Recipe
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| Gumbo in a '40's era Wagner MagnaLite Dutch oven and cornbread. |
Gumbo is a traditional Louisiana food. There are as many different ways to prepare it
as there are people who prepare it.
Chicken and andouille sausage is a standard, but many use game meats,
like duck and sausage (one of my all-time favorites), and seafood such as shrimp
and/or crawfish. Rabbit, squirrel and
even deer can be used. Some folks like
to add okra to their gumbo, but not all.
Okra is more common in Creole style gumbo than in Cajun style. I like them both. Gumbo takes a while to make, so don’t get in
a hurry, but you have to manage your prep time for cutting up vegetables and
de-boning the chicken.
Boil your chicken in a large Dutch oven, covered in water. You can add some seasoning if you wish but
not too much because this will make the chicken stock you will use in your
gumbo. I find a couple shakes of Tony’s
is all I need. You want to boil it and
set it to simmer until the meat is ready to fall off the bones. At least an hour. Some folks cut their chicken up to cook it
but I boil it whole. You will probably have to add water to keep the chicken submerged.Once it’s done take
the chicken out and let it cool a little so you can pull the meat off the
bones. Once you have removed all the bones
and skin cover or refrigerate your chicken meat. SAVE THE STOCK. I keep the stock in the pot with a lid on it.
The two most important elements of Cajun gumbo, and many
other Cajun dishes, is the “Holy Trinity”; onion, bell pepper and celery, and the
other is a roux. It is advisable to cut
up your trinity before you begin heating your pot. Use one large white onion, one large or two
small bell peppers, I like to use one red and one green for color, and a small handful
of celery stalks, leaves and all. If you
want okra you can cut it into thick slices. Once you have your trinity cut up into small cubes,
put it all in a bowl and cover it or place it in the ‘frig. Keep your okra separate until you add it
because it gets slimy.
There are also different styles of roux, but the basic roux
is flour cooked in equal parts of oil; one cup of flour cooked in one cup of
oil. There are different types of oil
you can use, but DO NOT use olive oil.
Its smoke point is too low and it will give your gumbo a terrible
flavor. You can use Crisco, lard, peanut
oil, blended vegetable oil or corn oil, but I prefer to use bacon grease. Every time I cook bacon I pour the excess
grease into a cup that I store in the refrigerator. Nothing goes to waste.
The trick to making a roux is to slowly add the flour into
the oil and cook it over a medium heat in a big Dutch oven. Using cast iron is the best way to ensure you
get an even distribution of the stove’s heat to the entire bottom of your Dutch
oven. If you don’t get even heat you
will not get a good roux. Adjust the
heat as you go along to keep the oil from smoking too much. Do not add any
seasoning to the flour at this point, that all comes later. I spread the flour out evenly into the oil
and stir it, and stir it, and stir it… actually, you never stop stirring the
roux the entire time you are cooking it.
That means you need to have your oil and your flour at hand because you
cannot walk away from the roux. You want
to reach a nice, even consistency with the texture of the flour and oil
mixture, something akin to creamy peanut butter. You can add oil and/or flour as you go to get
that consistency. As you cook the flour it
will darken slowly. Adjust your heat as
needed. It is up to you how dark you
like your roux to be, just don’t burn it.
If you smell burned oil and flour, you need to start over. Burned roux is a sin and making anyone eat it
is punishable by hell fire. I like to
get my roux to the color of ground beef.
Once you are satisfied with your roux you add the trinity
vegetables (and okra) and sauté them in the roux until the onions begin to
clear. Do not let the mixture stick to
the bottom of the pot or it will burn. Once
you have the vegetables thoroughly mixed in the roux and starting to sauté you
can add a ladle or two full of chicken stock, just to keep it from sticking at
first, then slowly add more stock as the vegetables cook until you have a stew. Now you can add some seasoning if you wish,
but you don’t need much. I usually use a
little cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper, and that’s it. By now the aroma of the gumbo is really at
its peak. Let the gumbo simmer on low
heat while you slice up your andouille sausage into bite size pieces. Then, add your chicken and your sausage and
enough stock to cover it all and give it the consistency of thick soup. Let it simmer on low heat for at least 45
minutes to an hour. During this time,
you make the rice that you will serve your gumbo over. You can also make French bread and potato
salad, if you want a real Cajun meal.
When your rice is done and your gumbo is ready, serve your
gumbo over a bed of rice in a deep dish or bowl. You can garnish it with sliced scallions
and/or fresh cut parsley. A big slice of homemade cornbread or a flakey
slice of French bread and a little bowl of potato salad will have you wishing
for Cajun country in no time.
Bon Appetit! Ma, yah, sa se bon!
