I just went through the article about Southern dishes everyone should know how to cook and the recipe for Gumbo (#21) had me lamenting so much, that I promised I'd share a real (& fantastic) recipe for it from the book we own. OK, so there was everything wrong with that recipe supplied by Southern Living. There was no roux, there was filé as well as okra, they didn't use the proper stock, and they made the name of the recipe redundant. If you want to know how to make real, for real Gumbo and not some watered down or overly tomato Yankee-fied Chef Boy-ar-dee version, then this is the recipe for you. This book has Seafood, Duck, and Turkey. We make Seafood and then pretty much follow the recipe for Duck, omitting anything seafoody, for Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. But, I'll supply all recipes here with an asterisk beside anything we might do differently. Seafood GumboSTOCK: 5 quarts water 2 dozen boiled crabs 3 pounds raw shrimp (heads and shells on) 1 carrot 1 onion, quartered 1/2 cup coarsely chopped celery Fill a 6-quart stock pot with the water. Pull off back shells of crabs, adding shells to the pot. Discard inedible spongy fibers, break crabs in half, and set aside. Peel shrimp, adding heads and shells to the pot. Set shrimp aside. Add carrot, onion, and celery to the pot. Cover and simmer for two hours. Strain stock and return to pot. *(You just want to make a seafood stock and that means shells, ends and pieces, of course along with the holy trinity of French & creole cooking (the onions, carrots, and celery). If you have fish heads, you can add that. Only crab shells that's fine. Just not meat. Only the carapace shells (not harder shells like oyster or mussels) and tails and heads of things.)* GUMBO: 3 cups finely chopped onions 1 1/2 cups finely chopped celery 1 cup finely chopped green peppers 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 3 pounds okra, cut into 1/4" pieces 1 cup & 1 tablespoon cooking oil 2 tablespoons flour 1 16-ounce can tomatoes, drained 1/2 cup diced ham or sausage 1 teaspoon thyme 1 teaspoon basil 3 bay leaves 1/4 cup parsley, chopped salt pepper Tabasco Worcestershire sauce 2 cups cooked rice Sauté onions, celery, green peppers, and garlic in 1/4 cup oil until soft. Fry okra separately in 3/4 cup oil over medium heat, about 45 minutes or until soft and ropey texture is gone. Stir often. More oil can be added if okra sticks. In separate frying pan, make brown roux with 1 tablespoon of oil & 2 tablespoons of flour. Add tomato pulp and cook into a paste. Add ham, thyme, basil, and bay leaves. Cook for 5 minutes. Add sautéed seasoning and okra to stock and while stirring, slowly add the roux. Simmer for 1 hour. Add peeled shrimp, crab halves, parsley, and cook an additional half hour. Season with salt, pepper, Tabasco, & Worcestershire to taste. Serve in bowls over rice. *(You can make the roux with butter or oil, but we find that oil for seafood and butter for chicken is best. You should know seafood before deviating from the recipe. Oysters and fish don't take as long to cook, so you'd add them 5 - 15 minutes before done. If you don't know seafood, just follow the recipe as listed above. Also adding crab claws or (if you don't make the stock with the shells) you can just have half whole crabs all up in your Gumbo.) Now, I've heard people saying they spent $50 to $100 just on the seafood (crabs, oysters, shrimp, fishes, I don't even know what else!) they were using for their Gumbo. Gumbo is poor people food, y'all. You use what you have. You're not supposed to pay big bucks. There are two options here. Either use one seafood item or buy fresh off the boats. I know not everyone can do that, but when you go to the local fishmonger or the people selling shrimp and crabs off their boats, you get a MUCH better deal than going to the grocery store. If you're severely land-locked, you should just opt for one or two seafood items at the store. (Incidentally the mega bucks on seafood Gumbo? They lived in Mobile, Alabama with extremely close access to seafooding boats. They were just dumb. It's fine if you've got the money to blow, but they laid the money down to make the food and bitched about the price & they live in a coastal town (not 2 hours away like me)! That's why they're dumb). Some people just aren't that into it and picking up some frozen shrimp at the grocery store is OK for them. We are some serious shrimp people, so we round up about $50 and drive two hours to the coast with a large ice chest. We get their before noon, buy some shrimp right off the boat and that $50 worth of shrimp will last for numerous gumbos, shrimp boils, and shrimp fry's. Pretty much until next shrimp season. We make a day of it on the coast because the shrimp is in ice, then head home and set to work. Which is also the bit most people don't like, but I actually find great enjoyment out of it. You sit down around the ice chest and start digging in. You'll pull the shrimps out, take the heads off and (save the heads for seafood stock - the heads'll freeze), but mainly your throwing the bodies into a bowl. It depends on what you want the shrimp for and how much work you're willing to do in the moment. You can peel and devein some to go in different bags than the simply headless one's. But you'll put your shrimp in Ziplock bags with a little water and freeze them into 1/2 inch flat rectangles. We'll buy crabs off the boat too. Dad used to fish, but doesn't anymore, so it's only if we happen to have some around that we'll throw it in. Pretty much we might be spending $10 on the seafood we add to Gumbo, because we got it off the boats, or if we're lucky, there's a good price at a local asian market on fresh shrimp and crab.)* duck gumboSTOCK: 3 large ducks or 4 small ducks 1 gallon water 1 onion, quartered 2 ribs celery 2 carrots 2 bay leaves 3 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon pepper Skin ducks; boil in water with onion, celery, carrots, bay leaves, salt and pepper for 1 hour until duck meat is tender. Strain; skim all grease and reserve 3 quarts of stock. If needed, add chicken or beef bouillon to make 3 quarts. Remove meat from carcass and cut into bite-sized pieces; return to stock. Can be made a day ahead. GUMBO: 3/4 cup flour 3/4 cup oil 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 cup finely chopped onions 1/2 cup finely chopped celery 1 cup finely chopped green peppers 1 pound okra cut in 1/4" pieces 2 tablespoons bacon grease 1 pound raw, peeled shrimp 1 pint oysters and liquor 1/4 cup chopped parsley 2 cups cooked rice In a large Dutch oven, make a dark brown roux with flour and oil. Add garlic, onions, celery, and green pepper; sauté uncovered on medium heat about 1/2 hour until onions are transparent. In separate skillet, sauté okra in bacon grease until all ropiness is gone, about 20 minutes; drain. In a soup pot warm stock and slowly stir in the roux and vegetables. Add okra; simmer covered 1 1/2 hours. Add shrimp, oysters & their liqour, and cook an additional 10 minutes. Stir in parsley and remove from fire. Correct seasoning and serve over hot, fluffy rice. turkey gumbo1 turkey carcass 4 tablespoons flour 4 tablespoons bacon grease 1 cup chopped green onions 1 cup chopped celery 4 tablespoons chopped parsely 2-3 bay leaves 1/2 teaspoon thyme 1 cup chopped sausage 3 cups turkey meat from carcass salt pepper 1 pint oysters & liquid 1 tablespoon gumbo filé 2 cups cooked rice In a soup kettle, cover turky carcass with at least 8 cups of water and boil about 1 hour, or until meat is easily removed from the bone. Remove carcass and pick meat off bone. Strain and reserve 6 cups of turkey broth. To make roux, brown flour in bacon grease until mixture is a rich dark brown. Add onions, celery, and parsley; sauté 5 minutes. Slowly add broth to roux; add bay leaves, thyme, sausage, and turkey meat. Salt and pepper to taste and cook over low heat 1 1/2 - 2 hours, adding oysters for last 5 minutes of cooking. Add filé just before serving. Remove bay leaves and serve over hot rice. *(So, here are examples of Gumbos. The seafood has a seafood stock (or base), the poultries have poultry stocks (base). Two use only okra, one uses filé. None use both. All make a roux. There's a lot of oysters in New Orleans cookery, so it doesn't surprise me they'd add it to the poultry ones. They even make oyster stuffing down there (it's even in this book). However, we don't eat oysters. I should say, The Sister & I don't eat oysters. So, we cobble the poultry recipes together. Here's what we add or omit. We like okra, so we do the 1 pound & procedure listed in Duck. We leave out all seafood (no shrimp or oysters) & obviously we don't use filé ever, because we always make Gumbos with okra (or we don't make them at all). We make the Duck roux, but we usually use butter or bacon grease instead of oil. Our poultry of choice is chicken, so me made chicken stock in the same way they make their turkey stock for Turkey. We add the sausage, bay leaves and thyme listed in Turkey. We cook for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, which is both Duck & Turkey.) You can fix Gumbo how you want, as long as you follow the basic rules. Like you can add anything extra you like or cobble recipes together to form your own. However the basic rules are 01. Always make a roux. That's how it's the right consistency and not too watery and not too thick. Plus it gives it flavour. Bacon grease, oil, butter; doesn't matter, just make the roux for the love of all that is holy! 02. It can have tomatoes (though it doesn't have to), but tomato is not the main player in Gumbo, so don't over do it or you have spaghetti sauce Gumbo, which isn't Gumbo. 03. Always choose the appropriate stock. Your stock is your liquid base and should be the same flavour as your main players of meats. Seafood stock for Seafood Gumbo. Poultry stock for Poultry Gumbo. It doesn't mean you can't add to it, like them adding oysters (& oyster liquid) to a poultry Gumbo, because their stock is poultry and this is just a slight addition of extra flavour, not the flavour. You can add a scant amount of poultry or beef stock (or even poultry pieces if you want) to a Seafood Gumbo... as long as your main players are seafood items and your majority of stock is seafood based. 04. Though it's preferable that you use okra (& if you cook it first, the way these recipes tell you to, you don't get the "but it's too slimy" comment from people, because you've pre-cooked the sliminess out. Boom! If you cook Gumbo correctly (meaning you're pre-cooking the okra correctly, there's not really any reason to not use okra), you don't have to. I suggest the okra, but filé is just fine. But NEVER use filé and okra together. Also you must have one or the other, or it is NOT Gumbo.) And this concludes your helpful tips on proper Gumbo making as per the people of New Orleans & the surrounding areas who invented the damn dish.)* Now we'll move on to Étouffée, because y'all don't know how to make that properly either. There's only crawfish in this book, but it is perfectly fine to make chicken (& OMG you will want to! Seriously. Do it.) We follow this recipe and fanangle it to not be seafoody. crawfish étouffée2 sticks butter or 1 1/2 sticks butter & 1/2 cup crawfish fat 1/4 cup flour 1 cup chopped green onions 1 cup chopped yellow onions 2 garlic cloves, minced 1/2 cup chopped green pepper 1/2 cup chopped celery 1 bay leaf 1/4 teaspoon thyme 1/2 - 1 teaspoon basil (optional) 8 ounces tomato sauce 1/2 teaspoon white pepper 2 teaspoons salt 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Tabasco to taste 2 cups liquid* 2 pounds cooked crawfish tails 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind 1/4 cup minced parsley 1 tablespoons cognac (optional) 1/2 cup chopped green onion tops (optional) Make a walnut-coloured roux with 1 stick butter and flour. Add green onions, yellow onions, garlic, green pepper, celery, bay leaf, thyme, basil and the remaining butter and crawfish fat. Sauté, uncovered, over medium heat for 30 minutes. Add tomato sauce, white pepper, salt, Worcestershire, Tabasco, & liquid. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer slowly, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Turn off fire. Add crawfish tails (if frozen, do not thaw), lemon juice, lemon rind, parsley, and cognac. This is better made the day before or early in the morning. Cover and refrigerate. Remove from refrigerator 1 hour before serving. Heat quickly, without boiling, and serve immediately over steamed rice. If desired, garnish with raw green onions. (omit cognac or wineif using raw green onions). *Liquid should be one of the following: 1 cup dry white wine plus 1/2 cup clam juice & 1/2 cup water -or- 1 cup clam juice & 1 cup water - or- 2 cups water *(Note that the liquid supplied is seafood or water, not poultry. See? Also note that it's just a tiny 8 ounce can of tomato sauce. It's not tomato-y to high heaven like some people (yes Southerners) are want to do. Also never forget the roux. OK, so we never make Crawfish, because it's too expensive, so we always make Chicken. We do the 2 sticks butter. 2 cups water for the liquid. Chicken in place of crawfish for the meat. We leave out the cognac, because we simply don't have it. Other than that, we follow the directions and measurements. Some times we make it the day ahead, other times just refrigerating for a few hours. We rarely have left overs because it's that damn good, but they leftovers are always better. More time for everything to co-mingle.)* I've made a few other things from this book wasn't too impressed (sweet potatoes in oranges - basically sweet potato casserole, in orange halves & pecan pie. The Quiche Lorraine was a really good recipe though.), but the only other thing we make a lot of out of this book is Red Beans & Rice, so here ya go. red beans & rice1 ham bone
11 1/2 cups of water 2 teaspoons garlic salt 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco 1 teaspoon Worcestershire 1 pound red beans, washed 1 cup chopped celery 1 cup chopped onions 1 1/2 cloves garlic, minced 3 tablespoons oil 1/2 pound ham, cubed 1/4 pound hot sausage, sliced 1/2 pound smoked sausage, sliced 2 bay leaves salt pepper 1/4 cup chopped parsley 2 cups cooked rice In a large pot or Dutch oven place ham bone, water, garlic salt, Tabasco, Worcestershire, and beans. Cook, uncovered, over low head. Sauté celery, onions, and garlic in oil until transparent. In another pan sauté ham and sausage; drain. Add cooked meats and seasoning to beans. Add bay leaves, salt, and pepper and continue to cook over low until beans are soft and creamy. About 2 1/2 hours. Remove bay leaves and add parsley before serving. For additional thickness cook longer. Serve over hot, fluffy rice. *(We just do the 1/2 pound of smoked sausage, possibly more. Omitting the hot sausage)*
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2021
Categories |