Dennis makes sautéed shrimp and okra in a cast iron skillet, adding onion and garlic along with a little chile and ginger and finishing it with diced tomato and herbs like parsley and thyme. You can find his recipe here.
Other Gullah chefs in the Lowcountry are noted for their gumbos and okra dishes, too. At Gullah Cuisine in Mt. Pleasant, Charlotte Jenkins serves her mother’s recipe for “okra gumbo”, which includes shrimp, chicken, and pork sausage. Bill Green serves shrimp gumbo at his Gullah Grub Restaurant on St. Helena Island, and when okra is in season he makes a shrimp and okra dish that’s very similar to Dennis’s, including incorporating ginger. This idea is consistent with Lolis Eric Elie’s memories of gumbo in 20th-century New Orleans. “We always had okra in it when I was growing up,” Elie recalls. “But people would always make a distinction between okra and filé gumbo. They said you ate filé gumbo in the winter when okra was out of season.”
