Updated Gumbo Recipe

This past weekend I made Gumbo for the missionaries. I didn't have much time, so I altered the recipe, and I loved it even more than my first recipe! So here is my altered, simpler version of good ol' Mississippi Gumbo! When I made it this way, it only took me 1 hour before we actually ate (compared to 2 or 3 before). Again, I prefer to use my kitchen-aid food processor for the vegetables so that they are finely chopped, plus that way I don't have to worry about onion tears! And, I found a cheaper version of andouille sausage at Wal-Mart: Farmer John's Hot Louisiana Sausage. I also found that preparing the meats and vegetables in the morning and refrigerating them until I'm ready to add to the gumbo cuts out alot of hassle during the actual process of making the gumbo. This is great served with cornbread, and it serves A LOT of people (we had 4 missionaries over, and each of us had two bowls with leftovers!).

Mississippi Gulf Coast Gumbo

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
2 tsp. chile powder
1 Tbs. poultry seasoning
2 tsp. onion powder
10 oz. bag frozen medium shrimp (already cooked/pink)
1 package andouille sausage
3 Tbs. butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion
2 green peppers
2 celery stalks
2 tsp. thyme
2 tsp. parsley
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
4 cans chicken broth
28 oz. can diced tomatoes
14 oz. can chile ready diced tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
1 Tbs. hot sauce
1 tsp. file powder
Rice

Directions:
1. The night before you make the gumbo, cook the whole chicken in the crock pot: Make 5 balls out of aluminum foil and place in crock pot. Place chicken on top of the balls and sprinkle top with chile powder, poultry seasoning, and onion powder. Cook on low for 10 hours. When the chicken is done in the morning, allow to cool and then remove meat from bones and place in a large bowl or ziploc bag.
2. Slice sausage links in half, and then into 1/2 inch pieces. In large skillet, cook sausage until browned. Combine with chicken. Thaw shrimp and remove tails. Combine with sausage and chicken. Refrigerate until ready to add to gumbo.
3. Dice onion, peppers, and celery. Melt 3 Tbs. butter in a large skillet and saute vegetables, garlic, thyme, and parsley until vegetables are tender. Place in medium bowl or ziploc bag and refrigerate until ready to add to gumbo.
4. About 1 hour before you are ready to eat, begin to make gumbo. Make a roux with butter and flour. Whisking constantly, cook 10 minutes or until roux turns brown. DO NOT BURN! It should have a nutty flavor and scent. Add chicken broth. Whisk and simmer 15 minutes.
5. Add vegetables to broth mixture. Add tomatoes and bay leaves and simmer for 3o minutes. Add meats, hot sauce, file, salt & pepper. Simmer 5 minutes and adjust seasoning. Serve over rice.

Gumbo

One of the classic dishes of the south is Gumbo. If you are ever searching for a great, hearty, authenticly southern-grown dish, this is it! It's best spicy, but can be adjusted to whatever warmth you want. Gumbo is one of the greatest additions of the deep south to American cuisine. When the first African slaves came to Louisiana, they brought their love for a thin seasoned fish stew with okra. A variant of this soup, with the same origin as gumbo, is still served in Nigeria and Ghana, consisting of fish, okra, plantains and tomatoes. After about a century, with the Spanish, French, and Natives of the region offering their contributions of food, the stew was no longer recognizable as the thin African soup and became gumbo.

The wonderful thing about this dish is that it is really a easy to alter mix of tastes and ingredients. If you don't like certain aspects of the stew, you can alter it to your tastes. But the main aspects of this dish are a good andouille sausage, shrimp, vegetables, and a well done roux. Before preparing this dish, make sure you have a good file powder, whose base is the herb sassafras. It's taken me a while to find a good andouille sausage too, but if you have a local whole foods mart, you can most likely find it there.

Gumbo

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
6 Cups Chicken Broth
3 Tbsp Butter
2 Cloves Minced Garlic
1/2 Med Onion
1 Green Pepper
1 Stalk of Celery
1 Bay Leaf
2 Tsp Thyme Parsley
14 oz. Can Whole Tomatoes
1 tsp Salt
Dash of Pepper
Cocktail or Jumbo Shrimp, cooked until pink
Crab
Andouille Sausage
Chicken
1 Tbsp Hot Sauce
1 tsp File Powder
Rice

Directions:

1. Cut up chicken into small cubes and slice andouille sausage into 1/2 inch pieces. Saute chicken and sausage in skillet with 1 Tbs. butter. Remove from heat and add shrimp and crab to skillet. Set aside.
2. Make a roux with butter and flour. Cook 10 minutes, or until roux turns brown. DO NOT BURN! It should have a nutty flavor and scent.
3. Add chicken broth. Whisk and simmer 15 minutes. Saute vegetables and spices together in 3 tablespoons of butter until tender. Add to broth mixture. Add tomatoes and simmer ½ hour. Add meats, hot sauce, file, salt & pepper. Bring to a boil, simmer 5 minutes and adjust seasoning. Serve over rice. Enjoy!

Beignets, A Southern Classic

If any of you have ever been to the French Quarter in New Orleans, you might have eaten at the world famous Cafe du Monde. One of the greatest southern dishes is served here - beignets. To the casual tourist, these may seem like overated scones dipped in powdered sugar, but to the true southern connisseur, they are a delightful treat.Pronounced "ben-yay," it is a deep fried dough pastry, brought to America by the French. Not only are they served as a dessert, but they can also be a savory treat, often served with crawfish or shrimp. When eaten as a dessert, they are really good with hot chocolate or wassail in the winter. I have altered my recipe to be used in a breadmaker on the "dough" setting, but you could make it as a tradition dough recipe. Just know that my ingredients are in the order you would use in a breadmaker. When you get to the last step, it's really fun to let the kids shake the beignets in the ziploc bag. My little girl LOVED this! They are fun to eat, but just be careful not to inhale the powdered sugar!

Beignets

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tbs. butter, room temperature

1 tsp. salt

4 cups flour

1 Tbs. sugar

2 1/4 tsp. yeast

Vegetable Oil, for frying

Powdered Sugar

Directions:

1. Add the ingredients to your breadmaker in order listed (this uses a breadmaker with a capacity for 2 pounds). Set the breadmaker on the dough setting and leave. This should take about 90 minutes.

2. When the dough is ready, remove from breadmaker and roll out on a floured surface, about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 2 inch squares.
3. Pour vegetable oil into deep saucepan, at least half way full. Heat oil to 375 degrees. Drop dough into hot oil and fry until light golden brown. Turn over and fry other side. Dough will puff up as it is frying. Each side should only take a few seconds if your oil is the right temperature.
4. While the beignets are warm, place them in a ziploc bag with powdered sugar, and shake bag to coat.