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I'm only part Yankee!!!

Yo food sounds terrific. Never had chocolate based gumbo. And your recipe for four-pork jambalaya sounds wonderful. Is it from four different pigs?

ROTFLMAO!

A++++ for you, SAJ, and welcome aboard!

These are both jambalaya. Of which one were you speaking?

I made a king cake for xsbrownie's class so i made some extra to bring for WFTD

'Chocolate roux' refers only to the colour of the roux. As always, a roux is equal parts flour and fat, with the flour whisked or stirred in to the rendered fat until the desired colour is achieved. Effectively, making a roux is the slow burning of the wheat in the flour.

4-pork mushroom gumbo

Take 1 pound reasonably lean bacon, trimming excess fat, and cook about halfway in a skillet. Remove from heat and set aside. Drain reasonably well; a li'l mo' bacon fat here ain't gon' hurt notin' hon'.

Take 1 1/2 to 2 lbs pork loin, cut into bite-size cubes. Sear over high heat in either olive oil or bacon fat, 2-3 minutes (measured from the time the oil is up to temp). Drain reasonably well and set aside.

Combine 1 1/2 cups bacon fat, rendered, with 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour over medium-low heat in a large pot or Dutch oven. Stir more or less continuously, raising the heat gradually, until the roux is chocolate-coloured, about 20 minutes. Add 3 large onions, 2 green bell peppers seeded and stemmed, 4 or 5 ribs celery, all well-chopped, and stir until onions are beginning to turn translucent, about 4-5 minutes.

Add 6-8 medium cloves fresh garlic, either finely chopped or pressed. Stir in for about 2-3 minutes. Add 2 to 3 quarts chicken or (better) fresh pork stock. Season with 1 tbsp salt, 2 tsp fresh ground black pepper. Bring to a boil, then stir once and reduce heat to medium-low (simmer, presumably), for 10 minutes or so. Do not cover -- we want to start to reduce the stock here.

Add the half-cooked bacon, seared cubed pork loin, 1 1/2 lbs Andouille (or any good spicy smoked) sausage cut into small discs, and 3/4 lb non-watered ham diced to the gumbo. Half-cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Stir in 1/4 tsp ground cayenne (more to taste, of course, or if you've any Cajuns in the crowd), 1 1/2 tsp each fresh chopped thyme and sweet basil (dried is ok -- use roughly half the amount). Test for taste and reseason the salt and black pepper if need be. Now, stir in 1 tbsp gumbo filé, both for flavour and for thickening.

Add 1 lb, or more to taste, assorted sliced mushrooms, white, portabella, chanterelle. I wouldn't use shiitake, morel, lobster, and so forth here because their wonderful flavour gets, uh, ''lost in de gumbo''. Half-cover and simmer for between 15 and 60 minutes, depending on how thick you like your gumbo and how paranoiac you happen to be about less-than-well-done pork. The pork loin should be just past medium after 15 minutes.

Note: gumbo should never boil, only simmer.

Serve with slices of crusty French bread, garnish with chopped green onions and/or chives. Recommended side dish: sweet cinnamon rice (easy, delicious).

Serves 2, if I'm one of them, or about 14-16 otherwise.

Yo gonna lak dis one, Ah gar-on-tay. Happy munchon, boo!