Recipe - Gumbo Baby

One fourth cup Canola oil
Three fourths cup Flour
1 Onion; chopped fairly small
*1
1 Bell pepper; chopped fairly
small *2
One half pound Fresh okra;, (give or take)
cut or sliced up into "rounds"
1 pound Smoked sausage; about, cut
into "half moons" *3
5 Fresh frozen cayennes; stem
cut off but left whole,
(told ya I was lazy...)
1 qt Liquid; plus *4
1 cup Liquid *4
One fourth teaspoon Dried thyme; about
1 teaspoon Gran. garlic; or more, about
1 teaspoon Ground cayenne pepper; or
more, about
One half teaspoon Brother Jim C's apple smoked
habanero; ground
Salt to taste
One half bn Fresh parsley; rough chopped
One fourth teaspoon File powder; or more

*1: quarter inch, for those who want 'zactness.

*2: used a yellow one 'cause I had it...any do, o' course.

*3: I always save some sausage for my old man.

*4: used what I had on hand: 1 One half c. veggies stock/1 c. chicken stock/rest
was water. (all stock, of some sort, is best, o' course)

Greetings O' Illustrious Chilehead brothers and sisters...blessings of El
Grande to all...

Had a lady at work gimme a One half pound of fresh okra...not my favorite veggie,
but it do cry out to be put into some gumbo, so I obliged...

Wanted a simple gumbo...nothing too damned time consuming, complex...I like
sausage (if I didn't, I'd probably be vegetarian...I digress..) so I went
to Da Store and got me some decent smoked sausage (no andouille 'round
here...dammit..), picked up a bunch of parsley, glanced at the spot where
chiles lay if ever available and there was nothing to look at much less
spend my cashola on...luckily, Monk Rael has a freezer sheeeetpiled mit
chiles in various states...

This recipe is very barebones, very simple, took about an hour and a half,
most of that with the whole mess simmering. It can obviously (should, be
actually...that's what makes a great recipe...people adding their "special
touches" and such..) tweeked, played with, and so on. Great with chicken
added, shrimp would be groovy, most anything really, even catfish. Ya'll
know what yer doin'. Anywho...

The gumbo:

Make a roux with the flour/oil; brown is best, but I was impatient and made
a blonde one. Various methods, but I heat to oil to smoking, dump in the
flour with one hand, stir with the other, pulling it off the heat at
various times to insure you do NOT BURN IT (if you do...dump it...can't be
saved), and say little prayers the whole time that the cajun napalm don't
get me in the eyes...arms don't feel kaka anymore so I ain't worried about
them. Noneotheless, always use caution when making a roux. It'll scar
you but good, baby...

Dump the veggies into the roux, cooking them for 510 minutes, stirring
frequently (may need to drop the heat to medium and/or take the pot off the
heat). Toss in the sausage and the dried seasonings; NOT THE FILE POWDER.
File goes in at the very end of cooking, OFF heat. Watch that hab powder
steam cloud...

Stir the above for another 5 minutes or so, keeping the heat at mediumish.
Dump in about 1 cup of the liquid and stir, scraping the bottom of the pot
well. Good stuff down there...get it all. You can put in about One half of your
parsley here now. Once it all looks fairly well mixed (gonna be thick, mind
you), add in the rest of the liquid, stir/mix well.

Bring to a nice mellow simmer and let it cook for a while. Taste
frequently, adding a bit of salt as you see fit, more chile, other
seasoning(s), whatever. You Da Boss. Adjust with more liquid as you see
fit. Should be almost sauce like, but a bit thinner...after all, it is a
soup...pretty much...

When you think it's done (flavor of sausage has developed, chiles, and
such...no flour taste...you'll pretty much know), take it off heat, dump in
the rest of the parsley and the file powder.

Put some rice in a bowl (which you should have cooked up whilst simmering
your gumbo...jeez, must I tell you everything?!) and a nice big ladle of
gumbo. Eat it up, yum...

Peace, Hendrix, and Chiles in my gumbo, baby...Rael

Posted to CHILEHEADS DIGEST by Inagoddadavida rael@ebicom.net on Sep
20, 1998.