Making Gumbo.

Gumbo is one of those dishes that makes people shy away from Cajun cooking. The trinity, the copper colored Roux, adding veggies and meats to make it taste great...seems to put a few cooks into a state of confusion and they doubt their abilities. There is no secret to good gumbo, really, I'm not kidding. Once you learn to cook a roux to a color and depth you like, the rest is just adding meat and seasonings to your taste buds. And there is no limit on what can be added to your gumbo so it's a great way to use up leftovers from the fridge or your garden produce. Meats can be as exotic as turtle to as plain as chicken. And veggies such as okra, corn, cabbage, and even carrots can be thrown in the pot if wanted.

The mysterious roux is just a combination of oil and flour. I use olive oil and vegetable oil combined, as olive can't take high heat but does add flavor. The technique is simple: Add oil to your pot, add your trinity (onions, green pepper, and celery) to the oil, cook until onion is transparent and other veggies are tender. Add flour to oil and veggies and stir constantly until the mixture turns from whitish to a coppery color. YOU HAVE TO STAND NEXT TO THE POT AND STIR the entire time or the roux will burn and taste nasty! Cajuns time the roux cooking by beer: a one beer roux is light copper colored, a two beer roux is medium, and a 3 beer roux is very dark copper (pretty much burnt if the cook is still standing).

So now you understand how the roux is made. You can also make the roux without the veggies. By doing it this way it just takes longer for the veggies to cook. No big deal. Also you can make roux ahead of time and store it in the fridge. Just remember this...hot broth add cold roux, hot roux add cold broth, and you will never do it wrong.

Ok, before you start the roux make sure you have all your ingredients in order. A bowl of cut up veggies (okra, tomatoes, corn, etc),

A bowl of meat (chicken, fish, rabbit, sausage, shrimp, etc), a few quarts of stock (chicken, fish, rabbit) and your seasonings (red pepper, black pepper, file, salt, garlic). If you have everything cut up and in bowls waiting making the gumbo goes much easier and quicker.

Once your roux is ready in the bottom of the pot, you add your stock slowly and stir it into the roux. Remember: add cold stock to hot roux! After you have the stock added and have stirred it well, let the stock/roux mixture come back up to almost simmering temp. At this time you can add your veggies and meat. One word of advice: if using shrimp, and the shrimp during the last 5-8 minutes of cooking before serving, otherwise they get tough.

Let the gumbo cook on a medium-low heat and stir every few minutes to check for how done the veggies and meat are. When the veggies seem tender enough and meat heated through then add your seasonings and stir. Let gumbo cook about 5-10 minutes more to incorporate the seasonings.

That's it! Serve the gumbo into bowls with a huge chunk of cornbread and a dessert.

Leftovers can be frozen for later use, and heats back up tasting excellent!

So try your hand at making a gumbo, just jump in fearless and confident, you can't mess up gumbo unless you burn the roux.

Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez!!!