quote:

---

quote:

---

There are a thousand ways to make good gumbo. Throwing out absolutes is a great way to get errbody all riled up though.

---

Not much different than chili. I give people s*** all the time for putting beans in their chili (my dad makes his with pintos and kidneys with the Carroll Shelby kit and I'll eat that all damn day), but the fact is "authentic" Texas chili includes whatever the f*** the authentic Texan preparing it wants to put in there.

---

this is exactly what i was talking about as well. it's absolutely historically ignorant to say Texas chili is a specific package of ingredients.

Just pulled out some File the other day looking for something else....started craving some Gumbo then. This doesnt help.....

My guess would be that it was a recipe from North Africa/the Canary Islands adapted to use local ingredients that did not include beans.

We always do a dry roux. Missing all the fat, which sucks, but is healthier. Plus the wife is lactose intolerant so butter is out anyway. The bake method works, just takes a LONG time to get it dark.

quote:

---

Cincinnati tries to claim themselves as some type of chili capitol of the world. They put beans in their meat stew. That shoudl tell you everything you need to know.

/drops mic

---

Not to mention they add cinnamon then put it on spaghetti and top it with cheddar. I actually tend to be open minded on chili. I'm not a fan of black or kidney beans personally, but, I don't let pintos bother me. There is a point, however, where chili becomes soup.

I do find it interesting that this thread took a turn towards chili. My idea for using the pured vegetables in Gumbo started from my experience cooking competition Chili. You have to puree the vegetables to get the flavor because they are not allowed to be visible in the final product.

Have made gumbo countless times over the years. Never thought to stick half the onions etc into a blender.

Will definitely give that a shot!

Roux looks perfect!

I agree with BMX, it sounds like a great idea that I made note of as well.

Cincinnati does nothing for me. I do like beans in my eating chili though. I prefer the small red beans instead of the big kidneys though.

As a complete aside, I love black beans with just about anything. I much prefer them to Pinto or "Bayo" beans as they are called in Mexico. Black beans grown in certain areas have a wonderful flavor.

Almost exactly how I make my gumbo except I smoke my chicken and sausage and chunk it in. I will have to brown some sausage in a pan and deglaze it and chunk it in on my next batch. Made a a pot of leftover thanksgiving meat gumbo on black friday, throwing in some leftover honeybaked ham and using ham stock from the bone. The hint of sweet from the honey baked ham added something I have never had in a gumbo before and was pretty kickass one time. During the winter I normally make gumbo twice a month for the family.

For me I leave the okra out, but my wife loves that **** so I throw it in. Next batch I will leave it out again and just do file if I need to.

Also I have made Roux on the stove top, oven and microwave. For me if I want something fast the microwave isn't a bad option but after 6 minutes in the microwave you better watch it like a hawk because it goes from chocolate to burnt in about 5 seconds.

I found a roux shortcut that's as good as home made... I've tried both the gumbo roux and ettoufee sauce and even the biggest gumbo fans can't tell.

It's from HEB/Central Market.



Just adding a link since we can't live without it when the temperature drops. Kids like etouffee better.
https://www.instacart.com/h-e-b/products/2400107-central-market-cajun-style-seafood-gumbo-base-32-oz

I've had the gumbo. It's not bad, but you can certainly tell the difference

It's just the roux. If you mess up your gumbo with this roux, it's going to be just as bad with homemade roux.

Not if you make your homemade roux with lard.

Okay, certainly wouldn't use lard.

You should.

Okay. Farce of habit I suppose. I haven't made a roux from scratch since kids, probably 15 years. I burned half of it when I did, so I really like that my local store has it readily available.

I started using Kary's a long time ago with ok results. Recently went back to making it the regular way since I only make gumbo a few times a year.

Fido's recipe sounds really good. A few techniques in there that I haven't seen before.

Made gumbo the day before thanksgiving. It was my first time. Did the oven method: one cup flour, one cup canola oil mixed together in a cast iron skillet over low heat, then transferred to 350 degree oven and stirred every 20 minutes for about 2 hours. Then took it off the stove and let it cool, stirring a few more times. It turned out perfect. Deep chocolate brown. I'll never use another roux method although I may try that CM roux at some point.

I've done oven, microwave, but by far the easiest way to do it is to crank the heat early on, stir like a mad man, and don't back off until it looks like peanut butter. You are going to ruin a few pushing the envelope on heat but the ingredients are cheap and I can prob ruin 2 in a row early and still come out ahead on time vs the 2 hour roux crowd.

Oven method is a lot less maintenance though if you have a time window. I was at the house all morning doing chores, etc and just set a watch timer for every 20 minutes. I probably spent less than five total minutes tending to it over that two hour span.

Nomad seems like a very dramatic person.


Savoie roux in a jar works too if you won't want to make your own. But it won't have the flavor from stovetop.

quote:

---

Nomad seems like a very dramatic person.

---

If you think Nomad is dramatic for that post, you should see his posts on the premium board regarding Aggie football.

I've used the jar roux along time ago and can't recall anything bad about it. i can't imagine them being bad. it's either roux or it's not. now if you're talking lard or duck fat roux then you're on to something.

well prepared stock is the most important thing to me. beyond that all gumbo broths should by and large be similar.

Any particular brand of roux in a jar? Odds are it's cheaper than CM's ~$5/quart frozen gumbo base.

Changed roux to gumbo base. It's just making the roux that I like to avoid.

Roux in a jar is just roux (cooked flour and oil/butter/) The stuff in that packet is the complete base. Veggies, what passes for a cooked roux, etc. Add the meat and stock and cook.

We use the CM frozen base as stock and roux, then add all the veg and meat last.

The etouffee is also the complete sauce, we stir fry the shrimp/crawfish and veg separate and then add.

quote:

---

Deglaze the pan with a cup of water and add to the soup pot along with the 8 cups of homemade stock

---

why not just brown the chicken and sausage in the soup pot? No need to deglaze then.

Approx how long would you say this whole thing takes? Assuming I don't screw up the roux the first time (or second time).

For us shortcutters, the rice is the gating factor, assuming all the frozen stuff is defrosted. We use mostly the same ingredients as OP, only less onion. For two CM base packages, 2 pounds of shrimp and two 12oz packages of crawfish tails. Then it's either, crab, oysters or even scallops. You can't go wrong. Duck, chicken, sausage, lobster, monkfish, there are many meat options.