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Mixed Dishes Gumbo

gumbo
512px-Gumbo_%281027297591%29.jpg
(from The Kentucky Housewife, by Lettice Bryan, 1839)

Ingredients:

2 quarts ripe tomatoes​
2 quarts young pods of ochra​
4 oz. butter​
salt and pepper​
serve with crackers, toasts, or light bread​

Instructions:

Peel two quarts of ripe tomatoes, mix with them two quarts of young pods of ochra, and chop them small; put them into a stew pan, without any water; add four ounces of butter, and salt and pepper to your taste, and boil them gently and steadily for one hour; then pass it through a sieve into a tureen, and send to table with it, crackers, toasts, or light bread.​

Photo by Father.Jack, CC-2.0
 
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I am posting a modern Gumbo Recipe from "Southern Living" magazine.

Easy Gumbo

1/2 cup peanut oil
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup chopped sweet onions
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped celery
2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
2 teaspoons minced garlic
3 (14 0z.) cans low-sodium chicken broth
4 cups shredded cooked chicken
1/2 pound andouille sausage, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 1/2 cups frozen black-eyed peas, thawed
1 pound peeled, large raw shrimp

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium high heat, gradually whisk in flour, and cook, whisking constantly, 5 to 7 minutes or until flour is chocolate colored. (Do not burn.).

Reduce heat to medium. Stir in onion and next 4 ingredients ( green bell pepper, celery, Creole seasoning and minced garlic), and cook, stirring constantly, 3 minutes. Gradually sir in chicken broth, add chicken and next 2 ingredients ( sausage and black=eyed peas). Increase heat to medium high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer, stirring occasionally, 20 minutes. Add shrimp, and cook 5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink.
 
One of my grand mothers used to make this [called soup rather than gumbo] and then can dozens of jars of the mixture for the winter – all vegetables were grown in the garden and the butter fresh from the cow out at the barn and churned in a fruit jar. The only difference from the Kentucky Housewife recipe is that my grandmother added corn.

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

Mark Twain
 
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One of my grand mothers used to make this [called soup rather than gumbo] and then can dozens of jars of the mixture for the winter – all vegetables were grown in the garden and the butter fresh from the cow out at the barn and churned in a fruit jar. The only difference from the Kentucky Housewife recipe is that my grandmother added corn.

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

Mark Twain

Ummm! When was the last time you had fresh churned butter and the real buttermilk from it? Nothing compares! Uncle had a big pickle jar with some wooden paddles in it you cranked to make the butter. :smile coffee: Putting up soups was a big deal when I was a kid - nothing better on a cold day with some biscuits or cornbread!
 
Ummm! When was the last time you had fresh churned butter and the real buttermilk from it? Nothing compares! Uncle had a big pickle jar with some wooden paddles in it you cranked to make the butter. :smile coffee: Putting up soups was a big deal when I was a kid - nothing better on a cold day with some biscuits or cornbread!

My grand mother would fill a half gallon fruit jar about three fourths full with fresh milk and then gently shake the jar back and forth until the milk turned to butter – it didn’t take as long as you might think. My grandparents always kept one or two Jersey cows so the milk was naturally creamy. Yeah, that butter milk was really good and my grand mother let the excess milk clabber and this would be given to the dogs, cats chickens and ducks – as a child I especially enjoyed watching the ducks going after the clabber milk.
 
My grand mother would fill a half gallon fruit jar about three fourths full with fresh milk and then gently shake the jar back and forth until the milk turned to butter – it didn’t take as long as you might think. My grandparents always kept one or two Jersey cows so the milk was naturally creamy. Yeah, that butter milk was really good and my grand mother let the excess milk clabber and this would be given to the dogs, cats chickens and ducks – as a child I especially enjoyed watch the ducks going after the clabber milk.

Uncle did that, too - fed the critters leftover milk. I think it made their meat richer! (No, don't mean the dogs...!) He was a dairyman and a bee keeper, so we got lots of good honey as well. He never lost a blue ribbon on his red clover and star thistle honey!
 
As said, there is nothing like fresh butter and buttermilk. My Granny always made them. She made her own cottage cheese too.

I remember when she milked the cows, she always give the dogs and the barn cat some fresh milk as she was milking.

Sometimes she let me milk the Guernsey cow. She was gentle and had such big eyes. I was about 7 at the time.
 
The secret to good gumbo is the roux( the part where you heat the flour in oil). In different parts of Louisiana, you go for different shades of brown to know when it's done. It's pretty cool, smells like peanuts roasting. Here in Central Louisiana you know when the roux is done when it is the colour of a brown paper sack. Down around Baton Rouge, they go for the dark chocolate colour. Either way it's mighty fine. You can use any kind of meat except beef. Chicken, sausage, seafood, etc.
 
That second recipe will not result in chocolate colored roux in 7 minutes. When I do mine, it is about 45 minutes on the rue.
I do mine a bit different:
1 and a half large sweet onions
1 large green pepper minced finely
6 stalks celery
Ocra (optional: Lori hates it so I do not use it when she will be around)
1 jalapeno pepper minced finely
2 cloves garlic liquefied (sliced thin, smashed, then chopped and smashed until it is a paste
1/2 cup flour
1/2 olive oil (I add two table spoons of solidified bacon grease to the mix for a total of 1/2 cup of oil)
3 Roma tomatoes
1 pound andouille sausage (links) sliced very thin
1 pound shrimp (I also like to add a pound of crawdad tails when I can get them)
2 table spoons filet powder
1 box chicken stock
1 box beef stock
1 cup water
1 large or two small chicken bullion cubes
2 table spoons cayenne pepper
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper
White Pepper

Optional: 1 pot basmati rice

I brown the sausage, remove from the pot and leave the grease, adding a splash of olive oil to do the veggies. I start with the onions, then add the peppers after a few minutes, then the celery after a few. About 10 minutes into the saute, I add the garlic. Cook an additional 4 minutes and remove.

The flour and oil go in next at dead center medium heat. Mix the roux and get your whisking arm ready. Golden Roux is about 15 minutes, Red about 25, Chocolate 35 and Blackened about 45 minutes minimum. It starts to smoke around the 40 minute point and you have to be careful not to burn it. I add the peppers (Red, Black and White and filet powder about a minute before I finish the roux.

Dump the veggies in first, then the tomatoes minus the seeds, then the meat finally the broth, bullion, salt and water. Bring to a boil for two minutes and reduce to simmer and cover.

I stir my gumbo about every 30 minutes and simmer for 6 hours. If you have not already peeled and deveined the shrimp at the start do so at about 5 and a half hours. At the six hour mark, toss your shrimp in, give it a good stir, cover and cook an addition three minutes.

I turn off the heat and allow it to sit for about a half hour. I usually do a pot of rice while the gumbo is cooking and add it to the bottom of the serving bowls, adding the gumbo over the top. Two of Lori's Hilly Billy biscuts and you are in heaven, until you realize that after sitting in the fridge for the night and reheating the next day, it is even better.

This gumbo has a deceptive heat index. Not hot at first but builds with each ensuing bite. I call this my mild gumbo and tend to up the spices when Lori is away.

To do it right is an all day thing. My friends from Louisiana tell me I make the short cut style of gumbo. They usually go at least 10 hours minimum on theirs
 
My grand mother would fill a half gallon fruit jar about three fourths full with fresh milk and then gently shake the jar back and forth until the milk turned to butter – it didn’t take as long as you might think. My grandparents always kept one or two Jersey cows so the milk was naturally creamy. Yeah, that butter milk was really good and my grand mother let the excess milk clabber and this would be given to the dogs, cats chickens and ducks – as a child I especially enjoyed watching the ducks going after the clabber milk.


You can still do a similar thing today with heavy cream in a mason jar. It takes about 20 minutes.
 
Gotta have okra in gumbo, it's a thickener and also where the name originates:

Okra, or "Gumbo," from Africa

0kra (Hibiscus esculentus) is also called "gumbo" in this country, although the latter term is more often applied to soups or other dishes which contain okra. Both of these names are of African origin. "Gumbo" is believed to be a corruption of a Portuguese corruption, quingombo, of the word quillobo, native name for the plant in the Congo and Angola area of Africa.


BTW, the yearbook at my old school, LSU, is The Gumbo. Those were the days of Red Beans and Rice on Mondays, Fish on Fridays and Gumbo and beer on the weekends. Couldn't beat it.

gumbo1.JPG






 
Gotta have okra in gumbo, it's a thickener and also where the name originates:

Okra, or "Gumbo," from Africa

0kra (Hibiscus esculentus) is also called "gumbo" in this country, although the latter term is more often applied to soups or other dishes which contain okra. Both of these names are of African origin. "Gumbo" is believed to be a corruption of a Portuguese corruption, quingombo, of the word quillobo, native name for the plant in the Congo and Angola area of Africa.


BTW, the yearbook at my old school, LSU, is The Gumbo. Those were the days of Red Beans and Rice on Mondays, Fish on Fridays and Gumbo and beer on the weekends. Couldn't beat it.

View attachment 10827

I agree, but my wife hates the stuff, more for the consistency than the taste. One thing I miss about the South, fried Okra. You can hardly find Okra up here.
 
I'll agree I don't like boiled as a stand alone veggie, way too slimy and I couldn't stand it as a kid. But crispy fried, can eat it all day!
 
You can still do a similar thing today with heavy cream in a mason jar. It takes about 20 minutes.

Need to make sure you have first quality, fresh cream! The results can vary considerably. I've made it with the fresh cream off the top of a jug of milk and then kneaded in the salt - which you don't really have to. Wonderful stuff! Then I tried it with store bought and thought I'd got a tub of margarine.
 
In reading about Gumbo came across article on "Courir de Mardi Gras by Linda Stradley.

She writes that "in rural areas of Louisiana, masked and costumed horseback riders participate in what is called the Courir de Mardi Gras, which means "run of Mardi Gras". Routes can be as long as sixty miles, and the riders may visit as many as thirty households."

She goes on " They ride up to farmhouse along the route to ask permission for the group to come up to the house. When permission is granted, the riders charge toward the house, where they sing, dance, and beg until the owner offers them ingredients for making their gumbo."

People come from all over to watch the riders and meet them after the run and help cook a large gumbo with the food that was collected. These festivities end promptly at midnight, at the beginning of Lent which is Ash Wednesday.

Just wondered if any on forum from Louisiana know about this or have participated.

From: History of Gumbo, by Mark W. Huntsman, article: "Courir de Mardi Gras" by Linda Stradley. http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/GumboHistory.htm
 
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