Saturday, January 12, 2019

This Gumbo Is Yum-yum-yumbo


I love Louisiana gumbos. In my December trip to New Orleans, I tried six different gumbos, including the one I learned to make at the New Orleans School of Cooking. The school's recipe was for a Gumbo with chicken and andouille sausage. Since returning home, I’ve made it three times for family, friends, and moi. It’s now one of my very favorite dishes. When I made one batch recently, I made so much that I ate it four nights in a row. With that batch, it tasted progressively better the first three nights, and was still terrific the fourth.

At a dinner for family and friends, I included three other dishes - shrimp and grits, cornbread, and New Orleans bread pudding.

One aspect that took three tries to get right at home was to make the roux dark enough. At the school, we used lard and made the roux on an induction cooktop. At home, I have a natural gas cooktop. Also, at home, I used canola oil the first two times, and switched to butter the third time. I also raised the heat the third time. Even though the roux wasn’t dark enough the first two times at home, the taste was great!!!

Below is my slightly modified version of the New Orleans School of cooking recipe with my comments included. I’ve cut the school’s recipe in half to make four generous servings instead of eight.

Ingredients
Items in red font are ones that I added to the school’s. Items in green are ones I did not use.
- ¼ cup butter (for the roux)
- ¼ cup flour
- ¼ cup oil, or lard, or bacon drippings for sautéing the chicken and sausage (I used canola oil.)
- ½ lb chicken, cut up or deboned (I used cut-up, precooked roasted chicken twice, and uncooked boneless chicken thighs the third time. All were good, but the chicken thighs worked best.)
- ½ lb andouille sausage. (I used Aidall’s, which I bought at Publix.)
The next three ingredients form the Louisiana “trinity.” I cheated on these items by buying the Publix supermarket’s prechopped trinity mix of ½ cup of each and then adding a ½ cup of onions I chopped. (It also saved me from buying more celery and green pepper than I could use.)
- 1 cup onions, chopped
- ½ cup celery, chopped
- ½ cup green bell pepper, chopped
- ½ cup red bell pepper, chopped
- ½ tbsp. garlic, chopped
- ½ cup green onions, chopped
- Zatarain’s Creole seasoning – 1/2 tsp (but to taste) or Joe’s Stuff seasoning to taste. (Joe’s Stuff is a cooking school spice, I should have bought some while I was there. A friend tells me it’s terrific. I intend to buy some.)                                                                            - Crab boil to taste (I did not use this because it seems more appropriate for seafood gumbo.
- 3 cups of chicken broth, stock, or water,
- Filé powder is used for flavoring and thickening the gumbo. Add and stir in after serving –  ½ to 1 tsp per serving, (It is made from ground sassafras leaves, and is of native American origin. File is pronounced fee-lay, with the accent on the first syllable.)
- Sliced French bread if desired to sop up the soup. Yum!
- Rice if desired.

Instructions

Season and brown the chicken in ¼ cup of oil, lard, or bacon drippings in a large pot. Add sausage to pot and sauté with chicken. I used canola oil.

In a skillet, make the roux using butter and flour. Cook over medium low flame, stirring continuously until it turns the color of peanut butter. My gas cooktop has heat settings from 1 through 10. I was successful with a setting just below five. It took about 20 minutes. If you do not keep stirring, the roux can burn and become worthless.

When the roux reaches the desired color, add onions, celery, green pepper, red pepper, and garlic to the skillet, and cook over medium low heat until vegetables reach desired tenderness. Stir frequently. I cooked the vegetables for about 10 minutes.

When vegetables are ready, add them to the pot with the chicken and sausage, continuing to stir frequently. Gradually stir in the liquid (broth, stock, or water) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for an hour or more. Season with Creole seasoning or Joe’s Stuff seasoning.

Serve over rice if desired. I used two large serving spoons full of rice per serving.

If you wish to thicken the gumbo, add ½ to 1 tsp of filé per serving, and stir.