Gumbo gumbo

One Pot Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup oil

1 large onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper

1 lb okra, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil

12 oz good andouille suasage, chopped
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cut into bit-sized pieces

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
4 cups beef stock
2 bay leaves

File powder, to taste
Short grain rice, about 1/2 cup per person, cooked by whatever method you prefer.

Pre-heat oven to 250 F.

Have everything except the rice and file powder "Mise en place" and ready to put in the pot.

Combine flour and oil in large oven-safe pot over medium-high heat, and stir frequently until a very dark roux forms, about 6-12 minutes. Immediately add onions, celery, red bell pepper, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to medium, and cook 2-3 minutes. Add okra, tomato, garlic, thyme, and basil, cook 2-3 minutes more. Add andouille and chicken, and cook until chicken is no longer pink on the outside, stirring frequently. Add stock, stirring as you go, then bay leaves. Bring to gentle simmer, cover pot, and put in 250 F oven until chicken is cooked, about 30-45 minutes.

When the chicken is done, remove from oven, and cool - overnight in the fridge is fine, or just until any excess fat rises to the surface. Skim off excess fat, reheat. Taste and add salt if needed, then serve in bowls, adding a pinch of file powder and generous dollop of rice to each bowl.

The above recipe is my own. For the andouille, Adelle's brand is available here and is very good.



Kid ratings:

Christopher Robin
Collin
Isaac	X "fifty-nine"
Annette	X "One" (bites with okra) or "fifty-nine" (bites without okra)

We also had french bread. Here's the recipe:

French Bread
(Adapted from The Joy of Cooking, 1970-something edition)

1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 cups water
2 tbs melted butter

540 grams all-purpose flour, about 4 cups
1 1/2 tbs sugar
2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 egg white
1 tbs cold water

Scald milk in microwave (45 seconds on high may do it), add water and melted butter. Scalded milk mixture should be at about 90 F.

Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl. Make a hole in dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Stir thoroughly, but do not knead. The dough will be very wet. Cover with a damp cloth and set in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 2 hours.

Prepare two baking sheet pans by turning them upside down and covering the bottoms with parchment paper. Prepare the oven by placing a pan of hot water in it.

Turn dough onto well-floured surface, divide in half, and roll into two equal oblongs, about as long as the baking sheets, and about 1/4 inch thick, while adding flour as needed to prevent sticking. Again, do not knead the dough. Roll dough along a long end until a long, thin loaf is formed. Do the same with the other part. Tuck ends in and turn loafs onto prepared baking sheets, placed diagonally on the pan, seam down. You'll want to leave a couple of inches for the dough to expand. Pat into a nice even shape, and cut each loaf diagonally, 1/4 inch deep. Set in oven with metal pie tin or shallow pan of hot water until doubled, about another 1-2 hours.

Remove sheet pans from oven, and heat oven to 400 F. Empty out the cooled water from the pan, and return it to the oven while it heats up. Add more boiling water right before putting the bread in the oven. Bake 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 F until done, about 30 more minutes.

About 5 minutes before the bread is finished, stir together egg white and water, and brush loaves with the egg wash. Return bread to the oven to finish cooking, then remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

As it says above, I adapted this from and old copy of The Joy of Cooking that a friend gave me several years ago. Their recipe is slightly more complicated, mostly due to using compressed yeast instead of instant yeast. This bread is much better than the generic 'french bread' in grocery stores, and even (in my not-so-humble opinion) as good as french bread I've had in New Orleans. I came up with the second rise in the oven idea because if I let it rise in the open air, the dough dried out too much. If I covered it with anything, it stuck.

-RN