MMMMMM GUMBO

Remember that smoked turkey from 7/4? Well, it’s all gone now because NK made gumbo. I have a lot of gumbo memories. While I was still slaving my life away and traveling all of the time I was able to take NK on one of my business trips. This one just happened to be to New Orleans. My entire team was there and we all decided it would be good if the wives could come and spend some time together while we were doing our business thing. This is when NK learned to make gumbo.

She learned how from a former San Diego Chargers football player named Kevin Belton. At 6’9" and at 400 lbs. he is quite a presence. His cooking class is at the New Orleans School of Cooking. Man can he cook and the class was a gas. So if you ever get to New Orleans, take the class they offer, you will have a great time and learn to cook some great stuff.

But this is about gumbo. If you look up the word gumbo you will find that gumbo is derived from a West African word for okra. NK NEVER PUTS OKRA IN HER GUMBO, IT’S A TEXTURE THING. She normally cooks a whole chicken in a crock-pot the day before the making the gumbo (this is why CK does not usually make gumbo, she can’t stand to skin the bird). The next step is to make the roux, equal parts flour and oil. This takes patience because you have to continually stir the mix until it reaches a light chocolate color. Once that is done, the trinity (celery, onion & bell pepper), the chicken, the broth (remember the crock-pot, use that broth) and the andouille (Cajun smoked sausage) are added. Now you can’t use just any andouille. Most of the stuff you see in grocery stores is crap. We get ours shipped to us from Jacobs in New Orleans (http://www.cajunsausage.com/) but if you can find a good meat market that makes sausage you might try that. Simmer the results for about 4 to 6 hours or until the desired thickness has been reached.

When I was still a member of the working class, a friend that I worked with would cook gumbo while we were on the road (we frequently stayed at Residence Inns just so we could cook – I would usually make spaghetti, he would make gumbo). I think anyone that stayed in his room after he left probably got hungry every time they went into the room, just from the leftover fragrance.