Gumbo, baby
1 Servings
Ingredients
| Quantity | Ingredient | |
|---|---|---|
| ¼ | cup | Canola oil |
| ¾ | cup | Flour |
| 1 | Onion; chopped fairly small *1 | |
| 1 | Bell pepper; chopped fairly small *2 | |
| ½ | pounds | Fresh okra;, (give or take) sliced into \"rounds\" |
| 1 | pounds | Smoked sausage; about, cut into \"half moons\" *3 |
| 5 | Fresh frozen cayennes; stem cut off but left whole, (told ya I was lazy...) | |
| 1 | quart | Liquid; plus *4 |
| 1 | cup | Liquid *4 |
| ¼ | teaspoon | Dried thyme; about |
| 1 | teaspoon | Gran. garlic; or more, about |
| 1 | teaspoon | Ground cayenne pepper; or more, about |
| ½ | teaspoon | Brother Jim C's apple smoked habanero; ground |
| Salt to taste | ||
| ½ | bunch | Fresh parsley; rough chopped |
| ¼ | teaspoon | File powder; or more |
Directions
*1: quarter inch, for those who want 'zactness.
*2: used a yellow one 'cause I had it...any do, o' course.
*3: I always save some sausage for my old man.
*4: used what I had on hand: 1½ c. veggies stock/1 c. chicken stock/rest was water. (all stock, of some sort, is best, o' course) Greetings O' Illustrious Chilehead brothers and sisters...blessings of El Grande to all...
Had a lady at work gimme a ½ lb of fresh okra...not my favorite veggie, but it do cry out to be put into some gumbo, so I obliged...
Wanted a simple gumbo...nothing too damned time consuming, complex...I like sausage (if I didn't, I'd probably be vegetarian...I digress..) so I went to Da Store and got me some decent smoked sausage (no andouille 'round here...dammit..), picked up a bunch of parsley, glanced at the spot where chiles lay - if ever available - and there was nothing to look at much less spend my cash-ola on...luckily, Monk Rael has a freezer sheeeet-piled mit chiles in various states...
This recipe is very bare-bones, very simple, took about an hour and a half, most of that with the whole mess simmering. It can obviously (should, be actually...that's what makes a great recipe...people adding their "special touches" and such..) tweeked, played with, and so on. Great with chicken added, shrimp would be groovy, most anything really, even catfish. Ya'll know what yer doin'. Anywho...
The gumbo:
Make a roux with the flour/oil; brown is best, but I was impatient and made a blonde one. Various methods, but I heat to oil to smoking, dump in the flour with one hand, stir with the other, pulling it off the heat at various times to insure you do NOT BURN IT (if you do...dump it...can't be saved), and say little prayers the whole time that the cajun napalm don't get me in the eyes...arms don't feel kaka anymore so I ain't worried about them. None-o-the-less, always use caution when making a roux. It'll scar you but good, baby...
Dump the veggies into the roux, cooking them for 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently (may need to drop the heat to medium and/or take the pot off the heat). Toss in the sausage and the dried seasonings; NOT THE FILE POWDER.
File goes in at the very end of cooking, OFF heat. Watch that hab powder steam cloud...
Stir the above for another 5 minutes or so, keeping the heat at medium-ish.
Dump in about 1 cup of the liquid and stir, scraping the bottom of the pot well. Good stuff down there...get it all. You can put in about ½ of your parsley here now. Once it all looks fairly well mixed (gonna be thick, mind you), add in the rest of the liquid, stir/mix well.
Bring to a nice mellow simmer and let it cook for a while. Taste frequently, adding a bit of salt as you see fit, more chile, other seasoning(s), whatever. You Da Boss. Adjust with more liquid as you see fit. Should be almost sauce like, but a bit thinner...after all, it is a soup...pretty much...
When you think it's done (flavor of sausage has developed, chiles, and such...no flour taste...you'll pretty much know), take it off heat, dump in the rest of the parsley and the file powder.
Put some rice in a bowl (which you should have cooked up whilst simmering your gumbo...jeez, must I tell you everything?!) and a nice big ladle of gumbo. Eat it up, yum...
Peace, Hendrix, and Chiles in my gumbo, baby...Rael Posted to CHILE-HEADS DIGEST by Inagoddadavida <rael@...> on Sep 20, 1998.