Thursday, March 26, 2015

Jac's Gumbo Stew

I'm using qualifiers like "Jac's" and "Stew" because I'm not trying to pass this off as a traditional gumbo. I've never been to New Orleans. Not a lot of Creole where I grew up in rural PA. I've taken significant departures from the base recipe to come up with this.

Jac's Gumbo Stew

Time ~2hrs, Servings: ~6

Ingredients
- 1/2 lb andouille sausage, sliced
- vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 small onion
- 1 stock celery
- 1/2 green pepper
- 1 jalapeno pepper (seeds optional)
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/4 lb chicken, diced
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- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 3 cups water
- 2 cubes beef bullion (or 2 teaspoons Better Than Bullion)
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco Sauce
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha Sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon blackening seasoning (or Creole or Cajun)
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1-1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups frozen chopped okra
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- rice
- 1/2 lb catfish fillets
- 1/2 lb shrimp

Directions:
- Cook sausage over medium low heat in large soup pot to melt out the fat. This may take about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, dice vegetables.
- Set sausage aside, but reserve grease. Stir flour into grease and add oil until mixture is the consistency of a thin gravy. Stir constantly over low heat for 20-30 minutes until roux deepens in color.
- Stir onions and celery into roux. Cook over medium heat until onions start to turn translucent. Add the garlic and peppers, and stir a few minutes more. Add chicken and cook a few minutes more until it starts to brown.
- Return sausage to pot. Add tomatoes, water, bullion, salt, hot sauces, spices and okra. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about an hour.
- Start rice
- Add fish and shrimp to gumbo, simmer over low heat. Taste for saltiness and hotness. You want it a little extra salty and spicy because the rice will cut both significantly.
- The gumbo is finished when the rice is done. Serve over rice with hot sauce(s) of your choice. Enjoy!

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