Gumbo night
Blog: Winemaker's Journal
February 12, 2010
A momentous weekend if ever there was one. Today is Lincoln's birthday, Sunday is Valentine's Day. It's also Chinese New Year, the start of the year of the tiger. Monday is the Presidents Day holiday. Tuesday is Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.
Did I forget Saturday? That's the really big one for me. Time for my traditional Mardi Gras party. Only this year it's a Mardi Gras-Valentine-Chinese New Year party. Forget those old dead presidents.
I've been gearing up all week gathering ingredients, boiling chickens into stock, stirring oil and flour into a rich brown roux and chopping bell peppers, celery and onion — the trinity — all for the big pot of gumbo I'll serve a dozen friends Saturday night. There will be lots of hors d'oeuvres, spicy shrimp, cajun sausages, red beans and rice and blackened cod. And lots of home made beer and wine, of course.
I've blended several recipes over the years to come up with what I think is a good one, with lots of chicken, often turkey, smoked sausage, shrimp, okra, greens and sometime crab or lobster. It's a lot of work but worth it. There are much simpler recipes to be found on the Internet and recipe books if you want to take a quicker, cheaper route.
No time to write down the recipe. It's time to go stir the pot. But here's an online recipe from Chuck Taggert that's pretty similar to what I make.
http://gumbopages.com/food/gumbo.html
Happy Valentine/New Year/ Mardi Gras to all!
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alex39 1 year, 12 months ago
Gumbo night
Everyting sounds good, no, everything sounds Great!...except for the Okra.
No amount of essay writing can ever succeed in convincing me that Okra was ever intended as food for humans.
I've eaten Okra Gumbo in Georgia, Florida, Louisianna and California...I have the same conclusion regarding all of it: it aint people food if it contains Okra.
Gummy/Slimmy are not appetizing things intended for human consumption.
On the other hand, some folks in my acquaintance are rather fond of fried Okra; I ain't one of them either.
irwin 1 year, 11 months ago
Gumbo night
Y'all makin' this ol' cajun's mouth water, cher, with crazy talk of spicy sausage, red beans and -- mm-mmmm -- even okra (fried, please). Show us your grits!
steigmeyer 1 year, 11 months ago
Gumbo night
Some folks use filé (ground sassafras root) in place of okra as a thickener, but I prefer green things. I used a one-pound bag of frozen sliced okra for a two-gallon pot of gumbo and it wasn't slimy or gummy at all. I ate some more last night (actual Mardi Gras) and have two quarts to put in the freezer for my next spicy craving. So gooood!
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