2004-01-27 - 11:38 a.m.
Made this up over the weekend. Pretty tasty.
damnyankee gumbo ya ya
1 chicken, or about 3 pounds chicken pieces-parts
6 cups water
3 ribs celery
1 large onion
1 large bell pepper, any color
3-4 cloves of garlic
2 dried chiles guajillos, cascabeles, or 1 T cayenne pepper
half a pound of fresh okra
1 20-ounce can of tomatoes
one-half pound of smoked sausage
one-quarter cup oil, plus two tablespoons
one-quarter cup flour
Tabasco sauce to taste.
Put the chicken in a Dutch oven or other deep pot with the cold water. Heat on stove. Skim off the foam as it rises. Do not let boil. Poach the chicken until tender. Remove the chicken and let cool. Strip the meat from the carcass and return the bones to the pot to get those last bits of goodness and collagen. (You can add a bouillon cube to the pot as the chicken cooks, but watch the salt.) When you are happy with the stock, strain any bits out and chill in the fridge or outside if it's cold.
Dice the vegetables, but keep a handful of okra to the side, and don't touch the tomatoes yet. Heat two tablespoons of oil in the Dutch oven, then add the garlic and onions. Saute the onions until just translucent, then add the other vegetables. While they're cooking, put the chiles in a plastic container with about a quarter-cup of water and a good shot of vinegar and nuke them on high for about five minutes. This will rehydrate them and make them easy to work with. Remove the seeds and stems, then puree the chiles with the water to make a paste. Add the chile paste to the vegetables, stir well. When the veggies are cooked to your satisfaction, move them to a bowl and clean out your pot a bit.
Heat the quarter-cup of oil in the Dutch oven over medium heat, then add the flour and start whisking. This is the infamous roux that is the basis of so much Cajun cooking. The flour and oil will form a paste and start changing color. The longer you cook it, the darker it will get. The darker it gets, the more flavor it will give, but will lose its thickening power. Most people go for a sort of tan, though some really psycho types go for a milk chocolate color. Stir constantly. DO NOT let it burn. If it burns, start over. Once the roux is colored to your satisfaction, dump the vegetables back in the pot, stir vigorously, then add the tomatoes and stock. Stir well to mix the ingredients, then add the smoked sausage, thinly sliced. Turn the heat way down or transfer to a crockpot, and go do something else. Stir about once an hour.
When the gumbo starts getting thick, add the rest of the chopped okra. The okra you added initially should have broken down and be unrecognizable, and you want some nice okra bits floating around in there. Okra serves as a natural thickener. Some traditionalists use filé, or ground sassafrass leaf, added right at the end, but it can make for stringy gumbo and can be hard to find. Let cook for another hour or so. When everything is to your liking, add the reserved chicken and let heat through for the time it takes to make your rice. Serve with white rice, corn bread, a salad, whatever you like. Make some sweet tea to go with it, or have a beer. Good stuff, and even better after a couple of days.
