There are many different gumbo recipes, all taking advantage of local ingredients and served with rice. This one is a heady, fragrant slurry thick with seafood.
"There is a dish that originated in Charleston called Hoppin’ John," Edna Lewis writes in In Pursuit of Flavor, "which we had never heard of in Virginia."
Miss Lewis gives the option of roasting in the oven, and that’s what we did because it plays up the contrast between the rich, tender, moist dark meat and the crisp skin.