Can a Minnesotan make a good gumbo? (1 Viewer)

[buzd]

We do potato salad up here. Some like it egg-ey and some like it mustardy. Some like it with that German vinegar style. Lot of Germans around these parts so potato salad is pretty common. My sister in law whips up a great batch for many get togethers.

But gumbo... nope. Jambalaya? Pretty much only at a few restaurants. Most of those foods require spices other than black pepper and salt so it's a no go around these parts.

There is a trend that started (I think) in the Lafayette/Central LA area that puts potato salad in gumbo instead of rice. It pretty much requires the potato salad to be of the mayo/mustard variety. I am (quickly) coming around on it, but it is a point of some contention.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Great discussion, and just to give you some encouragement, my Minnesota born and Arizona raised wife makes a great gumbo.

 

[MLU]

Pretty much all good advice here.

Let me add that a tip that I think came originally from John Besh was to add your onions to the roux before adding the peppers and celery. You can get a nice caramelization on your onions before adding your peppers and celery (which add a lot more water to the mix). It works.

Can't believe I left this off...

 

[LAhotsauce]

We can get creole seasonings here. Gumbo file... never saw that up here. Might have to buy a bottle of that online if I don't see it in my store.



How often do you have gumbo down there?
Is it a regular bi-weekly / monthly staple or is it a couple times a year on a cold evening kind of dish?

Well gumbo File, at least in my family, is for File gumbo. Not seafood gumbo. And you add it dead last already in your bowl.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Can we get back to the insanity of gumbo, then rice on top?
what would possess someone?

 

[Devildog]

I've made the recipe in the following video. It was awesome!

 

[efil4stnias]

We can get creole seasonings here. Gumbo file... never saw that up here. Might have to buy a bottle of that online if I don't see it in my store.



How often do you have gumbo down there?
Is it a regular bi-weekly / monthly staple or is it a couple times a year on a cold evening kind of dish?

My oldest loves andouille and chicken gumbo. In the winter months I'll make 2 times a month. She will eat 3/4 for lunch and dinners that following week. I may make 1 or 2 times in summer just because a hankering came on for gumbo.

Its become a real comfort food in this house, especially on really cold days.

Once you find that right recipe, it's on. Its fantastic.

 

[RazorOye]

No file here. No tomatoes. Okra for seafood gumbo. I like a medium roux for chicken and sausage and a dark roux for shrimp and okra. I also don't use bell peppers. I don't use carrots or thyme or bay leaves.

So ours is pretty 'rustic' I guess, but it's a long process.

For the roux, duck fat is absolutely the best I've ever used. I go low and slow with it, so the roux is a couple of hours to make. It makes the house smell amazing.

I also break down my chicken and roll it in flour and give it a light fry in the fat and then add more fat and oil to even out the ratio for the roux.

Ingredients that I use are pretty sparse: chicken and sausage (we make our own or, if we run out, there's a great butcher that has a wonderful smoked sausage here); veggies are onions, celery, green onions. Seasoning is red pepper, black pepper, and salt. Duck fat. Flour. Stock.

It's a spartan list, I know, but the sausage, homemade stock, light frying helps. I also keep the carcasses of the broken-down chickens and throw them in the big pot for flavor and take it out before it begins to fall apart.

There's no real recipe, because there's no amounts or anything really. Just years of cooking it - but it's not hard.

It's not complicated - it just takes time and the willingness to go slow when learning to err on the side of slow caution.

 

[Bleu Raeder]

Stock.

If anything stock is the second most important thing for gumbo. Buy one or learn to make one.

 

[brandon8283]

Yeh... that okra...
I'm going to have to skip that step.

I can find andouille but okra is going to be unlikely.

If you put the okra in early enough, it just breaks down into a thickener. You likely won't actually see (or really taste, for that matter) any okra in the bowl.

 

[FLEA]

Big fan of the Gumbo Z'Herbes….

 

[Zack Lee]

Pretty much all good advice here.

Let me add that a tip that I think came originally from John Besh was to add your onions to the roux before adding the peppers and celery. You can get a nice caramelization on your onions before adding your peppers and celery (which add a lot more water to the mix). It works.

yes that is from Besh as I recall as well and brilliant. Besh also really simplifies the making of jambalaya so I use the Prudhomme recipe with a couple of Besh related tweaks like ground pork. What I have seen Besh make though, is a creole not a Cajun one and tomatoes don’t belong anywhere near it IMO. So I like his style of cooking but favor Prudhommes seasonings.

 

[buzd]

yes that is from Besh as I recall as well and brilliant. Besh also really simplifies the making of jambalaya so I use the Prudhomme recipe with a couple of Besh related tweaks like ground pork. What I have seen Besh make though, is a creole not a Cajun one and tomatoes don’t belong anywhere near it IMO. So I like his style of cooking but favor Prudhommes seasonings.

Yeah, I don't use the rest of his recipe - I just remember picking up that tip, and it works really well. The onions caramelize nicely. The roux/onion ball is really a pretty gross mix.

 

[saintmdterps]

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH

rice is cooked separately.

whew.

Yup, add that to the list of lessons learned hard but learned well many moons ago.

 

[Swampy Saint]

No file here. No tomatoes. Okra for seafood gumbo. I like a medium roux for chicken and sausage and a dark roux for shrimp and okra. I also don't use bell peppers. I don't use carrots or thyme or bay leaves.

So ours is pretty 'rustic' I guess, but it's a long process.

For the roux, duck fat is absolutely the best I've ever used. I go low and slow with it, so the roux is a couple of hours to make. It makes the house smell amazing.

I also break down my chicken and roll it in flour and give it a light fry in the fat and then add more fat and oil to even out the ratio for the roux.

Ingredients that I use are pretty sparse: chicken and sausage (we make our own or, if we run out, there's a great butcher that has a wonderful smoked sausage here); veggies are onions, celery, green onions. Seasoning is red pepper, black pepper, and salt. Duck fat. Flour. Stock.

It's a spartan list, I know, but the sausage, homemade stock, light frying helps. I also keep the carcasses of the broken-down chickens and throw them in the big pot for flavor and take it out before it begins to fall apart.

There's no real recipe, because there's no amounts or anything really. Just years of cooking it - but it's not hard.

It's not complicated - it just takes time and the willingness to go slow when learning to err on the side of slow caution.

That sounds delicious.