Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.
Okay, I must admit I was a bit amused when I learned this month's challenge was gumbo having grown up in the heart of Cajun country. But I have been meaning to learn to make a seafood gumbo (instead of my beloved chicken and sausage), so this challenge gave me the opportunity to finally do so. Unfortunately, my head is POUNDING right now (which I suspect is the result of my discovering the tastiness of the pina colada this afternoon.)
Now, I don't want to be a Negative Norton, and this was a good gumbo, but John Besh's recipe was super counter-intuitive to me. Perhaps that's how they make gumbos in New Orleans, not in Cajun country. BUT I have finally had seafood gumbo and used the shrimp heads/shells that have been hanging out in my freezer for months. YAAY!
*****
Edit:
Now that my headache has cleared, I'd like to explain a bit more. In my quest to make my first gumbo, I spoke to many people about technique. Everyone I spoke to said the same basic thing. First you make your roux, then you whisk in your liquids and let that boil for at least an hour before adding anything else. Only after that hour do you add your veggies and meats. Then that boils for at least an hour longer, though usually much longer. With Besh's recipe, the roux is made, then the veggies are slowly added, then the meats, then the liquid is added as the last step. Having had horrible failure occur when my roux and liquid didn't come together, I was TERRIFIED that this would happen again and that unlike previous times, I wouldn't be able to just toss out the roux and start over again. Everything was already in the pot! So basically, with Besh's recipe, there was a lot of frantic whisking and praying.
That being said, the gumbo came out just fine. Everything mixed together and the flavors were right.
And honestly, I'm really looking forward to a bowl of that gumbo for lunch. Warm weather be damned!
*****
Edit:
Now that my headache has cleared, I'd like to explain a bit more. In my quest to make my first gumbo, I spoke to many people about technique. Everyone I spoke to said the same basic thing. First you make your roux, then you whisk in your liquids and let that boil for at least an hour before adding anything else. Only after that hour do you add your veggies and meats. Then that boils for at least an hour longer, though usually much longer. With Besh's recipe, the roux is made, then the veggies are slowly added, then the meats, then the liquid is added as the last step. Having had horrible failure occur when my roux and liquid didn't come together, I was TERRIFIED that this would happen again and that unlike previous times, I wouldn't be able to just toss out the roux and start over again. Everything was already in the pot! So basically, with Besh's recipe, there was a lot of frantic whisking and praying.
That being said, the gumbo came out just fine. Everything mixed together and the flavors were right.
And honestly, I'm really looking forward to a bowl of that gumbo for lunch. Warm weather be damned!
2 comments:
I hope your head improves soon and great to hear that you used up the ingredients in the house, sorry to hear it wasn't perfect for you.
Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
Oh Audax, it wasn't that that it wasn't a perfect pot of gumbo (though the perfect pot is an elusive creature). The recipe steps were just all out of the order that I'm used to. Darn headaches make it so hard to communicate!
Also, your breakfast gumbo looks amazing!
Post a Comment