COOKING THROUGH NEW ORLEANS… Gumbo

It’s the most versatile dish to come out of New Orleans… the GUMBO.

Gumbo is also probably the most influenced dish by the many cultures that made New Orleans their home, for good or for bad.  With the slaves from Africa bringing the name, ochinggômbo, for the thickener okra.  The Native American Indians for the other thickener, filé, which are made from powdered leaves of the sassafras tree along with the custom of serving it with rice.  The roux comes from France.  The Spanish brought the pepper that they got from Indians of Central America.  Then there’s every cook, chef, author and person with a blog adding in their own ingredients to the over two-hundred year old dish.

The Times-Picayune website, Nola.com, offers this excerpt from “The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book,” circa 1901:

“Gumbo, of all unique dishes of the New Orleans cuisine, represents a most distinctive type of the evolution of good cookery under the hands of the famous Creole cuisinieres of old New Orleans… With equal ability the older Creole cooks saw the possibilities of original and delicious combinations in making Gumbo, and hence we have many varieties, till the occult science of making a good “Gombo a la Creole” seems too fine an inheritance of gastronomic lore to remain forever hidden away in the cuisines of this old Southern metropolis.”

The book, first published over a hundred and ten years ago, included gumbo recipes that had ingredients using chicken, ham, oysters, turkey, squirrel, rabbit, beef, veal, crabs, shrimp, greens, and cabbage. Some of the gumbos are made with okra, others with filé.

Since there isn’t a question about what can be put in a gumbo, one can question how do you like your gumbo thickened?  Is okra better than the filé?  The New Orleans Conventions and Visitors Bureau website, under the traditional foods page, they offer this:

“Classic gumbo recipes call for okra simmered for hours in a stock made as rich as possible using a variety of meats, onions, celery and bell peppers. Served over rice, variations include seafood gumbo with shrimp, oysters and crabmeat, or chicken gumbo with andouille sausage.”

What do you think?

I tend to agree with them.  I prefer to make my gumbos using okra.  It has a better taste and I think the gumbo is thicker and richer.  Below are two recipes.  One using the filé, which is the gumbo in the pictures, and the other one is using okra from a post I put up just over a year ago.  Both are the classic Chicken and Sausage.  Try both and see what style you like better.

The other debate with the gumbo is, do you add tomatoes?  The second recipe has tomatoes.  Tomatoes are usually found in okra gumbos but some say the tomatoes are for jambalayas, not gumbos.

Two things are certain though, no matter how you cook your gumbo or what you put in it, when it’s gumbo time, it’s a special time!  And that old Southern metropolis will never hide away such traditional, classic foods!  Not if I can help it…

CHICKEN AND ANDOUILLE GUMBO (filé)

Ingredients:

• 1 lbs chicken breast, cut to bite sized pieces
• salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and creole season to season chicken pieces
• 1 lbs andouille sausage (or smoked sausage), sliced
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 celery rib, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• file powder, to serve with
• tabasco sauce, to serve with
• cooked rice

Cut the chicken to bite sized pieces and season with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and creole seasoning.  In a large dutch oven, add the vegetable oil to the pot and over medium-high heat cook the chicken until golden brown.  Once cooked through, with a slotted spoon, remove the chicken and set aside.

Keep about 2 tablespoons of the remaining juices in the pot and add the flour.  Make a dark brown roux.

Add the onions, celery, bell pepper, parsley, garlic and thyme.  Saute for about 5 minutes.

Add the chicken stock to the pot along with the cooked chicken, sausage and bay leaf.

Reduce the heat and simmer for one hour.

Serve the gumbo in a bowl, place rice in the middle, top with green onions for garnish and a few dabs of tabasco.  For looks, I sprinkle some creole seasoning over the rice.  Serve with file powder on side along with some bread and a side dish.  Enjoy one of New Orleans most famous dishes, the gumbo!

CHICKEN AND SAUSAGE GUMBO (okra)

Ingredients:

• 1 lbs Chicken, cut to bite size pieces
• 1 lbs Smoked Sausage, sliced
• 2 tbsp olive oil (divided)
• Creole Seasoning
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 flour
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 2 cups okra, chopped
• garlic
• 2 cans (cups) diced tomatoes (drained if using cans)
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 bay leave
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil
• Cooked  white rice
• parsley for garnish
• green onions, chopped for garnish

Season chicken pieces with Creole Seasoning.  Heat 1 tablespoon olive in a pan, saute the chicken and sausage until cooked.  Once cooked, remove and set aside.

With the other tablespoon of olive oil, heat in pan over medium heat.  Cook the okra until slightly crisp, the slime should be cooked out of it.  About 5 minutes time then set aside.

Start with a roux… 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup flour.  With a wooden spoon, stir until it’s a dark brown.  Once the roux is almost finished, add onions, green peppers, celery, and garlic.  Cook until vegetables soft.  After 5 minutes, remove from heat.

Pour the chicken stock on a Stock Pot.  Bring to a boil.  Add the roux with vegetables, chicken, sausage, okra, and tomatoes.  Add in Worcestershire Sauce, and the remaining seasonings.  Once it returns to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.