Reckon he's had quite a lot of practice eating.
Posted on 12/30/2015 1:40:50 PM PST by iowamark
Everybody in Louisiana has a gumbo recipe. I was deeply offended when Bon Appetit magazine did a profile on college tailgating using the LSU v. Ole Miss game from last year. Their gumbo recipe used carrots and oregano. That is horrifying.
The trinity is simple: onion, bell pepper, and celery. Carrots do not play a part in it. Neither does oregano.
Below is my recipe. I make it when the weather turns cool and keep making it through Mardi Gras. If you want a seafood gumbo, leave out the chicken and sausage. Do everything else in the recipe. Before adding the okra, add your uncooked seafood. It will cook in the gumbo and add a greater depth of flavor. When I make it with seafood, I use crab, shrimp, and crawfish.
I don't add raw chicken and let it cook because it has a tendency to make foam.
This recipe is spicy, but you may want to add more cayenne (I usually do) after the gumbo has rested a few hours. The taste and heat will change. That is one reason I recommend never using a hot andouille. It will impact the heat over a few hours.
One final note: most gumbo recipes call for adding the raw trinity to the roux and cooking. I will do that often, but I find I can control both the darkness of the roux and the sweetness of the trinity if I do them separately and then add them together. The one downside is that you risk your gumbo having more oil than you’d like. You will have to skim it off the top after the gumbo has rested.
Erick Erickson's Basic Gumbo Prep Time: 0 hr 0 min | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Servings: 12 Servings
Ingredients:
1 pk Andouille Sausage; Don't use spicy andouille 2 tb Vegetable oil 1 md yellow onion; finely chopped 3 st Celery; finely chopped 1 lg Bell Pepper; finely chopped 4 Chicken Breasts 2 ts Minced Garlic; heaping 3 bottles Beer 1 1/2 c Vegetable Oil 1 1/2 c All-purpose flour 3 Bay Leaves 1 tb Cayenne Pepper 1 tb Black Pepper 1 tb Thyme 1 tb Salt 1 tb Tony Chachere’s Cajun seasoning 64 oz Chicken Stock; Heat 32 oz in microwave to boiling 2 tb Vegetable Oil 2 c Frozen Okra; chopped 1 c Rice 2 c Water
Directions:
1. Add chicken breasts to a pot of water and boil. Cut sausage into small slices and, working in batches lightly brown in large skillet, removing to drain on a paper towel.
2. Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil to sausage drippings. Then add onions. Stir till translucent. Add celery and bell pepper. Stir till tender.
3. Remove chicken from water after it is cooked and let cool.
4. Open first beer. Clean out the dutch oven the chicken boiled in. Dry well. Put chicken stock in microwave, heat it, then set beside the dutch oven. Set on medium heat and add 1 1/2 cup of oil. Coat the bottom of the dutch oven. Sprinkle in the flour. Begin drinking the beer.
Stir constantly with a whisk for 20 minutes. Continue throughout drinking beer. After second beer is consumed, check to see that the roux is the color of a copper penny. If not, proceed to third beer and keep whisking.
5. When roux is the color of a used copper penny, quickly whisk in garlic first, then the onion, celery, and bell pepper. Add seasonings, bay leaves, and sausage. Pour in 32 ounces of heated chicken stock stirring constantly. The roux may ball up, but it will dissolve if you keep stirring. Add in the remainder of the chicken stock and turn heat to high.
6. Remove chicken from its bones and chop to fine pieces. Add to gumbo. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer on low, stirring occasionally.
7. Heat skillet with 2 tablespoons of oil. Add okra. Heat until edges begin to brown, the stickiness is reduced, and seeds pop. Add to gumbo. Continue to simmer for one to two hours. Gumbo is tastier if cooled overnight in the fridge and reheated the next day.
8. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Once boiling, add 1 cup of rice, lightly salt, and cover for 20 minutes on low heat. Pour gumbo on top to eat.
9. Don't eat the bay leaves.
Seems like we should get a real Southerner to weigh in on this recipe!
Sounds good - will try beer next time. Carrots? They threw them in the recipe to throw people off. I know of NO ONE in Louisiana using carrots in Gumbo or Jambalaya.
Adding okra looks like you blew your nose in your gumbo. Yuck.
It is Eric's recipe a very fine basis for a gumbo.
Everybody makes it slightly different. If you like it, then it is good gumbo.
The only absolutely mandatory ingredient is okra. I use Andouille in all my gumbo, jambalaya, and chili.
The texture of okra varies depending on how it is cooked. Those who don't like the 'slimy' texture should eat it fried or steamed whole. In gumbo the cut okra is used, along with the roux, as a thickening agent and is not 'slimy'.
I will be happy to answer any questions that I can.
"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Reckon he's had quite a lot of practice eating.
Thank you for the reply! I love gumbo but I’ve never had the courage to make it.
Gumbo translated to English is okra .
Got one pure bred coonass here.
The best gumbo I ever ate was at a small restaurant somewhere off I-10 around lafayette, Louisiana.
Something You Didn't Know About Cajuns (Ilenos, Canary Islands)
Frozen okra? In hot oil until the seeds pop? Then simmered for 1 to 2 hours?
Sure, if you like the taste of boiled snot.
I use only fresh okra, cut into bite-sized chunks. Put it in LAST.
Add to hot, simmering gumbo about 10 minutes before serving.
Okra will be soft, but still crisp and sweet. Not slimy.
Leftovers can be reheated in microwave—still no slime.
See my post # 31.
Now that reminds me of an old favorite Charlie Daniels song!
I agree, that’s a lot of roux. No basil in his version either.
If you cook the okra longer it won’t be slimey.
Erik is trying to worm his way back into the public eye. I refused to listen to Rush’s show yesterday. Erikson is loser.
I agree. Erikson must have been relentlessly begging him. I sent my local station a message saying I will never listen to this wannabee.
Everyone has their own version, and likes to think theirs is best, but this is the dumbest/worst-est gumbo recipe I've ever seen - ever! lol
"If you want a seafood gumbo, leave out the chicken and sausage." - REALLY, WHY??? The more ingredients, the better the gumbo - especially sausage. Gumbo's history is to make it from whatever meats can be scrounged - including squirrel, rabbit, ....
Where's the chopped shallots, or gumbo filé, (a spicy herb made from the dried and ground leaves of the North American sassafras)?
Chicken breasts over thighs - NO way! Chop up the okra? Hell no Cher... Slice it into 1/2" pieces and add it along with the 1/2" sliced shallot tops, and 1/2 lb of peeled and de-veined shrimp 15 - 20 minutes before you're ready to take it off the fire.
This recipe makes making gumbo about 3 times harder than it really is. Once you get the hang of making the roux - which isn't hard, the rest is simple. For those who don't know, use equal parts oil to flour, like making brown gravy. Just let it darken more to the color of a pecan or as he said, a used penny. 1/2 cup of each is fine for a gumbo with about 8 cups of watered added. Go slow and don't let it burn. If it does, throw it out and start over. I've used olive oil with good results for folks who can't tolerate a lot of vegetable oil.
Slice up an onion, 1/2 bell pepper, celery (if you like it - I don't in gumbo) into about 1/4 pieces. Chop up 2 - 3 cloves of garlic.
Cut 2-3 large chicken thighs raw into 1" pieces. Leave out the bones. Slice 1/2 lb sausage in to 1/4 - 1/2" sections.
As soon as roux darkens to proper color, toss in the already prepared vegetables, chicken, sausage and stir. The vegetables and meat will cool down the roux and prevent it burning. Cook while stirring until onions are transparent.
Add about 4 cups of water and stir, allowing the roux to even out. Add 2 tsp of Tony's (or you can make your own Cajun seasoning) and 1 tsp of salt, 2 crushed chicken bullion cubes, 1 heaping tsp of basil, 1/2 tsp of thyme (optional), 1/2 tsp of fresh ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper (optional).
Depending upon how you like your gumbo (lots of meat or lots of liquid), add 2 - 4 more cups of water. Cook on slow boil for about 30 minutes, then add 1/4 cup of 1/2" sliced green onion tops (shallots), 1 tbsp of gumbo file, 1/4 - 1/2 cup sliced okra, 1/2 lb of peeled and de-veined shrimp. Cook an additional 15 minutes, adjust salt to taste (I usually wind up adding another tsp), and serve in a bowl over a scoop of rice.
Making gumbo isn't hard and it doesn't take a lot of time. Adjust/add ingredients as you prefer. But more importantly, call a get together so family and friends can enjoy your gumbo with you. After you make it a few times, you'll be an old pro at it - especially you who experiment with it.
Back in the day, a gumbo was a big event with everyone bringing ingredients and cooking them in a huge pot over an open fire. It's still a big deal in hunting camps, using any game harvested as the main ingredient. To this day, rabbit gumbo is still one of my favorites - squirrel gumbo is yummy too, as is duck gumbo, turkey gumbo, chicken/sausage (above), and of course seafood gumbo (made with fish, shrimp, mudbugs, crab, alligator, ..., & usually always sausage or tasso).
Gumbo's earliest origins can be traced to native Americans who first began using dried and ground up sassafras leaves in soups/cooking.
Agree , My gumbo is close to yours ,I'd add a Guinea to the list.
Sounds like Guinea would indeed make a tasty gumbo. Have to add that to my bucket list - I’ve never had it. :-)
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