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Gumbo, Jambalaya, Etouffee, Creole...


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As it turned out, Brooksie's Seafood Gumbo was not the next Gumbo, but I still plan to make it. We had oysters to use and went for this Gumbo tonight, so I thought I would revive this topic. It was really, really good.

Anybody have any recent updates on Gumbo or the like?

The Chicken, Sausage, and Oyster Gumbo was delicious.  (Including Okra, Judith.  :biggrin: )  Russ did the roux, as I had a meeting early this evening.  His was darker than what I have made, which if I understand correctly, made the Gumbo not as thick.  The chicken was thigh meat, the sausage was andouille, and the oysters were almost the last of our supply.

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Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Its all about the roux. I have heard of some chefs toasting the flour in the oven before making the roux to give it an extra boost of flavor. But concentrate on getting the roux right.

"He could blanch anything in the fryolator and finish it in the microwave or under the salamander. Talented guy."

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No tomato at all?

I've never put any kind of tomato in my etouffee; maybe that's more Creole style than Cajun style? What I really miss is the little tub of crawfish fat that used to accompany each pound of crawfish tails in the supermarket. What's crawfish etouffee without good crawfish fat? :sad: I rarely make etouffee anymore because the end result just isn't as good, unless I've got some leftover boiled crawfish and can glean the fat when I peel them.

Dear Food: I hate myself for loving you.

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This one is not Brooksie's, but pretty close. This is the recipe of a Delta woman, my best friend's mama, who married a New York Dr. (Joe Baum's (Windows on the World) nephew, come to think of it) in Lafayette during the war. She could cook. Lord, she could cook. She had the first commercial stove in a home kitchen that I ever saw. She knew what to do with it. Sadly, she passed a few years ago, but her recipes live on.

This one has no tomatoes. While I have some recipes that do, this is pretty close to the traditional deal, I think. (and yes, it's got a can of mushroom soup in it, and I use it, but if you just hate cans and can't deal with it make a white roux (beurre blanc) with 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup flour -but the soups easier and better)

Bess's Ettouffee-

2 lbs. cleaned shrimp

1/2 lb. butter

2 tbls. ap flour

3 large yellow onions

1 medium bell pepper (you pick the color, although green would be the normal)

3 ribs celery

1 can cream of mushroom soup

2 cups shrimp stock (or any other you have around, but shrimp is best)

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

salt to taste

black pepper to taste

good dash of cayenne

paprika (hot kind if you have it)

1/2 cup green onion tops

Season shrimp to taste with salt, pepper, and cayenne

Melt butter and add flour, cook until incorporated, not dark

and add the onions, bell pepper, celery, and garlic

Cook til wilted

Add can of soup

Mix well and simmer few minutes until smooth

Add shrimp and 1 1/2 cups stock and simmer 30 min or so

Add the rest of the stock just before serving and stir til smooth

Season with more salt and and pepper and add the paprika for color

Add onion tops to top of ettoufee after it is placed over good white rice

I highly reccomend some good rice for this. While certainly Konriko or something woud be traditional, a nicely flavored rice like Jasmine or Texmati adds much to the dish.

Serve with salad and warm, crusty bread

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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Looks great, Brooks, and I've got several containers of homemade shrimp stock in the freezer, as well as nice Gulf shrimp, just waiting to be cooked up. Maybe for Friday or Saturday night supper.

Dear Food: I hate myself for loving you.

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:hmmm: Don't know what it is about this thread, but it's not the first time there have been new posts here and I didn't get the email notification. Anyway, as always, I am happy to see the posts, and especially the long awaited shrimp etouffee recipe!! Thanks, Brooks!!

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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  • 1 month later...

It's time! I am reviving this thread because my mother-in-law is now in Florida for her annual visit, and she and my sister-in-law are coming next weekend for the long-awaited shrimp etouffee dinner. Any last minute suggestions for me? I'll take all the help I can get; I want to keep up the reputation with my husband's family as a good cook.

I am undecided about the can of soup in the Delta woman's recipe. I've distained cooking with canned cream-of soups for a long time, and I've had success with making roux... but if it tastes best with that in it... ??? I just don't know.

I'm undecided about tomatoes, too.

I think I'll go with good Jasmine rice, and I'll serve salad and crusty bread. Is there anything else that will round this out as a traditional meal?

All advice is welcomed!

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Potato salad. In my locale, potato salad is served as an accompaniment to gumbo and etouffee. Yes, it seems unneccessary, but that's the tradition!

Dear Food: I hate myself for loving you.

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Patti, I have also run into the tradition of serving potato salad with gumbo. You must be from way south Louisiana. :biggrin: At least that is where I ran into it. I think that it may have something to do with the fact that the gumbo is commonly pretty spicy and the creamy potato salad is a charming cooling counterpoint.

Susan, I would trust a recipe from Brooks. I have run into a few recipes where canned soup works just fine. In some cases, don't try it without it. I think it has its place. It is just too bad that using it in everything crappy in the past has given it a bad rap.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Just follow the recipe. It's not hard. You will love the stuff.

Also, not everything that comes out of a can is bad. Sometimes you just need to tough it out and follow the recipe. IF you are concerned that your culinary minded friends might see you with a can of something in your shopping cart, you can always drive to another town and buy it. Just make sure you check the parking lot for cars that you recognize, as your friends might be out looking for some useful, but embarrassing, inredients.

There should be some kind of twelve step group for this kind of problem. Can Users Anonymous. "Hello, my name is Brooks and I am a canaholic-and I use cans by choice. Not all of the time, mind you-just some of the time. I can't help myself. I came here to get some help from others who have overcome this terrible affliction."

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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Clearly I have issues here. I am struggling with this. And what's worse, I have to make a decision about the canned-cream-of-soup before I can find my way to a meeting. I'll sleep on it. But what if I can't sleep because of the conflictual emotions I'm feeling? ...oh my, it looks like canned cream of mushroom soup leads to Ambien dependency.

:smile: Patti, thanks for the potato salad tip. That's the sort of thing I wondered about.

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Patti, I have also run into the tradition of serving potato salad with gumbo. You must be from way south Louisiana.  :biggrin:  At least that is where I ran into it. I think that it may have something to do with the fact that the gumbo is commonly pretty spicy and the creamy potato salad is a charming cooling counterpoint.

I'm in Lafayette, which isn't as south as you can get in Louisiana, but it's south of I-10! (Anything above that is practically the far North) :raz:

Clearly I have issues here. I am struggling with this. And what's worse, I have to make a decision about the canned-cream-of-soup before I can find my way to a meeting. I'll sleep on it. But what if I can't sleep because of the conflictual emotions I'm feeling? ...oh my, it looks like canned cream of mushroom soup leads to Ambien dependency.

I love your logic. :laugh:

:smile: Patti, thanks for the potato salad tip.  That's the sort of thing I wondered about.

I aim to please, ma'am.

I can't wait to hear what you finally decide to do and how it all comes out. Keep us posted!

Dear Food: I hate myself for loving you.

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. . . . .

I'm in Lafayette, which isn't as south as you can get in Louisiana, but it's south of I-10! (Anything above that is practically the far North)  :raz:

. . . . .

Heh heh . . . In my recipe for the very dark gumbo, I call it "South of I-10 Style." I learned about gumbos at the side of a dear lady in LaPlace many years ago, when I-10 was being built, and that is what she called it. She cooked just about every style but favored the dark.

I got the potato salad concept from a friend that was raised in Houma. Another odd tradition, his mother gets the really dark gumbo bubbling and poaches eggs in it!

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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So, is there some prerequisite for the "chunkiness" of gumbo? Just the other day I reaped all leftovers from the freezer and made a batch with andouille sausage, duck, shrimp, and crawfish. But it was nowhere near as chunky as the bowls of gumbo pictured upthread. It was, however, delicious. Was it a proper gumbo?!

Don Moore

Nashville, TN

Peace on Earth

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So, is there some prerequisite for the "chunkiness" of gumbo?  Just the other day I reaped all leftovers from the freezer and made a batch with andouille sausage, duck, shrimp, and crawfish.  But it was nowhere near as chunky as the bowls of gumbo pictured upthread.  It was, however, delicious.  Was it a proper gumbo?!

Uh . . . I'm not sure that there is such a thing as a "proper" gumbo. The whole reason for gumbo is to make something delicious out of what you have. If it is tasty and you like it, it is a success. :biggrin:

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Well, while the word "gumbo" used to refer to the pod known as okra, the language has moved on. Okra is certainly a part of some gumbos but not all by any means.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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So what is the diference then between an etouffee and Gumbo, do both have a Roux base???; if a gumbo does not have okra is it then thickened with file or is it called sasafras(sp)??? or are they the same??

thanks steve

Cook To Live; Live To Cook
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So what is the diference then between an etouffee  and Gumbo, do both have a Roux base???; if a gumbo does not have okra is it then thickened with file or is it called sasafras(sp)??? or are they the same??

thanks steve

This is complicated, and I do not even pretend to be expert in all matters pertaining to this, but I could probably get away with playing a gumbo expert on TV-so I'll give it a shot.

Etouffee and gumbo are not the same thing.

Etouffee is, essentially, a gravy (for lack of an easier to understand description). It is thick and designed to be served over rice. It is usually, but not always, a relatively spicy dish as things go here. Also, there will be lots of meat (whatever kind) in it, making it even thicker.

Gumbo, on the other hand, is roux based soup. It will always have roux of some degree of darkness, onions, bell peppers, celery, garlic, and then, well, that's where the fights start.

For example, the darkness and thickness of the soup is not the determining factor-Prejean's in Lafayette has what I consider to be the finest commercially made gumbo in the World. Thick as quicksand, loaded with stuff, black as the back of a well digger's pants. It's basically awesome and worth a very long drive from anywhere. People driving down I-10 who don't stop are just misguided souls lost in the darkness and deserve to eat at Waffle House (not that there is anything wrong with Waffle House-but it's not Prejean's).

On the other end of the spectrum is the seafood gumbo at Black's Oyster Bar in Abbeville. It is not thick, but it is very black. It is much more about the stock than the meat and stuff. It is pretty much equally delicious as Prejeans, but completely different. You can actually SEE what is in it, without having to pick it out.

Okra, file, etc. are all additions. If you are making shrimp and okra gumbo you might use all three. On the other hand, if you are making andouille and duck gumbo, you might not use any Okra or File at all. The roux darkness might vary and the thickness is usually determined by the personal taste of the cook, not by some hard and fast rule that demands a viscometer to determine proper thickness.

You should either be enlightened or confused right about now. Let us know which. :wink:

Edited to add:

Since I just challenged you to stop at Prejean's next time you are driving across South Louisiana, I would highly reccomend that you get a bowl of their Artichoke and Shrimp Bisque. It's pretty otherworldly. Thick, buttery, but with an actual flavoring of artichokes ( as opposed to some washed out canned hearts being thrown in) and loaded with shrimp. You'll be glad you did.

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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Thank you for the overview on the difference between gumbo and etouffee.

The saga about my struggle with the recipe decision is over. I went shopping today, and included on my list was a can of cream of mushroom soup! I decided to make authentic Mayhaw Man etouffee tomorrow.

In seriousness, no matter how much fun I've made on the subject of using canned cream-of soups, if it makes the dish taste good, that's what's important. However, I couldn't help but think of you Brooks when I was getting ready to grab it off the shelf and looked around to see if there was anyone I know within sight.

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Etouffee = smothered.

Gumbo is really more of a thickened soup.

Personally I don't do okra in my gumbo, but I was taught by friends from the Lafayette area.

My friends from New Orleans say "it ain't gumbo without okra"

Never trust a skinny chef

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Upthread stovetop asked about filé for thickening. I consider roux the thickening agent for most of the gumbo I make. I don't ever add filé to the pot; if the gumbo needs extra thickening, filé can be added to individual servings. The only time I put okra in gumbo is when I'm making shrimp 'n okra gumbo. Otherwise, no (and I love okra).

Dear Food: I hate myself for loving you.

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Thanks All

Yes it does clear things up

The one thing though is with a gumbo, it does seem like there is a lot of variance in people’s interpretation of this classic dish.

Now I have an even harder question:

“How does the Cajun and Creole parts play on both these dishes, or are both classically Cajun??"

steve

Cook To Live; Live To Cook
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