Gumbo Recipes

Ah, the wonder of the Internet. I decided to make a big pot of gumbo for the distance-travellers on New Year’s Eve, but didn’t have a recipe. A quick google for “gumbo recipes” soon netted this list of Gumbo Recipes and Basic Roux.

I didn’t follow any of the recipes to the letter, but used them to concoct my own version, including improvising some of the ingredients of which Sainsburys had run out.

The recipe, which would serve around 8-10 when served with rice, was…

1/3cup vegetable/olive oil 1/3cup flour 4 chicken breasts, cut into strips/chunks 12 kabanos, in ~1/4in slices (or any other spicy cooked sausage) 1l chicken stock (I used 0.5l of vegetable stock, and a pint of chicken broth, which turned out to be cream of chicken, which, when combined with the tomatoes turned it all a strange orange hue… it still tasted okay though :-) 1 tin chopped tomatoes Okra (two and a bit of the packets that Sainsburys sell them in, I can’t remember how much that was by weight), chopped 2 onions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1 green pepper, chopped 2 celery stalks, finely chopped Chilli powder (Not sure how much of this to add, seeing as I forgot it from the gumbo I made - definitely needs something to add a bit of a kick, as it’s rather bland otherwise) salt and pepper to taste

Blanch/parboil the okra. Brown the chicken, and the onions in some oil. In a large stockpot, make a roux with the 1/3 cups of oil and flour - basically, over a low heat, add the oil and then stir the flour into it until it makes a smooth paste. Once you have the paste, add the rest of the ingredients. Then cover the pot and leave in the oven, on a medium heat (gas 4 or 5) for at least three hours. After that, I turned it down to the lowest heat, and just left it slowly cooking away until people arrived.