Posted: 6/22/2013 2:41:54 PM EDT
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OK, I recently found out that much like Yankee/Union staters and mexican food, I have been lied to my whole life about this stuff.
Last month I spent 5 days in LA (Baton Rouge and the Houma/Bayou Dularge area) where I ate some of the most amazing food I have ever had in my life. Fish and shrimp fry, Shrimp and crab boil, Crawfish Bisque with Gar meat balls, Blackened Alligator nuggets, etc, etc... but the thing that really knocked my socks off was the Gumbo. Thick, dark, and very rich it putting the watery, light colored crap I have been eating to shame. So I need some tips, recipes, etc. I got's myself a hankering for real gumbo. |
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I was taught to make gumbo by an elderly Creole women in Port AR tuR...
Her roux was nearly black and she told me if the finished Gumbo didn't look lak der Mississippi River at dusk when finished, it wasn't made right. long, slow cooking of the roux is the key..  I have gumbo recipes I the chef's threads..
Chef |
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Yep the roux is the trick. And good fresh seafood.
Practice making roux. Its an art really. Cook it in a cast iron skillet. Try different brands and types of oil. Find what you like best. Too little cooking and you have no flavor. If you cook it too dark it turns bitter. Trash it and start over. |
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My go-to recipe - I think it's Emeril's. Although it says chicken and sausage, you can always toss in some shrimp. Make the roux to the color of your liking. One thing I have found is that if I sautee the chicken and sausage in the pot first that the fond in the bottom gets too dark. I now prefer to use a separate pan for that, then deglaze then pan and pour it back into the dutch oven later. Chicken and Sausage Gumbo Ingredients • 1 tablespoon plus ½ cup vegetable oil • 1 pound smoked sausage, cut crosswise ½ -inch thick pieces • 4 pounds chicken thighs, skin removed • 1 tablespoon Essence or Creole seasoning, recipe follows • 1 cup all-purpose flour • 2 cups chopped onions • 1 cup chopped celery • 1 cup chopped bell peppers • 1 teaspoon salt • ¼ teaspoon cayenne • 3 bay leaves • 9 cups chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth • ½ cup chopped green onions • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves • 1 tablespoon file powder • White Rice • Hot sauce Directions 1. In a large enameled cast iron Dutch oven or large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook until well browned, about 8 minutes. Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Set aside. 2. Season the chicken with the Essence and add in batches to the fat remaining in the pan. Cook over medium-high heat until well browned, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan, let cool, and then refrigerate until ready to use. 3. Combine the remaining 1/2 cup oil and the flour in the same Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook, stirring slowly and constantly for 20 to 25 minutes, to make a dark brown roux, the color of chocolate. 4. Add the onions, celery, and bell peppers and cook, stirring, until wilted, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the reserved sausage, salt, cayenne, and bay leaves, stir, and cook for 2 minutes. Stirring, slowly add the chicken stock, and cook, stirring, until well combined. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered and stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. 5. Add the reserved chicken to the pot and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, skimming off any fat that rises to the surface. 6. Remove the pot from the heat. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chicken thighs from the gumbo and place on a cutting board to cool slightly. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Pull the chicken meat from the bones and shred, discarding the bones and skin. Return the meat to the gumbo and stir in the green onions, parsley, and file powder. 7. Spoon rice into the bottom of deep bowls or large cups and ladle the gumbo on top. Serve, passing hot sauce on the side. |
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Yeah I've done that recipe Zhukov its Emeril or Justin Wilson.
I take a good 45min of constant stirring and beer drinking to do my roux as dark as possible. IF you see black specks in it, it's ruined. Toss it and start over. Otherwise it will be bitter not smokey and rich. It should be dark chocolate brown but not burnt. Stir stir stir. I toss the trinity in the roux and sautée till they're soft then everything else. Seafood of any kind is always tossed last before serving otherwise it will over cook and be rubbery. Damn now I gotta make a pot of gumbo. Oh and use a good Andouille sausage. I like Savoie's brand. |
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I make gumbo at Christmas for the family. When making the roux, I toast off the flour before sauteing in fat. I do it in a iron skillet. You really have to keep it moving once it starts to brown or it burns fast. The nice part is you can save some of the flour off and make roux really quickly the next time.
Gumbo has okra in it. Anything else is a stew with roux IMO. |
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Thats a good how to right there. Notice how the roux looks like chocolate when he has it on the vegetables? Thats what you want. You may or may not want to add that much file. Some feel you should add it off heat in the individual serving. I usually don't use file, myself. But plenty do add it during cooking, its your call depending on how you like it. This is Leah Chase's recipe, sort of. I saw her make Gumbo on a show, and she basically said she releases toned back, less troublesome recipes to save time for home cooks, so it shouldn't be used for anything more than an ingredient list. Gumbo A few things I do, things to be sure of, etc-- If adding tomatoes, I try to add some alcohol. White wine or a little vodka both work fine. I try to use the fat from meats that are going in the gumbo in the roux. Duck is great for this. You can get fat, meat, and stock all from a duck to go in the gumbo. Sausage will usually yield some grease, too. Whole and half blue crabs are great when stewed in a gumbo. I guess you could use those other crabs, if that's all you can get. Obviously, add your tougher meats early, and delicate meats later. Shrimp and oysters can go in very close to the end. I'll usually divide sausage in half, and add one half early for flavor, and the other later so its more sausage-y and less cooked down. I pan fry all meats before putting them in. Be sure and use a good stock, preferably homemade. Be sure and fry your okra till its not slimy. Slimy gumbo grosses some people out. |
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Quoted:
I make gumbo at Christmas for the family. When making the roux, I toast off the flour before sauteing in fat. I do it in a iron skillet. You really have to keep it moving once it starts to brown or it burns fast. The nice part is you can save some of the flour off and make roux really quickly the next time. Gumbo has okra in it. Anything else is a stew with roux IMO. what he said... if it ain't got okra, it ain't gumbo. |
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Quoted: Quoted: I make gumbo at Christmas for the family. When making the roux, I toast off the flour before sauteing in fat. I do it in a iron skillet. You really have to keep it moving once it starts to brown or it burns fast. The nice part is you can save some of the flour off and make roux really quickly the next time. Gumbo has okra in it. Anything else is a stew with roux IMO. what he said... if it ain't got okra, it ain't gumbo. California/NY - the epicenter of Gumbo.  You might look at the native Louisiana member in his post above to set you straight. |
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Quoted:
Born/lived in Louisiana all my life. Nobody puts okra in their gumbo down here. Correct! No okra in cajun gumbo. There is such a thing as okra gumbo but that is a different animal. My cajun wife will sometimes make okra gumbo -- where the okra is cooked down first (no longer slimy) and used as the base or thickener. Okra gumbo has no roux. So, there is roux gumbo or orka gumbo. Totally different. Creoles of New Orleans will sometimes put okra and even tomatoes in something they sometimes call gumbo, but that is not cajun gumbo. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Born/lived in Louisiana all my life. Nobody puts okra in their gumbo down here. Correct! No okra in cajun gumbo. There is such a thing as okra gumbo but that is a different animal. My cajun wife will sometimes make okra gumbo -- where the okra is cooked down first (no longer slimy) and used as the base or thickener. Okra gumbo has no roux. So, there is roux gumbo or orka gumbo. Totally different. Creoles of New Orleans will sometimes put okra and even tomatoes in something they sometimes call gumbo, but that is not cajun gumbo. God bless you fine folks.  |
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Some people, members of this very site, use roux from a jar.  Believe it or not, there was a canned gumbo that was sold for a while that actually wasn't bad at all. It was definitely better than the "gumbo" I'd gotten at most places not in LA or AL. Atlanta, for instance, has some really, really terrible gumbo. ---------------------------- My moms from Louisiana, she may or may not add okra when she makes gumbo, I get the feeling she is unaware that okra is an ideological issue with gumbo. Her only rule about it is if you add okra, you want to add tomato. I may or may not add it, just depends if I remember to get it, or feel like the extra work frying it. |
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Some people, members of this very site, use roux from a jar. The Person I was visiting in LA gave me a bag of this. (He 57, LA all his life, family goes back a couple hundred years in LA) 
He said that it was a pretty dam good shortcut. So I looked for reviews and it seems pretty popular. In fact even this guy likes it and he has a bunch of traditional gumbo videos up. 
So I tried it. Dressed it up with some onions, celery, peppers and used some good andouille sausage and stole the meet from a grocery store rotisserie chicken. It was not as good as the best I had in LA, but it was pretty damn good. I made some dirty rice and blackened some speckled trout I brought home last night (yum). I'm gonna make some real gumbo soon though. |
| Yep....first you make a roux, which is important for most Cajun dishes. Got to have a dutch oven and lots of patience to make it properly. Forget the okra. I'm a long way from an expert but lived in W. Monroe for about 5 years. That place is indeed "sportsman's paradise." |
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Quoted: Quoted: Some people, members of this very site, use roux from a jar. +1 Guy on the food channel won the chicken gumbo contest in Westwego LA several years back using roux from a jar. Showed him buying it at food market. I gave O_P a real hard time for using roux out of a jar, but realistically: Roux is nothing more than flour fried in oil. So what if you use it pre-made? It shouldn't taste any differently than "fresh" roux. But I'm just guessing. Personally, I'm too cheap to buy it.  |
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Quoted:
Nothing wrong with roux in a jar. We use Savoie's when in a hurry. Only problem with premade roux is that you dont have control on how brown it gets. When making roux from scratch, you can get it as light or dark as you want. This. I don't always have time to make a roux. mom and both of my grandmother's use jar roux and their gumbo comes out fine. Gumbo, like any other dish, is better the more time and effort you put into it. jar roux with boneless skinless chicken breasts won't be as good as a duck and sausage gumbo that you made the roux for, but its still a good meal. also, nobody on the southwest side of the state uses okra in their gumbo. we smother it with tomatoes or fry it. |
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about the only way your gonna get good gumbo is let a cajun cook it for you...
I pretty much gave up lol my friends mother makes her own roux.... her gumbo is the best I have ever had her son uses roux out of a jar most of the time... his is #2 neither use okra now to stir this pot up.... both put some boiled eggs in to soak. good stuff both also make potato salad to go with it. I like a hunk of potato salad right in my gumbo. I forget what they call it but its something French people do
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While not from Louisiana I did grow up in coastal Alabama and we put both roux and okra in our gumbo. Mobile was founded by the same brothers as New Orleans (Iberville and Bienville LaMoine) but a couple years earlier, so do the math on that. I just use chicken thighs when I'm doing chicken and sausage gumbo rather than the whole bird, and if I can't get andouille where I am at the time I'll substitute in linguica or chorizo. For roux I will always use butter, never oil, and like others I try to get it as dark chocolaty brown as possible, and will lift the pan off the heat for the last couple of minutes while stirring to use the residual heat so it doesn't burn, and drop it onto the veggies which are already cooked. File` is a must.
There's something that's magical about duck for gumbo. It's just...so...ducky. My wife does it AMAZINGLY well. |