What about that Spicy Gumbo?

Living so close to Louisiana, I always loved the flavors that Cajun cooking brings. I especially love to eat gumbo. When I first learned to cook gumbo, I used okra. Personally, I don't like okra and if you don't lightly fry it (or so I learned), you will end up with slimy gumbo. No bueno. For this recipe, I avoided adding okra and chicken.

Ingredients:

4 medium sized celery stalks, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped
1 tbsp bacon fat
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp bacon fat
4 cups of chicken or fish stock
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp course ground pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp worcheshire
1 lb andouille sausage
1/2 lb shrimp
1/2 lb crawfish meat

Well, first start with chopping all of the veggies. Remember that in most Cajun and Southern cuisine, its important to have the "holy trinity" which is the celery, onion and bell pepper.

Turn on the stove and place a large pot onto the lit flame. Add the bacon fat to the pot.  As from the previous posts, I have used bacon that I have cooked on Sunday.

While you have the veggies sweating out with the bacon fat, start to make your roux in a separate pan. Add your flour to the pan that has the bacon fat. Remember the recipe where you make that gravy? Well its the same concept. Just keep in mind that a good roux has to be a nice chocolate brown.

In the pot that you are cooking the veggies in, add the stock and sausage. Allow for it to cook, but slowly add the roux to the mixture. Continue to stir the mixture and you will notice that the roux will mix will with the stock. Allow to cook for a good 5 minutes or when you notice that the roux is dissipated.

 

While that is cooking, add the spices and worcheshire to the mixture.

Notice that its crawfish season, so I had to settle for getting some frozen crawfish. Add both the crawfish and the shrimp last. You don't want the seafood to be too rubbery. If you are eating this a day or too later, add the seafood the day off. Bring this to a boil if you do that. This way it cooks evenly and it is good and hot. This is what I did as you know I tend to cook multiple meals in one day.

Traditionally, just have it with some white rice. With this, I will be eating some crackers and enjoying a tall glass of water (might be a little spicy for some).