One small bone to pick; gumbo, by definition, begins with a chocolate roux. No chocolate required, one must stir the roux until it turns a deep chocolate brown. This takes 20-25 minutes over medium/medium-high heat.
A perhaps-useful tip: use ONLY a wooden spoon for stirring, and stir more or less constantly, else the roux will scorch (you'll see black spots in the roux, and you get to start over).
A tasty variation: use bacon fat or lard instead of vegetable oil. De flavour is mo' bettah, I gar-on-tee.
Also, there is NO requirement to use okra in a gumbo. You can make an okra gumbo easily enough, but the myth that okra is a required ingredient comes from -- of all things -- the NY Times crossword puzzle, c.1963.
Also, no garlic??? NO GARLIC??? Hoo boy, in Thibodeaux you gonna be de guest du honneur at a necktie party if you don' add de garlic.
But mebbe we make de exception for you folks from Maryland...(g!)
And add some nice fat oysters, fo' sho' (and de folks who don' have sodium problems should consider using oyster or clam broth instead of chicken broth; if you do, leave out the salt, there's already plenty in the o.b. or c.b.)
“... mebbe we make de exception for you folks from Maryland...”
I knew I would get at least one Freeper who knew Cajun cooking and shake their head!!! LOL. You are right about the garlic. I was sort of surprised that the recipe didn’t call for any. I think it would definitely add more flavor (and healthy too). My husband knows one person from Louisiana and I asked him about this recipe. He said it was “decent” for non-Cajun cookers. I sort of took that as a compliment (teeheehee). I did ask him to send me all his potato dishes! That got “silence”.