First Gumbo

Rainy, rainy this morning, and I decided that it was time for the first gumbo of the season.  Gumbo is a cold-weather food, a Cajun stew, and even if it's not quite cold enough yet, it's time.

When making gumbo, I always start with my grandmother's advice.  I can still hear her saying it, "First, make a roux.".  You can go to the link for the whole story.  Roux-making is a staple of Cajun cooking, and everyone has their own peculiar way of making roux.  I prefer a peanut-butter roux, but some make it almost black.  (I'm referring to the color of the roux.  I don't make it with peanut butter).

The roux is made and mixed with chicken stock.  It's that brown gravy that you can barely see i the large dutch oven.I've already added the deboned chicken.  On the front right burner, I have onions, bell pepper, and celery saute-ing We call that the Trinity of Cajun cooking.  No one cooks anything without onions, bell pepper, and celery.  Some folks just refer to it as "the vegetables".  You've got to have vegetables in your gumbo.   In just a minute, I'll add the vegetables to the dutch oven, and cook some sausage.

Oh, yeah, the link sausage is cooking nicely.  I'll let it cook for a bit more, then add it to the mix.  In that big dutch oven, I've got roux, chicken, chicken stock, vegetable, and the sausage is cooking.  But, as I look at that big pot, I don't believe I have room to add the sausage.  That's often a problem with gumbo.  As you assemble it, you run out of pot space.  So, we do what we're lucky enough to be able to do.

We get out the big crock pot.  If necessary, we'd get out two big crock pots.  Now that the gumbo is assembled, all that's left is the simmering, and a crock pot does that perfectly.  If I had been cooking over a campfire, I'd have made adjustments so as to not run out of pot-space.

I'll let that simmer for a couple of hours, and closer to noon, I'll make a pot of rice.