Gumbo: Without Using A Recipe

I've made different versions of Gumbo thousands of times. The best version I've ever had was in New Orleans, where I had to ignore the fact I was some sort of vegetarian back then. Most versions I've had since then were pretty mediocre, and the Gumbos I made in one kitchen suffered from the fact I had to use pre-made Roux, thanks to a restaurant owner who doesn't know how this stuff works. On the other hand, I've been lucky to know some chefs who've given me some vital pointers, some of which I'll share.

This morning I had no idea I'd be doing this, but I saw some Okra (called Gumbo in various Bantu languages) at the Vallejo Farmer's Market that looked especially nice. Note the green hue, darker than normal. I suspected (and I was right, judging from the final product) that these were riper and fresher than usual. Always important with Okra: get the small ones only, because the larger ones get very fibrous. I know this from growing them in Austin. It's about the only thing that thrives in August heat (along with some chiles), but they'll get too big fast if you don't keep up with them. I went ahead and bought some nice looking tomatoes, and about 9 Thai chiles. The organic garlic (which we grew) and onion I already had on hand.

White pepper is the key to all Creole & Cajun cuisine, in my opinion, something that's gotta be French influence. Much better to have whole peppercorns to grind up fresh. I ground this up and threw it in towards the end of cooking.

First for the Roux. Maybe I should have taken more shots, but there's not much to it. My initial attempts to make Roux in the 90s were failures because I didn't understand the Science. Butter is very traditional, but a chef I greatly respect, Steve Chaney, a few years ago suggested to me that plain cooking oils like Peanut Oil work great. The best Roux I've ever made used Rendered Bacon fat. Here I'm using a combination of butter & safflower oil. Melt the butter on low heat, add a bit of flour in there, then start stirring around, making small circles with whatever utensil you use. You are cooking the flour. The general rule of thumb is you want to make a lighter colored Roux for Seafood Gumbo, and darker one for Chicken and/or Sausage Gumbo. The longer you cook the Roux, the darker it gets.

But I'm not cooking this to get a James Beard Award for authenticity or whatever. I just like richer flavors, even if I'm using lighter ingredients like seafood. This Roux's not even that dark. Anyway, you can see I'm adding the onions right in there to saute. Works really well, sauteing the onion with the Roux. You definitely want caramelized onions--in fact, I got some of 'em pretty charred.

See those black bits? Charred onion. To that I added about half the Okra I bought today, a couple of tomatoes, and some water. On the Science of this: the Roux acts as a thickener, and so does the Okra, so if you're at this point getting worried, don't. This got plenty thick even if it didn't seem so at this juncture. After this cooks a bit, just simmering with a light boil, for a few minutes, that's a good time to taste it. Another reason I don't use recipes, by the way. Any cook or chef who knows what she or he is doing will taste. OK, I might use a recipe for baked goods, but when's the last time I made a cheesecake? So I tasted this, and figured out (though I could guess, from experience) what and how much to add.

Sure I like chile for the spice, but I also like to taste other things. So I de-seeded these chingaderos, then threw them into gumbo. Nice flavor.

OK, I needed to add salt. Seafood gumbo? Why not a dash or three of Three Crab shrimp sauce? How about a boned & finely minced salt-cured anchovy? Good music for this? Tom Waits' Mule Variations.

And I wanted a little citrus for balance, so I threw in the juice of a slice of Meyer lemon I happened to have around. 

Nice, now it's getting thick, on low temp.

Rough chopped garlic, shelled shrimp and cleaned & chopped squid. These all go in at the end. Barely cooked.

Once the squid starts to curl, that's far enough. I had turned it off earlier, but you get the idea. Nothing ruins a good Seafood Gumbo like overcooked seafood. For folks who've never been to New Orleans, plain white rice is the most common side carb side, though I have seen people use crackers (I used multigrain, which is frightfully inappropriate), and, apparently this is an "only in Louisiana" deal, some folks put a scoop of potato salad in their bowl and put gumbo (or jambalaya or etouffe or whatever) on top.

With all the fresh ingredients, this Gumbo has a bright almost sweet flavor. Sorta like the difference between eating Corn on the Cob from corn you got at a grocery store (even WFM), and corn you picked fresh from your own garden.