The Last Gumbo

No, not the last gumbo I'll ever make.  Simply the last one for this project.  And what a gumbo it was.  Deep rich flavor, great combination of meats.  This post will outline in pictures the steps.   This recipe had as its basis, a recipe from Epicurious.com.  I deviated from the recipe based on things I learned from my other attempts.

At the heart of it is Andouille sausage, a spicy southern sausage.  This brings a lot of flavor to the whole thing.

It is fried in some oil briefly to brown.  It is already cooked when you buy it so this is just a way to up the flavor.

The next step is to make a roux, an essential component of a southern US gumbo.  All roux is is flour that is cooked in oil until it browns.  I let my roux brown quite a bit in this batch, about 7 minutes all together.  You have to stir the whole time basically so that it doesn't burn.

You can see in these three pictures that the roux is growing increasingly dark.  In the picture just above onions are added.  Followed by green bell pepper (another ingredient which seems common to all gumbos), celery and garlic.

These ingredients are cooked over a medium-low heat for about 10 minutes until they soften.

I put in about 1 and a half of these cartons of chicken stock.

This is where I deviate from the recipe.  I just really like tomatoes with these flavors so I added them even though the recipe didn't call for them.   I then let all of this simmer for about 45 minutes.

 Of course, OKRA.  You have to use okra.  This is frozen, cut okra so it's super easy to add.  I use about three-quarters of a package and let it simmer for about a half hour.  I don't like it to get super mushy.

Even though this looks a bit mysterious it's really just frozen scallops.  I put these in to thaw and begin to cook for about 5 minutes before I added...

...shrimp.  Note that the original recipe was for chicken and sausage.  I've made that one as well and really liked but both my wife and I seem to favor seafood a little more.  I've made some all seafood gumbos that were great.  However, the andouille sausage really makes it.   The shrimp cooks through in about 4 minutes and you're ready to go.

On the table I add hot sauce and something called Gumbo Filé.  It's a powdered sassafras root that adds a nice quality.   Eat this with some red wine on a cold day and you will certainly be warmed. 

Ultimately I've found that this is one of those great formulas that can go in all kinds of directions.  Try it some time if this is the kind of thing you like.