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| Lazy Voodoo Gumbo |
Last week, I attended either the most awesome or most gluttonous
feeding frenzy of my relatively young life. Southern Fight Night is a
cookoff between three local restaurants (Trina's Starlight Lounge, East
Coast Grill, and Tupelo). It was delicious; it was filling. In fact,
it was 9 courses of filling, with 8 different types of meat, two kinds
of fried chicken, only one plating of grits, and yes, gator. I also
discovered red eye gravy (hello, trouble). But one of the dishes was a
crawfish etouffe, which lead to an in-depth conversation about Mardi
Gras and King Cake, and then days later, a lasting desire to eat some
gumbo. I'll make a bold statement/disclaimer here: I am not a
southerner, and I've got no business claiming to know gumbo. And
yet...I found myself wanting some.
I consulted the Best Recipe cookbook, the Soup Bible, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, my good friend Loe's Shrimp Creole recipe,
and then basically threw my hands up and some things in a pot. I was
a) up the creek without shrimps with shells on, and b) too lazy to make
my own, so I just used store bought seafood stock. Which is apparently a huge cheat, so whatever, I'm a dirty rotten cheater and made my recipe big easy. (Badum ching?)
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| This roux is not nearly Cajun enough. |
Additionally,
I was apparently falsely under the impression that a roux involved only
flour and some form of a fatty liquid that originally came from a cow.
Color me shocked to discover that all, yes all, of the many gumbo
recipes I consulted began with a roux made with - horror of horrors -
boiling hot vegetable oil. Dudes. Do you know how freaked out I am by
hot oil? It only took one time of spilling hot coffee grounds on my
wrist and a month long burn to enforce the lesson
Charlie taught his big brother. I ruled out using a thermometer; seriously, Best Recipe cookbook? In my
vision of Creole cooking on the bayou, there are no thermometers
involved. But there may be gators! And overalls! And also, I hope it's
cleaner than Beasts of the Southern Wild! It's too hot for that,
anyways.
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| You'll do, Cajun roux. |
But I digress. I did it, didn't burn myself, and you
can too. Just be prepared to stick with it and stir gently for awhile,
to prevent burning (so you don't rue your roux). The resulting soup was
pretty decent, and I was pleased. You can up the meat or veggie
content; there is room in the broth for more. I'd also advocate for
using a low sodium seafood broth if you can find it; some of the
ingredients are naturally salty and it's always easier to add than take
salt away. Finally, spice. It was not spicy enough for me. I added
mucho hot sauco, as my poptart would say. Tailor it to your
audience...but don't be shy!
Below is my own voodoo recipe. You do what you do...(PS. Probably goes well with
Out of the Easy...which maybe also explains why I found myself craving this in the first place!)
Lazy Voodoo Gumbo
Serves 6-8
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| Lazy Voodoo Gumbo |
