Here is a recipe for gumbo that will go well with the New Orleans R&B, Blues, and Funk suggested in my last post. It is based on my memory of my mother’s efforts, refreshed by looking at a few recipes. When I was in grade school, I came home once a week to the smell of fried chicken and gumbo. We ate fried chicken that night and I usually got to sample a drumstick right away. The gumbo was savored over several days and got better with time. Louisiana gumbo recipes always begin with a roux, an equal mixture of oil and flour that provides a base and thickener. Proportions will vary by recipe, but 2/3-cup oil and 2/3- cup flour is usually enough.
To make a roux, mix the oil and flour together in a heavy pot (a heavy pot is essential). Use vegetable oil such as canola oil. Don't use olive oil (it doesn't get hot enough and the flavor is wrong). Then cook the flour-oil mixture, stirring constantly, until it is the color of a dark brown. Most cookbooks tell you to cook the roux over a low flame. It will take about half an hour to brown that way, but you're less likely to burn it. If you use a high flame it will go much quicker but you can't leave the roux for a minute because it is easy to burn. Nothing can be done with a burned roux except to throw it out and start over.
Once the roux is dark enough, lower the flame. At this point, add the onions and garlic, to lower the temperature of the roux. Let the onion and garlic cook a bit and then add warm water so the roux won't separate. Here are the total ingredients. You can do many variations on the seafood and meat but you always need the onion, garlic and okra.
3 1/2 quarts chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 large onion, chopped (add to roux)
1/4 cup chopped garlic (add to roux)
1 fryer chicken, cut up
1 lb. andouille sausage (you can also use linguina or kelbasa) cut in 1/2" slices
1 lb. shrimp
3/4 cup chopped green onions
1 ½ cup chopped okra
1/3 cup chopped parsley
2 Tblsp. Louisiana Hot Sauce or 1/4 tsp. Cayenne (red) Pepper
1/2 tsp. black pepper
After you make the roux, bring stock to a low boil and slowly add the roux/onion mixture a spoon at a time, stirring each spoonful until it is blended. Add roux until desired thickness is obtained. Brown the sausage and chicken and drain the fat, then add them to the pot. Cook the mixture at a slow bubble for about an hour. Add the green onions, parsley, okra, shrimp, and seasonings. Then, heat for just about 10 minutes more. Serve in bowls over a scoop of long grain rice and shake some file (dried sassafras leaves) over the gumbo.
My mother used the cookbook “First You Make a Roux” produced in support of the Lafayette Louisiana Musuem and you can still get the original version. Another classic cookbook is “Talk about Good” by the Junior League of Lafeyette. It contains a number of gumbo recipes with such ingredients as duck, wild goose, oysters, and shrimp. It is in the 23rd printing with over 700,000 copies sold.
If you do not want to start from scratch, there are a number of good gumbo mixes, but you should still start with your own roux as described above and then add the mix as the directions indicate. Here are several mail order sources with web sites for gumbo mixes and other New Orleans food: New Orleans School of Cooking, New Orleans Showcase,
and Zatarain’s.
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