Veggie Versions – Gumbo

I recently moved, and while there are many benefits to my new abode (I haven’t heard anyone yell, “GUN!” followed by, “COPS!” once!), one of my favorite things about the new digs is  the fact that I have a decent kitchen. My big New House Resolution is to get in the kitchen some more and try new things out. While I haven’t actually done that yet (it’s kind of hard to cook when it looks like you live in a hobo camp) I’ve been preparing by broadening my culinary horizons.

Luke is obsessed with New Orleans. He loves the city, the music, and especially the food. Gumbo has long been one of his specialties. He made it for a group of our friends last summer and they all raved about it like it was the second coming. Meanwhile, I was in the corner eating red beans and rice, which were also homemade and delicious, but come on. Red beans and rice can’t exactly compare to homemade gumbo.

Luke taunted me by saying he could make me a vegetarian gumbo, but he wouldn’t because I “didn’t like anything in it.” That, my friends, is a filthy lie. I admit, I am kind of a ridiculous vegetarian in that I don’t like peppers or onions. However, I am not unreasonable. If someone is going to offer to make me gumbo, which looks delicious, I am going to take him up on it. And that is how I had the Best. Gumbo. Ever.

I’m not one to keep delightful things to myself, so I am her to share the Good News. I’ve included here for you the recipe for Luke’s Gumbo, and if you haven’t guessed already, I’ll also tell you how to make the veggie version that will delight all of the hippies in your life.

Luke’s Gumbo:

Ingredients

• One pound smoked sausage or smoked andouille sausage sliced into 1/4-3/8″ pieces
• One pound boneless, skinless chicken breast cleaned and cut into 1″ cubes
• Three medium green bell peppers, seeded, demembraned and coarsely chopped
• Three medium white onions, coarsely chopped
• One pound fresh or frozen okra, sliced into ½” pieces
• Six cloves garlic, finely chopped
• One 28 ounce can tomatoes with juice, diced, or chopped, or 2 ½ lbs. fresh tomatoes
• Six 15 ounce cans chicken broth
• One cup white rice
• Three tablespoons ground cayenne pepper
• Two tablespoons oregano
• Two tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
• One teaspoon salt
• One teaspoon gumbo file
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (follow the suggestion to use roasted peanut oil if possible)
• 1/3 cup white flour

Directions

In an 8 quart or larger stock pot, heat the oil over medium heat until it shimmers, stir in the flour so that the oil/flour mixture evenly covers the bottom of the pan.  Fry the flour while stirring the mixture and scraping the pan almost constantly with a wooden spoon until the roux turns a deep caramel color.  If black spots appear in the roux, it is burned and you must start over.

Stir onions and green peppers into the roux until all of the roux is mixed in with the vegetables.  Stirring occasionally, cook the onions and peppers until they are just moderately crunchy, and then add the garlic.  Continue to cook the mixture and stir until the onions and peppers start to soften.

Add the okra.  Stirring occasionally, cook until the okra is hot and its juice is fluid and mixing with the other vegetables.

Stir in the chicken broth, and tomatoes.  Add the cayenne pepper, oregano, black pepper, salt, and gumbo file.  Slightly increase the temperature and cook the mixture until it begins to boil, stirring so as to make sure that none of the ingredients stick to the bottom of the pot.

Once the mixture has reached a slow boil add the chicken, sausage and rice.  Reduce the heat to hold the gumbo at a simmer.  Cook at least 30 to 60 minutes until the rice has a popcorn-like appearance.  Serve in bowls with dark beer and fresh baguettes with butter.  Several varieties of hot sauce should be available.

Making gumbo vegetarian is actually quite simple (and delicious). All you need to do is swap out a few ingredients:

Veggie Version

• Instead of chicken stock, use vegetable stock. After trial and error, we’ve found that using Knorr boullion cubes and water actually works a lot better than cans of vegetable stock.
• Replace the meat with 3 boxes of Boca sausages and 3 boxes of Quorn Naked Chik’n Cutlets. Just thaw them slightly (so they’re still about 75% frozen), chop them up and throw them in. The sausage flavor comes out and the chik’n has a great texture and soaks up all of the flavors in the gumbo really well.

Variations

These variations on the recipe can work on both the regular and vegetarian versions of the gumbo:

• Replace one of the green bell peppers with five seeded, demembraned and coarsely chopped fresh jalapeno chilies
• Replace one of the green bell peppers with a seeded, demembraned and coarsely chopped sweet red bell pepper
• Double the amount of cayenne pepper
• Add two to three tablespoons Tabasco-brand hot sauce
• Replace the 28 ounce can of tomatoes with 2 ½ pounds of skinned and seeded fresh ripe tomatoes
• Replace the oil with roasted peanut oil

Like I said, this stuff was ridiculously good. I didn’t even notice the hated onions and peppers. Everything blended together beautifully, and writing this is making me quite sad that I don’t have any more to shoveinmyfacerightnow! This recipe is perfect if you’re feeding a large group of people, so next time you want a simple way to feed people at your next get-together, keep this in mind. You’ll be a hero; I promise.

Clacked by Kona Gallagher
on Mar 02, 2009 @ 12:25 EST5EDT