May Daring Cooks Challenge: Gumbo

As a (nearly) life long Southerner, I was ashamed to admit that I am certainly not a gumbo conoisseur, either in tasting or cooking. My roux could have cooked longer (I've heard stories of cooks standing over their roux for an hour plus), I used frozen okra (did you know that "gumbo" means "okra"?), and I did not serve my gumbo with rice, but corn bread. However, Josh brought the large crock pot full of gumbo to a work function the following morning and by the end of the day, the crock pot bowl was quite literally scraped clean.

Our May hostess, Denise of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need from creole spices, homemade stock and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

You will need:

1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) rendered chicken fat, duck fat, or canola oil

1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm) (5 oz) flour
2 large onions, diced
1 chicken (3 ½ to 4 lbs.), cut into 10 pieces
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) store-bought Creole spice blend
2 pounds (2 kilograms) spicy smoked sausage, sliced ½ inch (15mm) thick
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers (capsicum), seeded and diced
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
Leaves from 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 quarts (3 liters) Basic Chicken Stock (recipe follows), or canned chicken stock
2 bay leaves
6 ounces (175 gm) andouille sausage, chopped
2 cups (480 ml) (320 gm) (11 oz) sliced fresh okra, ½ -inch (15mm) thick slices (or frozen, if fresh is not available)
1 tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Tabasco, to taste

Season the chicken pieces with about 2 tablespoons of the Creole Spices while you prepare the vegetables.

Make sure all of your vegetables are cut, diced, chopped, minced and ready to go before beginning the roux. You must stand at the stove and stir the roux continuously to prevent it from burning.

In a large cast-iron or heavy-bottomed pan, heat the chicken fat, duck fat, or canola oil over high heat. Whisk the flour into the hot oil – it will start to sizzle. Reduce the heat to moderate, and continue whisking until the roux becomes deep brown in color, about 15 minutes.

Add the onions. Switch to a wooden spoon and stir the onions into the roux. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue stirring until the roux becomes a glossy dark brown, about 10 minutes.

Add the chicken to the pot; raise the heat to moderate, and cook, turning the pieces until slightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Add the sliced smoked sausage and stir for about a minute.

Add the celery, bell peppers, tomato, and garlic, and continue stirring for about 3 minutes.

Add the thyme, chicken stock, and bay leaves. Bring the gumbo to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally, skimming off the fat from the surface of the gumbo every so often.

Add the chopped andouille, okra, and Worcestershire. Season with salt and pepper and Tabasco, all to taste.

Simmer for another 45 minutes, continuing to skim the fat from the surface of the gumbo. Remove the bay leaves and serve in bowls over rice.

Challenge post here.

Homemade Chicken Stock

One of the things that always held me back from making homemade stock was the perceived waste of food. Sure, the chicken and bones could already be considered trash, but to add perfectly good carrots, celery, garlic, onions and tomato into a pot of boiling water, just to throw them away afterward, was off-putting. After a few runs with homemade stock, however, it was clear by the sad, wilty state of the veggies that they most certainly did have their place, and were well-used in the creation of the stock.

What's the difference between stock and broth? Broth is made with just meat, whereas stock incorporates bones as well. In my opinion, stock is always richer. Whenever I roast a chicken or cook chicken on the bone, I freeze the bones in a Ziplock for a pot of stock down the road. Along with meat, the more bones you have, the richer your stock will be.

You will need:

Various leftover chicken pieces, such as whole carcasses, necks or giblets. Freeze these as you go along until you have enough for stock - a good rule of thumb when collecting various parts is to essentially collect a bird's worth (two wings, two legs, two breasts, etc). You can also start with fresh chicken meat - for example, you can use breasts and when the stock has finished cooking, shred them for chicken salad or pulled barbecue chicken.
1 whole onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic, whole
5-6 whole carrots, cleaned but not peeled, cut into chunks
Leaves and top part of stalks from one whole celery bulb (use the natural indent as your guide as far as where to cut)
Stems from one bunch parsley, tied with kitchen string if you wish
One tomato, quartered
Water, enough to cover
3 tablespoons salt
Palmful whole peppercorns
1/4 tsp turmeric (mostly for color - a little goes a very long way)

The directions couldn't be easier: add your chicken pieces, vegetables, herbs and seasonings to a large pot and fill with water. Heat over medium to medium-high heat for an hour to an hour and a half (do not boil). Taste and adjust seasonings (usually only salt) if necessary. Strain out solids by pouring the stock over a colander fitted over a second large pot. Discard solids and allow stock to cool completely to room temperature before storing. Tip: placing the room-temperature pot of stock in your fridge overnight will cause all the fat to rise to the top, making it very easy to skim off.

To store: chicken broth will last indefinitely if properly stored in the freezer, or up to three days in the refrigerator. To store for a prolonged period of time, a pressure canner is essential (water bath canning will not suffice to kill any bacteria for the storage of meat or meat-based broths). The best reference and tutorial for pressure canning can be found at the Ball website. The idea of pressure canning scared me to death for the longest time, and the first time I tried it I stayed far away from the kitchen lest the device explode as I feared. Of course it never did - modern canners have an extremely low chance of exploding due to their safety features.

Reheat broth before canning in hot Mason jars, then process according to the low acid directions - 20 minutes for pints of broth and 25 minutes for quarts.