Gumbo

TheCypressTimes.com ^ | 08/05/2009 | Stacey Winder

[sima_yi]

Mr Justin Wilson shows got me to trying cajun cooking...

Ah Garontee!

Me, too.

[nralife]

“post # 5 was a photo of something not permitted here.”

Okay, thanks! I shan’t ask what the photo was of... lol

[linn37]

I have a gumbo recipe that the family loves. I simmer a picnic ham until the meat falls off the bone. I remove it from the pot and throw in a chicken and do the same to it. In a fry pan I cook a chopped onion and then throw in couple of cans of cooked tomatoes. When the chickens done both the ham and chicken gets chopped up and added back to the broth along with the vegetables,two bags of okra and two bags of shrimp. I then season it with the file to taste and serve it over rice. The chicken takes on a very tasty smokey flavor after cooking in the ham juice. I got the recipe from some country cookbook in a souvenir shop.

[rightly_dividing]

Okra can be slimey. It must be cooked in something or battered and fried. Fried okra is a traditional southern dish, available in most restaurants in the south.

Of course, we batter and fry almost anything.

[rightly_dividing]

Okra and tomatoes is another good southern use for okra. Basically, cut okra and diced tomatoes in a tomato sauce, seasoned, and over a bed of hot rice, of course!

[CaptRon]

Emeril Lagasse had it on a show once. said you had to use very sharp knife to cut it. that way it won’t get gooey. not so sure.

[pepperhead]

The recipe calls for okra which helps thicken it. Forgot what book I got this out of but they say they like to use one or the other and not both.

[nralife]

Probably something to do with putting tomatoes in the gumbo, which I have heard in sacrilegious in some circles.

That could be it! lol

It's sort of like putting beans in chili. Real chili doesn't have beans! ;-)

If sliced okra goes into the gumbo pot, it goes in at the end of the cooking process. Keeps the slime to a minimum.

[ThirdMate]

You are right, some “purists” will say thicken with either roux, okra or file, but not in combination.

I ignore the “purists” and use all three, I am not cooking to please some one else’s theoretical notions of gumbo!