Gumbo: Cook-Off 3

[Mayhaw Man]

Essentially, this dish is a duck gumbo that is made with dark roux, a strongly flavored stock, and olives added during the cooking process. I will be using three kinds of olives, some delicious green ones, some calimari ones (sparingly, as they are overwhelming) and some big black ones that really add no flavor, but I always have a few cans around so I heaved one in.

The ducks(2 mallards and 2 teal) are being smoked on the weber, to about medium rare, with lots and lots of pecan smoke. The smoke is the thing here, more than the cooking, as they will get an hour or so stewing in the gumbo.

I will make a dark roux and add onion, celery, bell pepper (an orange and 2 greens), garlic (lots of it BAM! Oh yeah, Babe ), and season it as it cooks down with salt, black pepper, oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, and worcestershire. This will cook down to a liquid state, more or less, if I leave the pot tightly covered and stir occasionally over medium heat.

I am using some stock made from a fried turkey carcass that was left over from some production or another in the fall.

I will pick the meat from the ducks and reserve the carcasses to make some stock later this evening.

I will serve over Texmati rice about the time the boys are about to die from hunger. Sometime around 7:45 if their predictable dining cycles hold up.

Photos later tonight.

[Mayhaw Man]

Baking sounds good to me, but some of us bake frequently

Other suggestions:

A full turducken might be too much, but a basic chicken ballontine should be feasible, and teach new boning skills

Stuffed pork trotter or hock if you don't like chicken

←

A boning project might be great! Boning is not nearly as hard as it seems if you have done it a few times. That would be fun.

[fifi]

I want to do something Indian. Possibly a typical curry. I really need to learn more about Indian cooking.

[laniloa]

I treated my colleagues to gumbo on Friday, made stock yesterday, and will be making my second batch of gumbo tomorrow following the things to do differently I mentioned up thread. I also found some turky andouille sausage that looked much better then the regular andouille offered. Mayhaw, you're right, we've been deprived and this has been a great project. I'm looking forward to the next. I'd leave Italian stuff to the summer when we have access to great tomatos and basil. I could get into a paella (but I'll be subbing chicken and veg for seafood since I don't eat that). I'm up for Indian -- I'd love something that used tamarind as it is a favorite flavor but one I've never cooked with. I have a jar of tamarind paste in the fridge just waiting for me to figure it out. I'd also be up for baking just about anything. While I do bake a fair amount, I'm always up for a push to think about technique and try new combinations.

[little ms foodie]

We've started GUMBO-YING!!!! Ya Ya baby!!

Della, Adiabatic, Dayne and I all have our hands full of beer and roux. It's bubbling away on the stove now but here's what we've done so far!

chicken in the pot for meat and stock

trinity

start of the roux

beers for the event! (none mentioned were found in our area so here's how we make do!)

addition of prawns to our gumbo- we made a bit of stock first

Andouille, scallions and tasso!

boys shredding chicken

1st time making roux! Looks pretty good......

addition of trinity after 2 beers

added tasso and stock (chicken and prawn)

Edited February 21, 2005 by little ms foodie (log)

[edsel]

Well, now that we've spread the gumbo gospel throughout the world, what is next?

Just to remind, the Cook-Off is intended to be a forum at which we all can cook the same dish and share our experiences in a non-competitive, collaborative manner, making a dish:

-- that you've always wanted to make at home (and may enjoy out) but rarely have made, or haven't made successfully;

-- for which special but locatable ingredients may be used, but for which expensive special equipment is not required;

-- that includes techniques, ingredient combinations, or other elements that intrigue you;

-- from a different cuisine than that of the previous Cook-Off dish;

-- that demands some time and effort, but that rewards that effort for even those first approaching it; and

-- that motivates you to try it out, ask questions, serve it to friends, and share photos and stories.

Prior to gumbo, we did cassoulet and char siu bao. Earlier I had mentioned pho and a thai curry; I'm about to cook up a big batch of chili (though the thought of doing a chili cook-off fills me with visions of e-steel-cage battles between cooks from adjoining towns in Texas) to freeze; a while back, someone wisely suggested choosing an Indian dish of some sort (biryani? a curry?).

What say y'all? ←

So far, the projects have been a resounding success. For the next cook-along, I've already voted in favor of Pho. Thai curry is a definite "yes" as well. Since we're aiming to wander through as many different cuisines as possible, we certainly will be visiting southeast Asia more the once.

A full turducken might be too much, but a basic chicken ballontine should be feasible, and teach new boning skills

Stuffed pork trotter or hock if you don't like chicken ←

A boning project might be great! Boning is not nearly as hard as it seems if you have done it a few times. That would be fun. ←

If we do the stuffed pork trotter, I recommend letting our butcher do the boning. Last week I boned out four pig's feet. I never knew that a pig's foot could have that many bones.

For bonus points, we can all learn the difference between "ballotine" and "galantine".

This technique actually fits into more than one cuisine. My favorite boned-out poultry follows instructions from Ken Hom. It's possible to turn a bird "inside-out" without major surgery. It's great fun to serve a Thanksgiving turkey that looks entirely conventional. Until you carve it by passing the knife straight down through the bird without hitting any bones.

I want to do something Indian. Possibly a typical curry. I really need to learn more about Indian cooking. ←

I'm not sure what a "typical" curry is, but the Indian subcontinent is definitely on my itinerary. Hopefully Monica and the gang from the India forum will take pity on us clueless ones. Maybe a lamb korma, with appropriate condiments and bread? Indian bread-making is deceptively simple-sounding. I'd love to learn how to "do it right". OK, I'm willing to accept the inevitable fact that the average Indian granny can kick my ass when it comes to making chapatis, but I'd at least like to try.

From Brazil, we should do a real feijoada. From Morocco, a gorgeous tagine (shout out to Paula!). There are so many wonderful foods from so many corners of the world, the mind boggles.

[Mayhaw Man]

Tonights project yielded some delicious results. Although, thanks to an overly aggressive flash, it's damn hard to tell.

Incidentally, because I was interested in experimenting and because I wanted to try this anyway, I used avacado oil to make the roux (disclaimer-I work for the company that host's the website of the maker of the oil-which is why I had it-OK? Good. No more of that). Why? Because I had some, I really like the taste, and it has a really high flash point, much in the range of peanut oil and I was out of peanut oil. It also smells great when it cooks. In short, for this typ of gumbo, which is strongly flavored anyway with olives and lots of herbs, it worked great and the roux, made cajun napalm style, was spot on.

Now, on to the photo narrative-which has some bad photos and hopefully what will improve. You cannot flash some things and that's the way it is. Sorry.

Here are the ducks before seasoning. The big ones are two big mallard drakes and the little ones are blue wing teal. I have a freezer full of these things, despite the worst season in the Mississippi flyway in years. It pretty much sucked. But we still got a few in the freezer.

These are the ducks after heavy, heavy seasoning. First they were slathered in a paste of worcestershire with various herbs, as listed above, then I hit them with some sea salt and cracked black pepper

And here they are on the grill. There is one chimney full of hardwood charcoal and a bunch of pecan twigs out of my yard. I basically smoked the hell out of them at 300F for about an hour or so. They actually had a smoke ring under the skin when I got done.

Here is a mallard, cooked beautifully to medium, medium rare (that's perfectly to you duck neophytes). The meat is gorgeous and juicy and tender. Smoky through and through. I could have stopped right now but as I already had a stock waiting for it, I sliced it up. This stuff was really, really good. I will be doing this again next week,no doubt. Just for the ducks.

Here is the amount of meat that I used. About half again as much was left over and on the bone and is now, as I type, being turned into stock for some other project.

OK. Here is the finished product. It was, really, delicious. The best of the dish I have ever made. The smoked duck made all of the difference. The broth flavored the rice nicely and it was just the right thickness and you could taste all of the components individually and as one. It was, all in all, a great dish.

And that's what I did today, between doing eGullet stuff, writing about tamales, and thinking about the crawfish business. It was a busy day.

OH yeah, no photos, but we had Pontchatoula Strawberries ($15 a flat) and fresh whipped cream from Smith's Dairy in Mt Hermon, LA. So basically, this whole dinner, came from here. Native food for natives.

[little ms foodie]

Dinner is over, we are very happy with our results! YUM!!

Gumbo with the chicken, sausage and prawns added

hot water corn cakes

Apple slaw

the table

mmmm......

sides: green salad with orange, slaw and hot water corn cakes

Dayne made dessert- banana pudding!

[Eden]

As always great pics wendy!

And now that I'm back from my exhausting filial-duty visit to Calif I can pull our leftover gumbo out of the freezer & have more tomorrow, Yay! A good friend from Louissiana chastened me while I was down visiting: He avers that what I made might have been lovely & tasty, but lacking Okra I had no business calling it Gumbo

For round 4 of the cook-off I would vote for a tagine, prefferably one that calls for preserved lemons!

[Chris Amirault]

I'm getting several PM votes for Indian and/or Thai curries (and a suggestion for padt thai). The trick with curry is that there are, of course, a gazillion different curries. Any suggestions for a particular one? I suggested a mussaman/massaman curry, since there are a few recipes on the net and I know of at least two specific ones that are great.

Thoughts on a South (or Southeast) Asian curry dish that meets the cook-off criteria?

[hathor]

Sitting here in a snowstorm in Italy, that gumbo is looking mighty exotic....I'm a long and hungry way away from andouille. Wonder if some sort of smoked pancetta would work... man, those gumbos looked good!!!!

I'd love to try the turducken or ballontine or even a pate` for the next round.

[highchef]

Sitting here in a snowstorm in Italy, that gumbo is looking mighty exotic....I'm a long and hungry way away from andouille.  Wonder if some sort of smoked pancetta would work... man, those gumbos looked good!!!!

I'd love to try the turducken or ballontine or even a pate` for the next round.

←

a pate' would be good.

[jhlurie]

I am getting hungrier and hungrier...

Those pictures are incredible!

my gumbo day keeps getting pushed back and back....

←

Darnit, Kris. You can't go through life having had nothing from Louisiana but blackened chicken!

[torakris]

I am getting hungrier and hungrier...

Those pictures are incredible!

my gumbo day keeps getting pushed back and back....

←

Darnit, Kris. You can't go through life having had nothing from Louisiana but blackened chicken!

←

I'm trying!!

I really want to smoke my own sausage, but it has been raining the past two weekends.....

and I ate that blackened chicken in the summer of 1990......in Savannah, Georgia.......and I think I thought it was odd.......

[bilrus]

Sitting here in a snowstorm in Italy, that gumbo is looking mighty exotic....I'm a long and hungry way away from andouille.  Wonder if some sort of smoked pancetta would work... man, those gumbos looked good!!!!

I'd love to try the turducken or ballontine or even a pate` for the next round.

←

Wouldn't some sort of spicy italian sausage work? Not exactly the same, but it could be a good approximation.

[Smithy]

Well, I have blisters from last night's Cajun Napalm, and a pot full of my first attempt at Fifi's Gumbo Goddess Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. I had to take a few liberties and make some command decisions due to some unanswered questions.

1. Half the Andouille disappeared at lunch when I wasn't looking. I knew the refrigerator was a safe place to store it, away from the dog and cats. I forgot about the other household member with opposable thumbs. I substituted some frozen old pancetta that had to go anyway, to supplement the remaining andouille.

2. Stung by this comment, followed by yet more discussion in the okra wars, I decided to tempt fate and slice up a few of the slimy buggers and put them in Fifi's precious okra recipe. I note that Fifi didn't scream when Snowangel did it, so maybe she cuts us northerners some slack.

It came out pretty good, even though I stopped the roux too early. It had been browning so quickly, I was sure it was about to burn. Since the finished product wasn't as dark as my last attempt, I have to conclude I chickened out. I did notice that it smelled about the same as last time, even though last time I used lard and canola and this time I used peanut oil and canola. (I'm regretting wearing the same jeans today, though.)

So, now for the questions. Please forgive me if they're answered above and I missed the answers:

1. If you're going to add okra, at what stage are you supposed to add it? I added it in with the trinity.

2. Is the chicken supposed to be cooked beforehand, or not, or does it matter? Fifi's recipe doesn't seem to use precooked chicken, but a lot of posters in this thread have done so. I didn't. I suspect it makes for a different, not necessarily better, or worse, product.

FWIW, the okra was pretty much unnoticeable. I'm reminded of a former acquaintance's comment about his favorite venison recipe. He went on at great length about the marinade, the rum glaze, and so forth, and finished with "It's great! You can't taste the deer meat at all!"

The only benefit of the pancetta was that it got it out of my freezer.

Edited February 22, 2005 by Smithy (log)

[fifi]

Smithy, adding the panceta is certainly in the spirit of gumbo, using what needs to be used. I don't think the Gumbo Goddess will strike you.

I can't help you on the okra.

The only thing I can say about your roux experience is maybe you were trying to go too fast, as in too hot a fire.

In the recipe, the chicken is uncooked. If I am doing a gumbo with cooked chicken, or more likely turkey using up Thanksgiving turkey carcasses and meat, I add the chunks of meat just at the end to warm it through. If you add previously baked bird meat and cook too long, it can fall apart in shreds. It still tastes good but the texture suffers.

[snowangel]

I added the okra pretty late in the process. It was not dissolved, but pretty limp. I also used raw chicken thigh, which I skinned and boned (saving the latter for a stock making session). I did not add tomatoes. I will do so next time so that I can compare.

[laniloa]

I used uncooked chicken in mine. I don't always like the texture I get in other soups when adding pre-cooked chicken. If I'm adding chicken leftovers to a soup I do it almost as a garnish at the very end.

[Chris Amirault]

Indian Lamb Curry: eGullet Recipe Cook-Off IV!

[little ms foodie]

Just had the last of our gumbo for lunch today. I would make it soup-ier next time and maybe a bit spicier but I am so happy with our results.

As you can see from our pictures we made our stock with the chicken so the meat we used was cooked and added near the end.

This was a very fun learning experience, thanks to all who posted such great info and discussions!

[dls]

I've been been following this cook off since it began while doing a lot of domestic (US) and international travel and think that it's the best yet. I have not done gumbo for quite some time and intend to do so this coming weekend when I finally get back to my home. No need for cookbooks or other sources - Everything that I might wish for is here. Great job everyone.

One question though - Little has been mentioned of rice other than it's mandatory ( I agree). What do most of you do? Plain old Uncle Ben's converted or some such thing? I normally make a couple of cups of rice with chicken stock, a couple of tbs of minced onion and celery, and a little garlic. Would you consider this redundant to the ingredients in the gumbo?

Thanks - And, once again, great job.

[Chris Amirault]

Plain rice for me. The flavors of the gumbo are so intense that I think you want just that nice rice base. I wouldn't even use stock, myself.

Oh, and on the pre-cooked vs cooked-in-the-gumbo chicken discussion, I believe that the texture is the reason to do pre-cooked when you can. The shreds of roasted or boiled chicken absorb the gumbo more, I think, than do chunks cooked in the gumbo. My $.02.

[percyn]

Is it too late to post my first andouille and turkey gumbo I made a while back?

Sauteed some andouille sausage and turkey (not in pic)

Made the Roux in the same pan

Added Onions and Green Peppers

Added the meat, okra and file

Enjoyed on a cold night with an even cooler beer.

It tasted great for my first time making it, though next time I will cook the roux a little less as it had an extremely nutty flavor.

[fifi]

Percyn, it is never too late. The great thing about this wonderful medium is that good topics can just keep growing.

I only have a couple of comments on your lovely gumbo. That "extremely nutty" flavor in the roux may have been a few burned bits. When I have pre-browned sausage or whatever, I don't use the same pan for the roux if I am going for a dark roux. The other stuff in there makes it a bit harder to control the browning. You can certainly do it but it can be tricky. For a dark roux, I start off "clean" with just the oil and flour.

The other thing may be the file. File is added at the table and is not "cooked" as the texture, and to some folks the flavor, can get weird.