Cajun Tip of the day, I'mma learn y'all to eat

SVTFreak said:
@schmittie, I can’t get anyone to give me their own recipes....
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Sounds about right. o_O


My father is from Mississippi, and Food® was very, very important to him and his seven siblings, a handful of which settled in the Bay St. Louis area.

My family lived in upstate NH when I was small; my father's sisters would make a semi-regular trek to visit us.

(For our part, we'd semi-regularly make the drive to MS, always in August, the five of us and the dog in a car without air conditioning [not yet a universal Thing]. Ie, "Let's go to Hell." But, I digress.)

I remember the first time I encountered "Gumbo," hearing the word for days and days before my aunts descended on our northern abode and began to produce the same.

The build-up was intense, the anticipatory energy and cussin' profound, until days later it was Gumbo Time.

The huge pot was set on the table, the ladle plunged and slowly lifted.

My small self took one look at what appeared to be various creature parts and unknown plant forms ascending from the blackish depths, and bolted.

Now? How I would love to taste what they deemed worthy of that level of concentrated fuss.

I'll bet it was very, very good.

~ P.
 
Here's the Boudin Recipe from Pirate's Pantry, the Junior League of Lake Charles cookbook.

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I've made it before- it does make a TON! I left out the Accent as it's just MSG and used Tony's hot instead
of the salt and red pepper. If you are going to stuff it, I'd recommend a sausage stuffer over a grinder attachment. Also, I mounted all the stuff to a 2x4 piece of plywood and then just clamped that to the kitchen table with some wood clamps. Much easier.

This was smoking about a third of the batch, (see Ton comments above)

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Here's a reference to the "Boudin Trail"

http://cajunboudintrail.com

And a list that seems to track pretty well with what I remember from by days down in Lake Charles.

http://boudinlink.com/boudin-by-grade/
 
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Bmurray said:
BTW, I make the best gumbo, red beans n'rice and crawfish etouffee this side of the swamp, guaranteed. I'm going to try to make a blackened shrimp grits (gouda) this week.
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That’s a pretty big claim, there, pal. And one that would likely start a mess of trouble in these parts. If whatwas left of the combatants could still cook, only the. Would it truly be settled! Lol

FWIW, no one makes the best. They are all good usually, in their own ways. Sometimes I want my mommas gumbo, and sometimes I want my aunts. They both outstanding, but neither is better. Just different.

And is out mine against yours.... except the crawfish etouffee. I’ve just never enjoyed cooking that lol
 
I've lived all over the south even Louisiana and loved every gumbo I've eaten. It is like momma's soup and every momma makes it's different and all is good. However I make one that everyone tells me should be canned and sold. I'm always looking for some to eat.
 
Fiddleback said:
Lesson 1. If you want good sausage, get it from Louisianna. I've never had sausage I thought was worth a shit outside of Acadianna. I get my fix at Bourques. Give em a try, they ship in dry ice. Louisianna sausage is a fine meal all by itself. Their boudin is the real deal too. None of that bullshit little Adeles packages at your grocery store. Never had a piece of that Adeles that wasn't disgusting.

(No Cajun is raised believing that the rest of the world knows how to eat. Thought I'd leave y'all some bread crumbs. Nobody has ever tried this before, but maybe this can be learned. I hope they don't come try to take away my card for this.)

If you are from New Orleans, you are only a shirttail Cajun. More a creole person. Meh.

http://www.bourquespecialties.com/
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Moving away from New Orleans with my parents as a kid will always be the biggest tradgedy in my life.

The food in Toronto is :poop:
 
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Bmurray said:
BTW, I make the best gumbo, red beans n'rice and crawfish etouffee this side of the swamp, guaranteed. I'm going to try to make a blackened shrimp grits (gouda) this week.
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I’ll barely let you get away with that claim since you clearly prefaced it excluding real competition.
But I gotta say it, pics or it didn’t happen !
 
Lapedog said:
So I’m not the only kid who’s life was ruined?

I just don’t think there is any other city on the North American continent quite like N’awlins.
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no we we're removed from there when I was a kid, I loved it.
 
Bmurray said:
no we we're removed from there when I was a kid, I loved it.
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You loved being removed? Lol I’m kidding I get you.

All of us who had The Big Easy stolen from us as kids should plan a mass exodus to the promised land.
 
IMG_Oct152018at85325PM.jpg Well, we had a cold front move through this weekend, it dropped to the mid 60’s. Close enough for me to have some gumbo. :D


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Now that it is getting cooler, it is time for gumbo. Now, everyone that is not a cajun totaly screws up gumbo. This is because almost every kind of soup starts with sauteing vegies such as onions and garlic and bell peppers, etc. I want to be very clear. REAL GUMBO DOES NOT HAVE ANY ONIONS, GARLIC OR BELL PEPPERS IN THE BROTH. The great thing is that it is very easy to make. Gumbo consists of a roux based broth and some kind of other food cooked in the broth. Thats it. What do I mean by some other food? Well gumbo and other Cajun foods came from having no food, so its a flour broth and whatever else you had in the kitchen. Examples I have had are chicken, okra, fish, shrimp, crawfish, etc. Literally, its whatever you have on hand or any combo of a meat and okra.

So, onto the recipe.

1. Make a roux or buy some Savoys. I always buy the Savoys. It lasts indefinitely, and saves the only time consuming and skill requiring portion of the gumbo. To make the roux, use equal parts flour and vegetable oil and brown it for roughly 40 minutes until it looks like cofee. You have to stir it ceaselessly so that it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan. If you stop stirring and flakes of burnt flour float around in your roux you have ruined it. Start over. Making roux is a study in pitching pennies. You want it dark as possible wihtout burning. Also, it will smell your home up. I actually love the smell.

2. Melt 4 heaping tablespoons of your roux per gallon of water. For this you just boil water with the roux floating around in it and stir occasionally until its a nice brown broth. When the roux is all melted, if it is not dark enough, add more roux. Do this carefully, roux can be overpowering. Add some pepper and salt.

3. Add meat or okra and boil away until cooked. A note on chicken. The tender young friars you get at the grocery store are OK, but cook apart quickly into a pulled chicken kind of consistancy. My momo, Ora Boudreaux Roy, always got an old hen for gumbo. I usually go to my local butcher and ask for a hen. Its hit or miss. If you do get a hen, you need to cook it until it gets tender but doesn't fall apart.

4. When you think you're done and ready to turn off the heat, add a handfull of scallions to the broth.

Serve over rice. File is an optional spice to add at the table. Careful though, it thickens the broth. Don't overdo it. In Georgia, the restaurants call gumbo a stew, but it was always the consistancy of soup around my Momo's table.
 
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