How to make gumbo

[Deep Days]

Here's my recipe. I'm told it's good, and I agree. I think you will, too.

The Goseys’ Gumbo
(makes one “batch”; double ingredients for ski shop quantities)

Ingredients
1 bag frozen cut okra (16 oz.)
1 large WHITE (not red, not yellow) onion
1-1.5 lb. sausage of your choosing
1 lb. chicken
1 lb. shrimp (Costco has good 1-lb. bags for gumbo; great shrimp)
1 qt. oysters (if you can find them)
About 3 gumbo crabs (sold by that name), halved
Several tablespoons of flour
Plenty of vegetable oil
Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
Crystal hot sauce
Cayenne pepper
Black pepper
Salt
4-5 bay leaves
1 small can tomato paste
A little dab of whole milk
Butter and olive oil
White rice
Soft spatula and manly wooden spoon are essential
And a big gumbo pot (many liters)

The meat (seafood doesn’t come until the end): 30-45 min
1. Cut the sausage in half lengthwise and then cut into about ½” widths. Cut the chicken into ½” or so cubes. Getting the size of the meat right is important to texture.
2. If you bought already-cooked sausage, throw that in a separate skillet with some butter, Tony’s, just a touch of olive oil, some cayenne, and plenty of Crystal. Basically “sautee” the sausage ‘til it’s seasoned right. Cooking the sausage with all the seasonings soaks the flavor in much better than if you just add seasoning at the end.
3. If your sausage isn’t already cooked, throw it in a big ol’ skillet with the chicken and cook the same way. Stir it all constantly, and keep mixing up the juices to evenly distribute the seasonings. Once it’s all seasoned to taste and cooked enough, just toss it in the gumbo pot for later. Get some of the meat juices in there, too. It adds character.
Note: if you can't do this all in one day, cook the meat one night and do the rest the following day. You do NOT want to eat refrigerated roux.

The roux: 20-25 min
1. Chop your onion into ½” squares before you do anything on the stove. Keep this handy during cooking the roux.
2. Start heating a cast-iron skillet (much better than a classic skillet) on about medium. After just a couple minutes (don’t want the skillet scorching hot), pour in enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom of the pan. It should be a little less than ¼” deep for a standard 14” skillet. Adding less is better than more at this stage because if the roux ain’t right halfway through cooking it, you can add more oil and be better off without having too much roux for the gumbo.
3. Let the oil sit and heat for 3-4 minutes. Again, you don’t want it too scorching hot before adding the flour.
4. Dump in (slowly) about 4 heaping tablespoons of fluffy flour. Immediately start stirring with a spatula (by far the best tool for this). You may want to adjust the temperature. Every stove is different, so it’s hard to say what’s best, but you want to find the Goldilocks zone that is hot enough to cook the roux (probably low-medium is the coolest you’d want) but not hot enough to burn it (medium-high is about right but may be a touch too hot). Burnt roux sucks. It makes the gumbo taste charred. So don’t burn it.
5. STIR, STIR, STIR, STIR, STIR with the spatula, keeping the roux on the sides and bottom circulating.
6. Watch for the roux to thicken up as it cooks and gets hotter. You should be able to drag the spatula through the roux to create a gap and watch it come back together after about 3 seconds. Much faster means it’s too runny and much slower means it’s too thick.
7. If it’s too runny, add flour a VERY little bit at a time to try to fix it. The earlier you fix it, the better.
8. If it’s too thick, add oil a VERY little bit at a time. Turning the heat up may help it thin out a little bit, so a LITTLE heat and a LITTLE oil in combination are usually a good remedy.
9. Once you’ve got the consistency right, it’s time to watch for the time: proper roux is a little darker than “café au lait” but not as dark as black coffee. Just keep stirring like a madman to keep the bottom and sides from burning.
10. When you get to the proper color, turn the heat off and throw in your chopped onion. The roux basically cooks the onions, and the onions keep the roux from burning while it darkens just a touch more. Once the onions are no longer totally crispy, spatulize all the onion-roux mess into the pot with the chicken and sausage. It’s gumbo time.

Rice ‘n’ Gumbo! 2 – 2 ½ hrs.
1. With the chicken and sausage (none of the seafood just yet), along with the roux and onions, in the pot, spoon in the small can of tomato paste, and add the bay leaves and okra.
2. Here’s the tricky part: water. I’ve never really exactly measured the water, but I think it’s about 3-4 cups. I sorta just add water until it looks like gumbo, which is something you’ll get a feel for after you cook and serve this a few times. It should be thin enough to need a spoon, even over rice, but thick enough to still be hearty and a little gooey. Experiment to get the water right. A good rule of thumb is to subtract a half cup to a cup in the beginning for shrimp and the same amount for oysters. They add some water to the mix at the end, but crabs don’t all that much.
3. Water, onions, roux, sausage, chicken, and tomato paste in there, turn the heat on medium-high, and add a tablespoon or so of whole milk. This makes it a little creamier and along with the paste, smooths out the gumbo.
4. Stir like a crazy person with a giant wooden spoon. You want to keep the stuff on the bottom of the pot from burning, which definitely does happen with inadequate stirring. Again, this will make it taste charred, which sucks.
5. As you’re stirring, add in a fair amount of Crystal, cayenne, and Tony’s and a little bit of salt and black pepper. The seasoning is also something you get a feel for after a few times, and continuous monitoring and experimentation are the best ways to get this right. Adding seasoning earlier in the process distributes it a little better and gives better results, but be careful not to add too much. Take into account that rice will dilute the flavor a little bit, so a bit too much is better than too weak. The seasoning while you’re stirring initially
6. Bring it all to a boil, stirring continuously. Once it’s boiling, throw the top of the pot on and turn the heat down to low or low-medium. It should be burbling steadily but not violently as it cooks.
7. Give the pot a good thorough stir ever 20 minutes or so. Every 15 is great, but every 30 even is acceptable. These intervals are a great time to do taste tests and to add seasoning to your liking. Cayenne gives a lot of bite and Crystal gives some acidity. Tony’s has some garlic powder, cayenne, onion powder, and salt in it. The right balance is up to you.
8. When the gumbo is starting to look nice and thick and brown (usually about 90 min after the initial boil), you’re almost done, so throw in your seafood. Stir this mixture frequently, letting it cook for another 30-45 minutes, depending on how soft you like your shrimp and crabs. If you let it go too long, everything will turn into mush, and that sucks. After you add the seafood is a good time to put the rice on.
9. Scoop the rice into a bowl, add a little butter, and give ‘er!

[Rontele]

this thread is worthless without pics.

[irul&ublo]

this thread is worthless without pics.

Since you insist:

[Pegleg]

Zee goggles! Zey do nothing!


Good gumbo recipe, but where's the file powder? It ain't gumbo without a sprinkle or two of file at the table.

[Nanuq]

Since you insist:

That was just unpleasant and uncalled for.

[MakersTeleMark]

No file, peppers, garlic, or celery? Well you got the okra covered.

[stuckathuntermtn]

happy now?

[summit]

OK before you go thrunting up this thread. Deep Days knows how to cook good gumbo.

[rideit]

Yeah, but will his sister serve it wearing only an apron?

[grrrr]

Gumbo has either file OR okra...and sometimes both.

Generally, I could do without the okra.

[BigDaddyLionfish]

They guy on the lefts tits are unnaturally low and its scaring the shit out of me

[RootSkier]

They guy on the lefts tits

The scariest part is that guy has posted in this thread.

[grrrr]

you’re almost done, so throw in your seafood. Stir this mixture frequently, letting it cook for another 30-45 minutes, depending on how soft you like your shrimp and crabs.

EPIC FAIL.

[Rontele]

They guy on the lefts tits are unnaturally low and its scaring the shit out of me

Its my silver dollar sized nipples that are throwing you off.

[Rontele]

Yeah, but will his sister serve it wearing only an apron?

where do you think he gets the "crabs" for this recipe?

[~mikey b]

i just threw up in my mouth a little bit

[Deep Days]

where do you think he gets the "crabs" for this recipe?

I don't see your mother that often, D, so sadly the crabs aren't a frequent occurrence.





Never done celery or peppers. Don't recall seeing celery or peppers or even cloves of garlic in the N.O. either. Guess you could add whatever you like, but crunchy celery in gumbo just sounds weird. Garlic is an option. Filé not necessary but a touch on top of the okra would be fine.

What's wrong with the seafood bit, grr?

Rideit: rumor has it that my sister's going into the Navy (seriously). Not exactly by choice, but it may be good for her. So she may not be around for serving... You can go ahead and say what you want to say now, D.

[grrrr]

Actually celery/peppers/onions are a classic cajun trio. you can go without the celery though.

Shrimp and crabs take only a few minutes to cook. Anything longer than that ensures they will be tasteless. I learned to cook gumbo at the Double Musky, and the shrimps would go in the gumbo when the customer ordered it, certainly not any sooner.

When you cook shellfish, they go from tender to tough...you can cook them back to tender (and eventually to mush), but you are destroying the meat in the process.

If you want crab or shrimp flavor in the broth, then start with whole heads-on shrimp. Shell and devein, then set the shrimp aside. Take the heads and shells and boil in a little bit of water. Replace the water in your recipe with that. Round out with clam or oyster stock if needed.

PS - the shrimp at Costco are usually farmed, bland things. Get some good quality wild shrimp if you can find them. The best choices are gulf whites, coons and spots.

[Deep Days]

Actually celery/peppers/onions are a classic cajun trio. you can go without the celery though.

Shrimp and crabs take only a few minutes to cook. Anything longer than that ensures they will be tasteless. I learned to cook gumbo at the Double Musky, and the shrimps would go in the gumbo when the customer ordered it, certainly not any sooner.

When you cook shellfish, they go from tender to tough...you can cook them back to tender (and eventually to mush), but you are destroying the meat in the process.

If you want crab or shrimp flavor in the broth, then start with whole heads-on shrimp. Shell and devein, then set the shrimp aside. Take the heads and shells and boil in a little bit of water. Replace the water in your recipe with that. Round out with clam or oyster stock if needed.

PS - the shrimp at Costco are usually farmed, bland things. Get some good quality wild shrimp if you can find them. The best choices are gulf whites, coons and spots.

Ah, my bad. I haven't done gumbo with seafood in over a year, and that was the only time I did it--with Costco shrimp in Colorado. I've gotten the sausage-chicken combo down pretty well, but my seafood experience is going off what I remember hearing my dad say when he originally taught me to cook this stuff about 2 years ago. He may have said 15 min and not 30.

I am quite ashamed at being unaware of the celery in gumbo and at never trying the bell peppers. However, chopped celery with peppers and onions go GREAT with a little lemon-butter (Mueniere... sp?) sautee for crabmeat to top fried speckled trout (if you can find that). So it's been tried... just not in gumbo.

[pechelman]

isnt gumbo basically just a soup\stew with a few certain key ingredients that you just throw whatever else you have on hand and is freshly available?

my point being is that a recipe seems kinda retarded and its more the technique and different ways to go about making a gumbo (ie file vs okra vs roux vs some combination thereof)
my second point being, put in whatever you like to eat, who the hell cares.

gumbo in principle just reminds me a lot of chili
there are as many different chilis as there are people who make them
who's to say whats right or wrong

but yea, cooking shellfish for 30+ mins is wrong
as grrrr says, more like 4-5mins.

edit
and i dont make gumbos, never been taught how, or lived in an area where gumbos were popular so i could be dead wrong.

[rideit]

When you make Gumbo, you gotta pick:
Cajun, or Creole.

Mixing the two turns it into some oddball gumbo.

DD, wish your sister luck with the navy thing from the collective.
She should have fun on a barge filled with semen.

[RootSkier]

Semen first class.

[Pegleg]

gumbo in principle just reminds me a lot of chili
there are as many different chilis as there are people who make them
who's to say whats right or wrong

Gotta disagree with you here - there is a wrong way to make chili. Chili requires the use of... chiles! As in, New Mexico, poblano, ancho, chipotle, etc. It pisses me off (maybe that's a little strong, but stilll...) when people call something "chili" that's just a meat or vegetable stew with no actual chile flavor. I'm not a super purist that rejects the use of anything other than meat, onion, chiles, spices and water (that's Texas competition rules - no beans), but c'mon - it's gotta have actual chiles in it, or it's just stew.

My personal favorite recipe uses 4 toasted ancho chiles and 4 toasted New Mexico chiles, ground into powder, plus 5 or 6 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. Rich, red and velvety.

[rideit]

You want a proper Chili technique TR?

Here ya' go:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...light=chili+tr

[lemon boy]

Max- in case it isn't obvious the celery, peppers and onions need to be sauteed until they're soft.

One common variation on this for gumbos is: make roux add stock to roux with celery and then later onion and later still peppers (in order of need for cooking)

LB likes duck gumbo.