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Goodie Goodie Gumbo

Happy Memorial Day! Partying Hard with Family!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! We’ve been spending this weekend with my cousin Raja and his wife Tina visiting from Dallas. In the middle of the night last night Raja declared we must make Gumbo for Sunday Funday! We had all been drinking and celebrating a huge family event. We were all a little delirious and tired from all the festivities.

Raja & Tina – Dodging the speed street crowd on the way to celebrate my cousin Reeva’s graduation

Raja, I could tell, was very enthusiastic about showing Food Babe his cooking skills. Ever sense Raja’s arrival on Friday, he’s been in my kitchen playing with my Shun knives and contemplating what he could chop next. He diced left over lemon rind from a garnish earlier in the day. You can tell Raja loves the kitchen as much as Food Babe. Maybe this is because our mothers, who were both pregnant with us, took us on our first trip together to India before we were even born. We are only a few weeks apart in age, both born Aries, a raging fire sign and have more in common than we both like to admit.

A little excited first thing in the morning, prepping veggies before our trip to Earth Fare

Raja is from Louisiana and well, not the healthiest state in America and wanted to make traditional gumbo. We began to discuss what’s exactly is in gumbo….. he declared all sorts of Food Babe unfriendly ingredients like bleached white flour, inorganic oils, and pre-cooked conventional & nitrate filled sausage and was very hesitant, in fact, adamantly against changing the original recipe. I pleaded with him back and forth and finally he was convinced we could make this organic.

So here it is – Organic GOODIE GOODIE Gumbo!

 

Going to Earth Fare for all the organic goods
Tina in charge of the cart
Looking for the best bell peppers in the house
Earth Fare hand made fresh Andouille Sausage – doesn’t get fresher than this
Checking out – This was the least I’ve spent at Earth Fare ever.

Food Babe's Organic Gumbo
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Serves: 8 - 10
Ingredients
  • Roux:
  • 1 cup of a high smoke point oil or butter (try grape seed oil for an alternative to canola)
  • 1 cup of stone ground whole wheat flour
  • Trinity:
  • 2 medium white or yellow onions chopped
  • 2 green bell peppers chopped
  • 1 bunch of celery chopped
  • Other:
  • 4 cloves of fresh garlic chopped
  • 2 cups of fresh okra chopped
  • 1 whole chicken
  • 1 pound fresh andouille sausage cooked well done and sliced into 1 inch pieces
  • 5 sprigs of rosemary
  • 5 sprigs of thyme
  • 10 leaves sage
  • 6 bay leaves
  • (Use half the herbs to make a “bouquet garni” by tying them together using butcher twine)
  • sea salt and pepper
  • hot sauce – we used “Earth Fare” brand “Organic Hot Sauce”
Instructions
  1. Making the Roux:
  2. Place large frying pan on medium-low heat (3)
  3. Add flour and oil to pan
  4. Stirring constantly (~45mins)
  5. Be careful, the roux can burn if unattended for more than ~2mins
  6. Meanwhile…Make the Stock and Chicken…
  7. Heat 6 quarts of water and 1 TBSP of sea salt in a large stock pots
  8. Rinse chicken, then salt and pepper on all sides
  9. Place whole chicken and half of herbs in pots
  10. Boil, then turn down to simmer and cover pots
  11. Cook until chicken is tender and falls off bone (~30-45mins)
  12. Once chicken is cooked, remove chicken and strain broth removing all herbs
  13. Shred chicken in a bowl and keep 8 cups stock remaining in pots
  14. Once roux has changed color to a deep brown, add trinity and garlic
  15. Stir until vegetables begin to soften (~ 4-7 mins)
  16. Add combined roux and vegetables to stock and stir until all roux is dissolved in broth
  17. Add chicken, okra, bouquet garni, cooked sausage to pot and bring to boils
  18. Reduce heat to simmer for 4-6 hours
  19. Enjoy over jasmine brown rice and add hot sauce to taste
Notes
**All ingredients organic, andouille sausage house made with all natural humanely treated pork**

 

The roux typically takes the same amount of time it takes to drink 2 beers
Giving this sweet little chicken a nice rinse
Used the best quality organic stone ground whole wheat flour for roux
Everyone had their part! Finley cooking up the Andouille
Preparing trinity
Gorgeous fresh okra
Double Duty – Cooking roux and boiling chicken at same time
Deep Brown Roux – It’s done!
The shredded chicken didn’t require much work, it fell right off the bone!
Grilled Andouille Sausage a la Finley
Sliced, perfectly cooked sausage, ready to throw in the pot
Bouquet Garni – I love using any French term while cooking
Adding vegetables to roux
Getting some sun while the Gumbo is simmering
Simmered ….6 hours later
Goodie Goodie Gumbo done! Over the jasmine brown rice – yum!

 

It turned out fabulous!  We ate so much, we were couch potatoes for the rest of the night!   Thank you again Raja for showing a Carolina girl how to make real Louisiana style gumbo!

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7 responses to “Goodie Goodie Gumbo

    1. Thanks Mom – It was! We spent all day sweating our little hearts out over the stove! 🙂 Now I know how you feel!!!!

  1. I’ve really enjoyed your recipes so far! Also, I love that pink dress!!! Who makes it??

    1. Thanks Holly! The pink dress is made by “Amanda Uprichard” – I got this one from Nordstrom last year – but I saw they had one in purple and a light coral for this year’s collection. I’ve also seen her stuff at http://www.shopbop.com. It’s a really comfortable dress!

  2. I’m from N.O., born and raised and still living in area. You can make traditional gumbo without a rue by just using the okra to thicken. I make it all the time like that and it’s virtually fat free.

  3. Hi Vani, Love your recipes and you are an inspiration to me.. Any suggestions to which flour should be used to make it GF.
    Thanks.

  4. I’m from south Louisiana and I can assure you that no decent southerner would ever use wheat flour to make a roux. Ever.

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