 |
Gumbo I first found gumbo in an airport bar whilst trying to eat and drink my remaining dollars before flying back to the UK after a business trip. Its probable that it has a long and interesting history, but its a staple of Texas and Louisiana cooking whose roots are long since lost (wait for the emails !). This version has worked well in an English kitchen. The variations are endless, but there are two distinct types of gumbo. This version, uses a "roux" for thickening (white source if you're English) another branch of the gumbo family tree uses okra. Okra is a cheap and readily available vegetable in the American South and Southwest, in England its expensive and comes from places like Kenya. There will be a Okra version on this site soon. |
| Contents | Ingredients Serves 4 - 6. 4 oz of flour, 4 oz of fat (margarine works well), 2 pints stock or water, 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped celery stick (i.e. a plant, not one bit of the plant) and a chopped green pepper. A couple of tablespoons of parsley, a few cloves of garlic and a couple of chopped green chilies if you like that sort of thing. I lb of shelled shrimp, in England, the 450 gm supermarket bags of "cooking prawns" are the right thing to use. Method Melt the fat in the base of heavy bottomed pan with a capacity of 4 pints. Stir in the flour and work it into the fat. Keep stirring until the "roux" takes on a brownish colour, how much effort you put into this depends on your personality - five minutes is my limit. Add the chopped vegetables and let them soften. If you are using chilies and garlic, add them at this point also. Add the water or stock slowly, with each addition, mix it into the roux before proceeding. At first you will end up with a sticky mass that will burn if you are not careful, by the time you've got it all in, it should resemble soup. Add the herbs and simmer for an hour. Ten minutes before serving add the seafood. Comment Serve as a soup, bulk it out with rice and turn it into a main course. Page Updated: 22nd December 2000 |