Here at Wear the Cheese, we love Gambit. So needless to say, we are very excited about his new comics coming out. So excited that we decided to make some cajun backwoods Gumbo inspired by the kinetically sexy mutant.
Now, I’m from Arizona and therefore have no idea how to make gumbo, and I wanted this to be the real thing. So I turned to my friend Jillian over at Happiness is a Warm Gumbo. Jillian is a true cajun and gumbo runs through her veins so I knew she would be the girl to help me.
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
4 tablespoons of flour
2 green peppers, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
6 cups seafood stock
1 small bag frozen sliced okra
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 raw chicken breast cut into bite sized chunks
1 lb raw cleaned shrimp
1 andouille sausage sliced
2 cups rice
1 lemon cut into wedges
3 diced scallions
1 handful of diced parsley
To begin this gumbo you are going to have to make a roux. Many old school cajun rouxs are made with pork lard, but you don’t have to use that. Jillian and I used a combination of rendered duck fat and butter, but you can use just plain butter if you want. Throw the butter in a large pot heated to medium low until it begins to melt and then sprinkle in the flour. Now here is where it gets a little labor intensive. You cannot allow the roux to burn, if it does you will have to start all over. What I suggest is to stand at the stove stirring the roux continually for approximately an hour. You want the roux to have a nice sweet and nutty smell with a little thinner consistency than peanut butter, it should also be around the color of peanut butter. Use your judgment if it seems that it needs more butter or flour.
Once you have your roux done you are going to put in your green peppers, celery and onions (this is commonly referred to as the Cajun Holy Trinity) and cook that up for about three minutes with continual stirring. Next you are going to put in your stock, it is crawfish season here so we used some leftover crawfish stock from a recent boil, but you can easily use seafood stock. Turn the heat up to medium and stir it around a bit.
Now in another pan you are going to put your okra and white vinegar, this helps break down the proteins in the okra. Wait until the okra is thawed and bright green and then toss it in the gumbo pot. Put in the chicken and cover for about ten minutes. While the chicken is cooking, make some rice (any way you like to make rice is fine). After about ten minutes put in the shrimp and andouille, the shrimp should cook in about three minutes.
Serve up the gumbo on a bed of rice with a squeeze of lemon and a garnish of parsley and scallion.
Bon appetit mon ami!
