hwilson41

Try the muffins with chopped pickled jalapeños mixed in, then topped with a small ladle of good Texas Red Chili on top. You'll be creating a whole new meal .

I'm anything but expert on this topic, but I can read an ingredients list with the best of them . Neither the andouille not the tasso that I received from Jacob's yesterday even list smoke as an ingredient, and both have quite obviously been smoked for quite a while. Your butcher is trying to BS his way through this by intimidation. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the "smoke" he's talking about came from a bottle . It might be very good sausage, but it isn't smoked in the tradational sense of that word. As Fist and Fifi said though, that doesn't at all mean it wouldn't make a good gumbo.

This one from gumbo pages is pretty good. I particularly like that it has no salt in it, so you can control your own salt level. I use a little more cayenne than the recipe calls for, but you can play with that until you get one you like that won't gun you down .

The tasso is pretty undistinguished in appearance. Just dark, smoked little chunks of ham about the size of a closed fist but not as thick. I haven't broken the vacuum seal yet, but if you like, I'll be glad to post a picture later today.

I'll third the motion. Must brown first for best flavor. BTW, bacon drippings make a really dandy browning fat .

OK, the shipment from Jacob's arrived. Here are two pics of what their andouille looks like. First, the whole enchilada (one of five). For reference, that ruler is 15" long. The sausage smells even better than it looks. Here's a shot of a few slices. This one's a little fuzzy, but hopefully you can see that these are made up of quite large pieces of meat. Not much fat, as sausage goes, but very, very flavorful. One pound of this will disappear in tonight's shrimp and sausage jambalaya . Speaking of which, I need to go buy some shrimp. THW Note to Rachel: The andouille's in the mail. Be sure to watch for the postman .

I am confused. ← Highchef was spot on. A typo on my part, which I have since edited. Sorry. I guess it was too early in the morning . THW

In my mind the roast pork (after marination in Mojo) is the most critical. Good ham isn't that tough to find, although Cuban bread can be a trick. For years, I ate Cubanos at Antonio's just off 7th and D NW in DC. The sandwiches were heaven on a Cuban bun, and since they closed, I have never found another to equal it or even very close (sigh). Maybe I need to go to Florida . THW

Moët & Chandon is another trick for the unsuspecting. Moët, so I've read, is actually Dutch and the "t" is pronounced (Chandon is French). THW

Yessir, buddy, I'm all over this one. Great idea, Varmint. Give me a little while, and I'll have you a nice list we can work on . THW

Lessee now, "white chili". Hmmmm. That would be sort of like gumbo make with English peas, macaroni and Velveeta, right ? Geez, have you people no shame ? Chili is made with beef (usually, although venison also makes damn good chili if you add some pork fat). What you describe may taste very good, but it ain't chili! . THW Edited because I initially made a broader statement than I was willing to defend once I reflected on it for a little while .

Beautiful, beautiful job on the gumbo Dim Sim . Re getting real Cajun or Nawlins food outside Louisiana, I'm an expat Texan and now live about 20 miles outside DC, and you can buy just about anything you can pay for around here, probably second only to NYC area. There is a lot of stuff being sold that is called andouille, but it doesn't resemble very closely the sausage I get from Jacob's in LaPlace. Some of it isn't even smoked, and I doubt the folks making it ever tasted the real thing. Brooks put me on to Jacob's, and it is very, very good, and very coarsely ground. I have a shipment of andouille and tasso due in from them today, and I'm going to post a picture of the andouille uncased to answer a question that came up earlier in this thread. So I guess the short answer is "no", at least not around here. I'm guessing you probably can get the real thing in NYC, but don't really know. Again, great job on the gumbo (but I'll leave the happy dance to Fifi ). THW

That is spot on from what I've read. On the ranch (and on the cattle drives), chili was a good place to use up flavorful but tough cuts, including things like neck meat. They also made beef stock by accident, because they started out with the meat still on the bone and only removed the bones after the meat had cooked off. Sure sounds good to me. Maybe I'll leave out the tomatoes when I make it next . THW

I predict you'll love the results. In my recipe (3 lbs beef, cut in 1/2" or so pieces), I add 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate at the end, just long enough for it to melt into the rest of the pot. It really does make a difference. Subtle, but you can taste it. THW

Was it this recipe by any chance? It seems a little curious to me that a recipe for chili powder has chili powder as one of the ingredients . THW

Ditto from me. Our store tomatoes this time of year are pink cardboard, so I bought a can of Furmano's diced tomatoes (sans Italian spices) and a can of their tomato purée. Both are quite good, and far better than Hunt's or any other of the usual store brands I've tried. The recipe suggests quenching the roux with the trinity, then simmering until the onions are soft, then adding the tomatoes. Then simmer again, then add okra, simmer again, etc. How important that sequence is, I haven't a clue . Re amount of tomatoes, I just went with a SWAG, figuring that 4 seeded and diced tomatoes should make about 1 1/2 cups, so I put about 1/2 cup of tomatoes in and added purée until it looked right to me . Since I've not done it the other way around with seafood, I have no idea what reversing the order would be. For comparison, I went with the 2:1:1 proportion you suggested on the trinity (same proportions I've used for years in jambalaya), and that started with 3/4 cup or so of onion, etc. So bottom line, probably a shade less of tomato than onion, but not by much. And thanks to all for the kind words. It was fun making the gumbo, and really fun eating it . THW

Your suspicions were spot on, and thanks for confirming them for me. I thought the proportions in the original recipe looked a little skimpy too. I still don't think 1/2 cup of oil and flour would be too much, even in a reduced recipe. The gumbo was fairly thick, given the okra and the roux, but no thicker than some of the other stews I make. THW

Well, my first seafood gumbo from scratch is a done deal. I hate to brag...bullsh*t, I don't hate to brag at all ... it was wonderful. I started with the recipe from gumbopages with most of the quantities reduced by almost a factor of four (except the roux) and incorporated several suggestions and modifications from eg members. Here's what the finished product looked like...after I had eaten two generous servings (first meal of the day ). The pot is a 5 Qt LC, just to give you an idea of the scale. I used 1/3 cup each of AP flour and peanut oil and cooked the roux for 30 minutes or so, and suspect it was darker than the original recipe called for. It was what I'd call a little darker than peanut butter. Although the recipe calls for less, that is certainly not too much roux IMHO, and a bit more might not have hurt either. Then I pitched in the mise and it cooled down very quickly. From there on in, it was pretty much standard. Add tomatoes and a little tomato purée: simmer; add seasonings: simmer; then the okra (yum) for another 10 minutes, then the homemade shrimp stock and let the whole thing simmer for 30 minutes while I made the white rice. Shrimp in for last 10 minutes, then oysters for last 5, then lump crab just long enough to heat through. By this time the whole kitchen smelled like I had died and gone to heaven . Ate one serving, and it tasted so good I decided to have another . The picture above is the leftovers. It was sooo good, I'm debating now whether I'll make it again this week or not. When my wife got home, I gave her a taste and she said "That's really good." That was the trial by fire, because she is much more picky about seafood than I, so that was the crowning glory . All in all, a really great day in my culinary life, and my thanks to all for the great suggestions. THW

I've never used a cascabel, but I use jalapenños all the time, and chipotles some but less often. How hot is the cascabel? These folks say it's about the same on the Scoville scale as a poblano (or ancho), which to my taste buds isn't very hot. The bare bones chili sounds like fun. Now all I need is a decent recipe for homemade chili powder . THW

[snip] I still can't picture the white chili, I think I'm stuck on how similiar that sounds to my cassolute (sp?)..sans the sausage. ← Ditto for me. White chili sounds like a contradiction in terms. I think maybe that's one of those things that crept in the 80s like Fifi described in the evolution post above. Some things are just best left alone. You want a white "something"? That's fine with me. But it ain't chili . THW

Rachel, I'm not Brooks, but I have a shipment of andouille from Jacob's in LaPlace due in Friday sometime. Their andouille also has very large pieces in it, and I'll be glad to post a picture after it arrives, or send it to you, whatever you like.

I think I'll just leave the quantity of roux full bore and that should solve that problem. When I first read the recipe, it struck me as not much. I'll try the volumes you suggested in the chicken and sausage. I too get frustrated when somebody tells me to use two onions. I can make anywhere from 3/4 cup to 2 cups from that depending on the onions . I'm a tomato and okra guy all the way. Both are already bought. I'm just waiting to run to the seafood market for the shrimp, oysters and crab. All else is already on board...and my cooking fingers really have the itch . THW

That is what I have always used. BTW, it is getting hard to find, at least here.... I am about to make the next step and do my own. Anchos are easy to get and I have a dehydrator setting on my DeLonghi oven. The other approach is to rehydrate the chiles in hot water and puree them in the blender and use the paste. What I don't know is what the equivalents are to powder. I suppose you could taste as you go. ← The best sources around here are the Mexican mercados. They have the ground chiles anchos in plastic bags of moderate size. Also have fairly large bags of dried anchos, but I've wondered if it was worth the trouble. I like my chili pretty hot, and usually end up adding a good dose of cayenne to the chili powder. I tried adding a fresh habanero to the green anchos and jalapeños the last time I made chili, and the heat was good, but there was a sweetish overtone that didn't quite fit. I guess I'll stick with cayenne next time . THW

Thanks for the advice. I thought the roux looked a little skimpy too, but what do I know. I'll fill this one up, given the scale of course. I try to persuade my wife that you just have to spend money to try new things until you get it right, so I'm not too worried about the expense . Thought I'd try 1/2 lb shrimp, 6 or 8 oysters, and 1/2 lb or so of crabmeat. Haven't decided whether or not to put in any blue crab still in the shell. I live about 50 miles from Chesapeake Bay, so good seafood isn't a problem. I'll make the shrimp stock first (from shrimp with heads still on), then chop the mise so I'm in gear when the roux is done. Any other advice or pointers would be most welcome. If I don't screw this up, I'll report back on how it turned out. If I do, well, just forget you know my name . THW

Allright, dammit, I just can't resist any longer . Will be trying this recipe for seafood gumbo tonight. My only problem is that I need to vastly reduce the quantities because I'll only be feeding myself and maybe one other. I'm concerned about non-linearities in the recipe, despite the author's remarks to the contrary. Will probably try a 1/4 scale, and I know not everything can be just divided by 4. Any advice from you folks with more experience? TIA. THW