Mardi Gras Gumbo cook off
February 12th 6pm Pedro's

Chefs George Albiez and Chef Chris Kohut from
Chicago and Pittsburg, published in BonApetite
tickets limited rsvp at Pedro's

[reposted in this section]

Use my recipe and make the roux a rich, deep milk chocolate brown, and I guarantee you'll win!

--Lan Sluder

>>

CHICKEN, SAUSAGE AND SHRIMP GUMBO
The Roux
1 cup vegetable oil
1¼ cup all purpose flour

The Gumbo Base
1 fryer chicken (about 3 pounds), cut up
2 pounds Polish or Creole smoked sausage, sliced ¼-inch thick
3 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 medium tomato, chopped
¾ cup green onions, including tops (except tough ends), chopped
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
1 ½ pounds okra, sliced ½-inch thick (for thickening)
2 pounds whole fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined (leave a few unpeeled)
crab, conch or other seafood as available (optional)

Seasonings and Liquid
3 quarts water, or more as needed
2 teaspoons salt
1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne
¾ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
3 whole bay leaves, crushed
½ teaspoon Tabasco® or Marie Sharp's® hot sauce

NOTE: Feel free to substitute ingredients according to what is available or to taste. For example, you can add crab, conch or other seafood in addition to, or in place of, shrimp. You can also add or delete vegetables in the base – perhaps celery instead of tomato – and also use beer and/or chicken broth for part of the liquid.

Prepare and assemble the ingredients for the gumbo base and for seasonings.

Then heat vegetable oil in large 10-quart or larger cooking pot on medium-high heat. Add cut-up chicken and brown thoroughly on all sides. Remove chicken to plate and keep warm in 185 degree oven.

Make the roux by gradually adding the flour to the chicken-flavored oil in the pot, stirring constantly. Cook over low to medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the roux becomes dark brown -- the color of milk chocolate. If in doubt about the color of the roux, err on the side of making it too dark rather than too light. This may take 20 to 30 minutes. To get the dark brown color, you may have to slightly increase the heat level to near medium, but be careful not to actually burn the roux. Essentially you are letting the flour almost but not quite burn in the oil, and the stirring scrapes off the slightly browned flour from the bottom of the pan, slowing making the roux darker and darker.

When the roux reaches the right color, quickly add the sausage, onion, green pepper, green onions, garlic, parsley and tomato. It smells incredible! Keep cooking over low to medium-low heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add ½ cup of the water, the browned chicken and all the seasonings. Mix gently but thoroughly. Increase heat to medium and slowly add all the rest of the water. Bring the gumbo to a boil, stirring occasionally. When it boils, reduce heat to low and simmer. Add about one-fourth of the shrimp, including the unpeeled shrimp. Simmer for about 1 1/4 hours or until chicken is tender.

Remove about half the chicken with a little sausage and refrigerate, saving for another meal.

Add okra and simmer over low heat for another ½ hour. Add remainder of shrimp and simmer until shrimp are pink and done. Serve in bowls over boiled rice, accompanied by crusty New Orleans-style crusty, light French bread. Serves 10 to 12, or more.

Now that is great recipe! Lan, I did not know you were a Cajun!

Not a Cajun, but I lived in New Orleans for many years and still love to cook New Orleans Creole and Creole-Italian dishes.

--Lan Sluder

Lan,
you make your roux with oil? Say it ain't so!

Dan

Yes, generally, though some other gumbos I make I use half butter and half oil.

What do you make yours with?

--Lan Sluder

I also lived in New Orleans for a time, and yes, the traditional roux is made with oil. When I make a roux for gravy, especially turkey gravy, I use butter and flour.

Lan,
when I was a kid my best friend's dad was a cajun dude who worked in the oil fields near home. He taught us that a fellow could actually eat crawdads, or crayfish as he called them. The thought had never occurred to us before, and we had always used crawdads for bait. I was just a kid, but I seem to recall that he used butter or bacon grease for his roux.

When I worked in kitchens, years later, I learned soups & sauces from a yankee chef. He always kept a pot of roux going at the back of the stove. I recall him using butter, but he was from New York, so what did he know?

Oil, you say? I'll try that. I bet peanut oil would work well. I'll have to try your gumbo, too. Post a jambalaya recipe, too, or e-mail it to me.

Dan

yes please

Try bacon grease instead of vegetable oil. Take your time with the roux, cook it over medium heat. It takes me about 3 Abita Ambers to finish a roux, I assume on the island that would be 3 belikin's.

Witha handle like "mudbug" and listed in "Bat-ton Roouge", you got to be a Cajun! Welcome, there are several of us "paddling" around on the Board. I'm an old Raceland boy!

Azbob,
I noticed a few Cajuns on this board. I have just a little cajun blood but I grew up with these crazy bastards, god love em'. If you can't have fun hanging out with a cajun, you can't have fun.

I went through Raceland about a month ago on my way down to Leesville to fish, got into some nice redfish.

The town is growing.

Sorry, I have never much cared for jambalaya so I don't have a recipe for it.

--Lan Sluder

That guy knows how to make a roux! Bacon grease (we call it drippings) and TAKE YOUR TIME! Roux is an art. It will make or break your dishes. We live 15 miles from one of the biggest crawfish farms around. Buy'em live by the sack and have a good ole' boil. We then have a peel off and make gumbo later with the tails. HmmHmm dat's goot - Ah gar-on-tee! Springs a coming and my mouth's watering already. (I am the reining peeler in these parts 42 in 60 seconds)

I sure miss Justin! RIP

Lan,
I use butter for roux. My grandma taught me how to cook home style food, and she never missed a chance to use butter. She even made butter sandwiches, just plain or with jelly. It's only natural that I'd use butter.

Now, I learned to cook mexican food in my neighbor's kitchen. He had something like eighteen brothers and sisters, and a few of his sisters were kinda cute. But they spent all their time in the kitchen because feeding that troop was a full-time job, so I hung out in the kitchen. The Atardo family used lard at every meal that I can remember. Lard has some great uses if your cardio system can tolerate it.


Dan

Shrimp etouffé? Any cajuns here have a recipe???

Mudbug, another one here. raised outside of Lake Charles. Went to LSU and know every back road between Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Kentwoood....

Damn mudbug, I'm glad to know Raceland is still there, but growing, WOW! I get down there about once a year. My sister lives in New Orleans, but haven't been to Raceland in years!

Mudbug,
the assumption is good, but incorrect. Belikins are little beers, so you're looking at at least four of them to equal three real beers.

Dan

Divingcowgirl & Azbob, How often do yall get down to San Pedro? We love it down there. Will be there in March for a week.

My wife and inlaws will be in N'awlins for Mardi Gras this year. Mardi Gras has been a little more tame and a lot less crowded since Katrina. Seem to enjoy the lesser crowds since I'm older now. Have yall been lately?

Mudbug,
the assumption is good, but incorrect. Belikins are little beers, so you're looking at at least four of them to equal three real beers.

Dan, that's thinking on your feet. You would be well accepted here in south Louisiana.

whats up bug, i am currently in the area. northshore. i just got back from ac a week ago. there are alot of condos under construction, so much for reccesion, lol. in talking to the builders all of them have some sales as well.

fish

Mudbug, I get down to SP as often as I can, this weekend will be my 9th trip down in 2 1/2 years.... Hoping to make a trip again in May or June.. got it booked for Cinco De Mayo but may change.
I haven't been to NOLA in years... can't remember the last time I was there... But want to go back again one day soon!

Imagine that!

Next trip is coming in in 4 days: 2/14-21. That will be my 3rd trip within the last year! Love it! As soon as I get back I'll start making plans for the next one this summer.

Okay, who won the cookoff?

Since they both made different dishes there was no vote but I can say that would have been a really tough call as the both were so good.

the Jambalaya was superb.......#1 IMHO