My Confusing Horoscope

How do you like the barbecue place in Burtonsville on, what is it, 197, 198, the Spencerville Road? I tried it but prefer the Half Moon on Thayer Avenue downtown Silver Spring.

Where in Wheaton, please?

Before they turned it into a soft drink, I liked the name Mountain Dew for Moonshine, i.e. illegally privately made "whiskey" There's a famous song going back to Ireland, popularized in the US by Bascom Lamar Lunsford and Scotty Stoneman in the 20s They call it that old mountain dew And them that refuse it are few

We were planning on yardbird this week, Prudhomme Family Cookbook recipe! One time at the start of a staff meeting at work we were all chit chatting and somebody said they didn't like fried chicken. I surprised even myself, and the whole staff, with my emphatic, immediate reply "You don't like fried chicken?????? Well THAT IS COMMUNIST!"

Thanks fou! That's me, MCH. That's easier than My Confusing Horoscope!

Try Cajun music at http://npmusic.org/artists.html (That's my Web site!)

One time at a Maryland restaurant I won't name I ordered jambalaya and the waiter asked me if I wanted rice with that.

Summer vegetable gumbo? I would try it. What do you mean by summer vegetables? Do a lot of you fellow people from Louisiana and Texas grow zucchini? I am not sure I can even spell it. I knew of squash and liked it growing up but not like up in Maryland where everyone seems to grow it. What's in a summer garden down there these days? I gardened with Daddy growing up and it was a lot of okra, butter beans, canteloupe, black eye peas, tomatoes and cucumbers, hot peppers. I wouldn't put some of those in a gumbo but okra and tomatoes and hot peppers. How hot do you make your gumbo? I use my garden grown tabasco and cayenne peppers these days (and they freeze well) but not jalapenos for some reason. Please elaborate!

Here is a link to an earlier thread in the Louisiana forum on those thinner gumbos in the Lafayette, Louisiana area: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=45484

It's the smell of a happy home, as we say around our house! Happy gumbo for you!

Y'all's pictures are mouthwatering! How did the okry turn out? (they called it okry where I came from). Did you have to smother it a couple of hours to get rid of the sliminess before adding it? I wish I had a digital camera and could show you what I meant by an okry gumbo in my earlier post. It's smothered down so much to the point that you see a lot of the seeds loose in the gumbo, and looks something like a lentil soup. Keep up the good cooking!

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 ← Let us know how that goes! I don't know why but I use crabs in the shell in a crab stew but picked meat in a gumbo. And the crab stew is basically the same recipe as gumbo only thicker and with less stock or water.

Use chicken livers in rice dressing/dirty rice. That would be an entirely different thread.

Well, even though I've eaten gumbo most of my life (grew up in Texas), I'm still pretty low on the learning curve when it comes to making it. Based on advice from Mayhaw Man, I get my Andouille here . It is very, very good , and I just ordered a fresh batch today. It's not as spicy as I thought I remembered from the old days when I still lived in Texas, but that's probably just one more vestige of an aging mind . Anyway, thanks for the help. Sounds like I should just jump in and try it. After all, if you start out with shrimp, andouille, oysters and blue crab, how far wrong can you go ? Thanks again. THW ← There's many ways to make it good! There's no one way or right way, that's for sure! Just better and less good. Come to think of it, even when I say we made it like that in Vermilion parish, our neighbors and relatives didn't make it just the same!

So if I were making a seafood gumbo, say shrimp and andouille, sans okra, I would use a roux? Spouseperson is not fond of okra, but we all love seafood. Actually, I might add oysters and crabs too . THW ← That sounds good. No okra but roux for a gumbo with shrimp, oysters and crab, i.e. seafood gumbo works well. Your sausage might overpower a seafood gumbo, in my experience, so go slow with that, to me. Now, that's not New Orleans cooking. I like New Orleans cooking too. What I am talking about is Cajun cooking where they speak French, to the west of the city. They say the bayou area around Lafourche parish is different too. Lots of regional variation, and even within regions.

I'm confused. I see no mention of a roux anywhere in the above shrimp and okra gumbo. Am I missing something, or is there not supposed to be any ? THW P.S. The okra gets big in Texas too . ← No roux in an okra gumbo in Vermilion parish. Don't see it much in restaurants in Cajun land. I know Don's in Lafayette has it but I can't think of anywhere else except those cheap plate lunch places like Soop's in Maurice.

I am from FistFullofRoux's neck of the woods (Vermilion parish) so I am curious to see how y'all make okra gumbo. I live in Maryland now so the okra I can grow in my garden is like the okra you can buy in the markets here, i.e. about 3-4 inches long. But when we used to garden in Vermilion parish, they used to be double that length! When I first saw small okra in a Maryland market, I asked the man, "No no, Where's your real okra?" He didn't believe me when I raised my hands to show him how big they should be. Anyway, we used to chop the okra and mix it with green peppers and onions, salt and pepper and simmer it down in vegetable oil for about two hours, until all the gooeyness was gone and the okra was a fairly brown color. The smell of a happy home! Then add canned tomatoes and simmer for a while. And it was never the cast iron pot. Turns out later I learned you shouldn't use cast iron pots with tomatoes. (This would freeze well if you wanted to make gumbo later). To this you would add your water or stock until you had the thickness you like. Then add shrimp tails, seasoned, and give it a few more minutes. I see Prudhomme's family cookbook has a recipe that calls for fried chicken okra gumbo, and it's good too! If you are in Cajun land, stop at a market for home grown okra. Everything's big in Cajun land (or is that Texas).

Life

Rhode Island Avenue?

Must do boiled crawfish this time of year. There are places in Abbeville (I am only familiar with Richard's on South Henry), but others around here can make other recommendations. Gator Cove in Lafayette?

Lots of good recommendations in this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=40644 and specializing in gumbo at this thread: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=45484

This recipe calls for a smoked ham glazed with root beer, from John Folse: http://www.jfolse.com/recipes/meats/pork28.htm Wonder how it would work with country ham?

I had lunch today at the Langley Park location, 1 o'clock. Had no trouble parking, no waiting in line. The place was busy, though! Good chicken and spicy beans! From New Hampshire going north turn right on University and it's a short way on the right.

Joe H, Do you remember the Westchester? Relatives of my wife owned and ran that place. All her brothers and sisters worked there. Probably went under in the 80s.

Me and my wife, Horoscope Clear as Can Be, tried this place tonight and were very impressed with what we had for dinner for $41: an appetizer of steamed mussels, Thai style with coconut, red mild chile, garlic and cilantro; thin crust pizza covered with caramelized onions, parmagiano reggiano (sorry about my spellling) and herbs (four pieces, good enough for two with a light dinner in mind); two glasses of wine, one imported beer, and apple caramel cheesecake! We're definitely going back. The mussels were no Mannequin Pis in Olney but we were impressed. Very tasty and aromatic, with great bread for dipping in the sauce. After doing some shopping we had tried to pop in at Addies on Rockville Pike without a reservation and were told we'd have about an hour wait, but they asked if we'd like to try their sister restaurant in Garrett Park, Black Market Bistro. They called ahead and made reservations for us. Very nice. Now, the entrees looked similar to what you would find at Addies, in the 18-21 dollar range. But we were quite satisfied with what we had.