Gumbo

[SobaAddict70]

To be completely honest (and, yes, mean): SNAP OUT OF IT, SWEETIE.

You don't know me well enough to call me "sweetie", so keep the endearments to yourself.

Since we're being honest and frank with each other, let me say that you couldn't have possibly been more patronizing ("re-read Evangeline") or condescending ("gumbo is a Cajun dish"), but somehow, calling me "sweetie" tops all that.

Anyway, whatever.

SA

[tommy]

To be completely honest (and, yes, mean): SNAP OUT OF IT, SWEETIE.

You don't know me well enough to call me "sweetie", so keep the endearments to yourself.

Since we're being honest and frank with each other, let me say that you couldn't have possibly been more patronizing ("re-read Evangeline") or condescending ("gumbo is a Cajun dish"), but somehow, calling me "sweetie" tops all that.

Anyway, whatever.

SA

no no, it's: what-eveeeeerrrrrr.

and, are you surprised?

[Jinmyo]

[SobaAddict70]

No, tommy, you have to say it like a true New Jersey mall rat: What-EVER! (pity egullet has no voice files or mpeg attachments.)

Talk to my hand, man!

SA

[Jinmyo]

Talk to my hand, man!

Arrrrr!!

[gknl]

Anyway, whatever.

SA

no no, it's: what-eveeeeerrrrrr.

[Dana]

Making roux is not an all-day affair. I make mine over med-high heat and it takes 20-30 min for a hershey bar color - perfect for good gumbo. Use equal parts veg oil and flour, and stir constantly. Be sure to have your onions, bell peppers, celery and garlic chopped and ready to go BEFORE you start the roux, or you'll be in trouble. Dump roux into a couple quarts of chicken stock, season WELL and let simmer for an hour. Add some cajun or other spicy (not kielbasa) sausage and let that cook another hour. Add a cooked chicken, shrimp or anything else you have in the fridge. Let the last additions cook through and serve over rice. We don't like the chicken and shrimp cooked to mush, but that's just us. Cajuns also like potato salad with their gumbo (big carb eaters). Gumbo is much better the next day!!

Enjoy. Gumbo is not brain surgery.

[col klink]

My minestrone-gumbo-wannabe was much better the next day. The spices worked their way into everything and it has a more rounded flavor.

Dana, when you add your roux to the stock, do you just dump it in? I always thought since it's so hot, that you slowly add stock to the roux until you get a nice consistency and then add the rest of the stock.

[Dana]

Yeah, mine usually just gets dumped - pan is HOT and HEAVY and I am a small person, usually alone while cooking. Do stir the roux in as quickly as possible. Also - I usually have better luck if the roux is hotter that the stock. One of those chemical things, I guess. It doesn't seem to separate if the stock is not boiling, just hot.

[Suzanne F]

SobaAddict, I'd much rather say this to you privately, but since you have already flamed me here, I will continue in public.

I don't get it. Are you mad at me because of the unhappy time you had at Gage & Tollner's? Is that what's at the bottom of this? When it was your suggestion to go in the first place, and I was the one who made the arrangements? Why did you have to pick a fight now?

Please note that by saying "re-read," I assumed you had already read "Evangeline" at least once -- an accomplishment I doubt many people your age have, these days. This is being patronizing? And then when you threw in the non sequitur about "Cajun not Creole hehe" after making statements that were unsupportable -- Why? Again, I don't get it.

Tommy seems to think that I believe I know everything; he couldn't be more wrong. But I DO have a rather eclectic range of food interests, and lots of materials that inform those interests (as well as a fair amount of practical experience). I know what I do know; I also know the limits of my knowledge. But I have no idea what you, or anyone else here, does or does not know about the topic at hand. So when I post, it's not to be patronizing or condescending to anyone, but simply to offer what I think someone somewhere might find useful. If you don't like that, so be it. But please don't accuse me because you had a bad time.

[col klink]

SobaAddict, I'd much rather say this to you privately, but since you have already flamed me here, I will continue in public.

Both of you, please do this privately, this is supposed to be about gumbo!

[Suzanne F]

Col Klink, you are absolutely right. I don't actually see the need to continue that anywhere.

[Jinmyo]

Sorry about the pirate, Colonel.

[col klink]

Sorry about the pirate, Colonel.

Actually, I felt bad for the pirate. How would you feel with a hand up your tukhes?

[Skie]

Klink, I don't know if there is a particular crawdad season or not, but I've seen live crawdads for sale (last June) at:

Wild Salmon Seafood Market

No kidding!?!

I've been there at least 3 or 4 times and I don't recall seeing them before. But then again, I wasn't looking for crawdads at the time, probably salmon and/or scallops.

I was surprised to see them, too. It was last year's (2001) Father's Day that I remember seeing them at Wild Salmon Seafood after our lunch at Chinook's. They were alive in a bucket, not in the window case, but on the other side. I'm thinking they must come from Lake Washington.

BUGS! (aka Crawdads / Crawfish)

I know that on occasion (I dont remember when, seemingly during late Spring-Summer-early Fall months) that some of the fishmongers down at Pike Place occasionally get them in. I guess it all depends on what the supply is. All I can say about cooking anything is to use what's available fresh. With Gumbos, I don't think you really have to be picky about exactly what you throw in, I mean, it's kinda like Nouveau Cajun cookin' using whatever's available (if ya got Gator, use Gator, or fresh Catfish, or fresh cat, or venison, or dog, or rat or.... okay you get the point )

[col klink]

That was my feeling as well, go down to your fishmonger/butcher/deli and what looks the best, throw'er in.

It's just been a long time since I've had crawdads, as ugly as they are. Mmm, sweet head juice. It's full of heady goodness!

[Jinmyo]

In Ottawa here, crawdads are available frozen. As are langoustine. Both headless. I wonder if there's any point in trying either in a gumbo-ish dish.

[tommy]

Tommy seems to think that I believe I know everything; he couldn't be more wrong.

hehehe.

[Blue Heron]

Klink,

Today I spotted live crawdads/crawfish at Mutual Fish (2335 Rainier Avenue S. Seattle, WA 98144 --- Tel:(206)322-4368 ). They are $3.99/lb and there were plenty of them. I love that store... everything is so fresh and clean, and they have a great selection. They also had FRESH shrimp flown in from Georgia, yum! Lots of Japanese snacky items, too. I guess it's too late for crawdads for your gumbo this time around...but maybe next time.

edit: their sashimi grade magura was $16/lb I think.

This is also where Tom Douglas buys his fish.

[Jaymes]

...when you add your roux to the stock, do you just dump it in? I always thought since it's so hot, that you slowly add stock to the roux until you get a nice consistency and then add the rest of the stock.

Klink -

I make da gumbo in my Dutch oven. "First I make a roux" in the bottom of the Dutch oven, then I do add the stock as you said....a little at a time, till the stock is smooth.

My "redatives" like da mudbugs (crawdads), so we add lots.

Gumbo has got to be one of the most satisfying dishes ever invented.

[Dana]

We live about 30 miles from Lousiana, and while that certainly doesn't make me any sort of expert, I've eaten my share of Gumbo in the last 20 years. I seldom have had one with crawfish, and if crawfish are in, they are just tails (like from a frozen bag.) Not whole. Those are for a crawfish boil, held primarily in the spring. Lots of Easter celebrations, spring breaks (although that is a little early), graduations, wedding rehersal dinners, etc. are kicked off with a crawfish boil. Nothing more fun that....oh wait, this is about gumbo. ANYTHING can go in gumbo, all the stuff from skie's post, and anything else you've got on hand. Most gumbo's around here are either chicken and sausage or seafood, although sometimes there is shrimp or crab in with the chicken. Whole blue crab adds a TON of flavor, and I like to put in 2 or 3 if I can find them. A gumbo is almost required for Sunday afternoon football, and no Super Bowl Party is complete without one. I think I'll start a chicken to simmer now......

[Jaymes]

We live about 30 miles from Lousiana, and while that certainly doesn't make me any sort of expert, I've eaten my share of Gumbo in the last 20 years. I seldom have had one with crawfish, and if crawfish are in, they are just tails (like from a frozen bag.) Not whole.

That's what we do, too. Crawfish tails, shrimp, crab, and a lot of nice big fat plump juicy oysters. Most of the crab breaks up. The crawfish tails not so much. The shrimp not at all. I slip the oysters into the hot soup just before serving on the first day. They get hot but don't cook much. The second day and we're into the leftovers (I make a LOT), and the oysters are cooked through, but don't break up. To my seafood gumbo, I always add a little sausage, but not much. Just enough to flavor. That's our favorite.

I also make chicken gumbo, and that's chicken and sausage.

But the seafood gumbo is our favorite, and what everyone hopes I'm making when I say I'm cooking up some gumbo.

[Blue Heron]

Jaymes signature: ""Good Taste" is greatly overrated. As for me, in life, as well as at large social functions, I just always try to be at the most fun table."

Jaymes, I just read your signature (above)... and I have to say that I think any table you would be sitting at would be the *most fun* and that's the table I would want to be at, too.

Your Seafood Gumbo sounds to die for delicious, too!

[Dana]

Jaymes, your seafood gumbo does sound exceptional. I don't add much sausage, if at all, either, for seafood gumbo. It seems to overpower the seafood. Do you use okra? My husband loves it, but the kids hate it, so, usually, I tell them to pick it out, although after all that simmering, it really doesn't have much flavor. I don't make a seafood gumbo often, even here on the gulf coast. Chicken is much more economical, and at our house, gumbo is served as often as meatloaf or roast chicken. Leftovers are always consumed pronto!

[Jaymes]

Jaymes, your seafood gumbo does sound exceptional. I don't add much sausage, if at all, either, for seafood gumbo. It seems to overpower the seafood. Do you use okra? My husband loves it, but the kids hate it, so, usually, I tell them to pick it out, although after all that simmering, it really doesn't have much flavor.  I don't make a seafood gumbo often, even here on the gulf coast. Chicken is much more economical, and at our house, gumbo is served as often as meatloaf or roast chicken.  Leftovers are always consumed pronto!

Okra. And therein lies the quandry, don't it just? You notice I didn't mention it.

We're like you... some really like it, some merely tolerate it, some can't stand it.

If I'm making it for a big group that includes my mom and dad, I put it in.... they both love it.

When I do add it, I don't add as much as some people, so it's easier for those who don't like it to eat their way around it.

When I made it just for my family - husband and kids - usually left it out and thickened with filé, but somehow it just didn't seem "right," ya know?

You're also right about the cost of seafood gumbo. It's really expensive to do it up properly. A treat reserved for special occasions, only two or three times a year.

Like Christmas Eve -

Used to make oyster stew, but years ago, my kids said, "Mom - this is good, but gumbo's better. Why can't we have that?"

So ever since that plaintive plea, we have.