or subtract the shellfish, depending on what’s available in your market. But, peeled and deveined shrimp are a must if you are going to give the gumbo some depth. This recipe has okra so you won’t need the filé powder (which acts as a thickener like the okra).

My Seafood Gumbo recipe is built around one I learned from my good friend Chef Emeril Lagasse, and another I found in the Charleston Receipts Cookbook, which my pal DB gave me for Christmas…

Like I said… gumbo is truly a group effort!

*Roux is a thickening agent made of equal parts of fat (like butter) and flour. It is the basis of many sauces.

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Learning how to peel and devein raw shrimp is not difficult—in fact, it’s actually a bit of kitchen know-how you should keep in your back pocket.

Many shrimp recipes, like my recipe for Cuban Garlic Shrimp, are easier to eat (and look better) if you peel and devein raw shrimp before cooking. Peeling is self-explanatory. But deveining is basically removing the “vein” that runs down the back of the shrimp.

Some recipes say you don’t need to remove the vein because it’s flavorless and harmless. But for me, it’s gritty and gross (it is the shrimp’s intestinal tract, after all).

Frankly, it’s poop, and I think it ruins the shrimp’s natural sweet flavor. And yes, I know you can always buy it already peeled and deveined. But why pay someone for a task that is so simple?

Back to the topic. Here’s how to Peel and Devein Shrimp:

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And in case you are a visual learner, here’s a great step-by-step video:

If you want to leave the shells on for a particular recipe, use a small pair of scissors to cut through the shell to reveal the vein. Use the tip of the scissors to remove the vein.