Also new and grateful for these forums

[Monch]

All, here's the gumbo recipe my wife uses.

There are NO spices as the gumbo gets its flavor from the homemade andouille.  If a milder sausage were used, a good Cajun Blend of spices would be a great substitute.

Gumbo – Chicken and sausage
Credit to New Orleans School of Cooking
www.neworleansschoolofcooking.com

Ingredients:
•   1.5 lbs Andouille
•   1 chicken cooked and shredded
•   1 C. vegetable oil
•   1 C. flour
•   Trinity:
o   4 C. chopped onion
o   2 C. chopped celery
o   2 C. chopped green pepper
•   1 Tbsp chopped garlic
•   8 C. chicken stock

Process:
•   Slice into coins and fry up the andouille
•   Remove from pan and reserve desired amount of fat for frying shredded chicken
•   Fry up shredded cooked chicken and reserve with andouille
•   In a heavy bottomed pot (6 qt cast iron dutch oven for example), make roux of the oil and flour.
o   Medium high heat
o   Continuous stirring
o   Timing: About 25 minutes
o   When roux becomes light milk chocolate color, turn off heat and immediately dump in the Trinity and garlic
o   Stir to coat and cook the Trinity
•   Stir in andouille and chicken
•   Turn on heat again
•   Slowly stir in stock and bring to boil
•   Turn down to simmer and simmer for an hour or more
•   While simmering, excess oil/fat may be skimmed from the top of the gumbo
•   Serve with white rice

[La Quinta]

Looks great Monch...and Welcome (sorry didn't see this post earlier) ...I love gumbo...it's like chilli...every recipe is good!!!  ;D

I put seafood, chicken and sausage in my gumbo...probably not a classic what-so-ever...but man it's good!!!

I have a real pucker factor with the roux...I tend to go peanut butter color...I get to scared to go dark...that I'll burn it....Any suggestions to alleviate my angst???  :)

[Caneyscud]

I have a real pucker factor with the roux...I tend to go peanut butter color...I get to scared to go dark...that I'll burn it....Any suggestions to alleviate my angst???  :)

LQ, Alton did a show on roux.  On the show he showed how to go dark by doing it in the oven.  Yeh, sacrilegious, but it did not burn and did not have to stand at the stove the entire time.  If I remember

Even amounts of oil and flour
whisk in heavy dutch oven type pot
put in oven at 350 for 90 min. or so
whisk every 30 min. until darkness is achieved.


Shakespeare
The Bard of Hot Aire
Threadkiller extraordinaire'

[Monch]

LQ,

"Angst"...I love it!  It truly describes where we were when we first started "gumboing".

We watch for the "Hamburger Stage".  That is where the roux is about the color of light milk chocolate and has the appearance of beginning to curdle.  Mind you, this is the stovetop method.  If you take it JUST past hamburger, it will smooth out.  BUT if you go too far beyond this step, it will break and you have garbage.  Throw it out and start over.

Truly, what we've learned is that you have to be aware of heat carryover.  Even if you're on a gas range and can snap off the flame at a moment's notice, your residual heat is continuing to cook the roux.

The solution we've been presented with, and it's in the gumbo recipe, is to have your bowl of chopped Trinity veggies right at hand.  When you are ready to stop the cooking process, snap off the heat and dump the veggies.  The temperature of the veggies will kill the cooking process and the heat of the roux will quick-saute the veggies.

Mind you this is my wife's process.

What I did was to experiment when I WASN'T going to be under the stress of actually making gumbo.  THAT alleviated MY angst!  I played around with the process one long afternoon and made a few different batches of roux.  They all turned out OK.  I then combined the batches that were closest in color, cooled them, put them in Mason jars and now we have homemade roux in the fridge for "emergency thickening"!

Caneyscud:  That oven method is fascinating and I'm going to create an opportunity to try it!  Thanks for the tip!

[La Quinta]

Thanks Monch...the entire thought of throwing the roux out and starting again gives me...(well you know!!!). Just a process I guess you understand the more you do it.

Caney...I'm going to look at the Alton Brown method...thanks!!

[Monch]

The unit has delivered!

Did I hear/read that I should season it with a (4) hour foodless smoke cycle?

[westexasmoker]

Welcome to the forum Monch!

Heres a link to the receipe site which details sesoning your new toy...uh I mean tool!  ;D

http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showpost.php?p=760&postcount=3

Lots of other good info there as well,  Good luck and keep us posted!

C

[KyNola]

LQ,
No need to be afraid of taking your roux beyond the peanut butter stage.  If you got it that far without burning it, your heat setting is right and you're about 10 minutes away from having that sought after chocolate brown color.  Keep stirring!!  Two things to remember about a roux, the darker the roux, the less thickening power it has.  The darker the roux, the more flavor you have and THAT'S what the roux in a gumbo is all about.  I have made rouxs by the tons before.  Stop just short of what you want your final "color" to be and immediately throw the chopped veggies in.  You should notice the roux go one stage darker as soon as the veggies hit it.

I have never had a roux to break before but until I learned how to do them, I have burned a few and Monch is correct, all you can do is throw them out and start over again.

Enjoy!
KyNola

[Monch]

Thanks for the link for the seasoning!

It's straight home and into that process immediately, tonight!

Smoked chicken for Saturday dinner, I think!

Appreciate all the advice, everyone.

And nice looking dogs, KYnola!

[KyNola]

Thanks Monch.  Forgot to congratulate you on your unit being delivered.  You are in for lots of fun and good food!

KyNola

[Caneyscud]

I then combined the batches that were closest in color, cooled them, put them in Mason jars and now we have homemade roux in the fridge for "emergency thickening"!

Just noticed this part of your post - now that is what I call being prepared.  I wonder if it will freeze?  Put in a ice tray and have cubes of "emergency thickening"!! 

Shakespeare
The Bard of Hot Aire
Threadkiller Extraordinaire'

[La Quinta]

Thanks Ky...very informative... :)