Real Southern Louisiana Gumbo

First off, let me classify or clarify to you the Cajun to Creole difference. Cajun is almost the same as Creole, and visa versa, you cannot have one without the other, they influenced each others recipes for generations. Cajun's definition is typically French/Acadian, where as Creole is the locals po' folk food. Cajun really is too, just allows importing from other places. Just don't let any one tell you its not Cajun or creole, today they are woven together. I would just say...if its imported shrimp at a New Orleans restaurant, like prawns or the like its Cajun, creole comes out of the local land and swamps, period. So Creole can be Cajun, but imported ingredients can't be real creole. No race can claim creole, it is a mix of Native American, and all the immigrants of early Southern Louisiana.

Now what I love about good old Creole is that it is a few hundred years of perfecting local ingredients in a way to make eating the same foods out of your garden and what you can fish and hunt tolerable, creole derived out of poverty and isolation from the rest of the world, and it is very important to me because I was born in Southern Louisiana, in Lake Charles, and lived every where from Morgan City to New Orleans. I remember being able to crack a crayfish before I could walk good, ate spicier food than most Americans by the age of 4, and fried frog legs didn't sound weird at all!

Now this recipe of gumbo is very different from what you get in the "Cajun restaurants" Have any of you ever tried gumbo, and thought "yuk the okra is so slimy!!" well my father one day described that complaint to an old creole lady. She told him.." Ahh dat the lazy way to cook de gumbo, you make a roux wit de okra, in de old days, you don't just trow it in dere" She showed him how to cook the Okra roux and it is a very old tradition.

The only twist is that my father loves to combine the best of every recipe he tries, and the Okra roux is great, but we miss the nutty flavor of traditional flour roux where you stir it slowly with oil until it turns a dark brown. So in this recipe we combine the two methods for the perfect gumbo.

Real Southern Louisiana Gumbo

Ingredients:

*2 tbsp. oil

* okra, either about 5 cups fresh or two small frozen bags or one lg. frozen bag.

*3 tbsp. bacon grease

*2 lg. bouillon cubes

* about 6-8 cups give or take of broth, in this case we are using duck broth

*Kary's Roux or other real Louisiana roux, or make it yourself (practice if you haven't before)

*salt and pepper

*1 lb. chicken diced ( or any meat you choose)

* next is 1 lb. sausage, we are using deer sausage ( as I said you live off the land)

* last meat can be any lb. of sea food or crayfish, but we are doing what creoles do, and using what we have,right now we are using just duck meat instead, its what we got!!!

* 1 small bell pepper or 1/2 a lg.

*about 3 stalks celery chopped

* one onion

* 3 tsp. oregano

* 2 tsp. thyme

* 1 tsp basil

* 1 tsp black pepper

* 1 tsp. white pepper

* 1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper

* 1 tsp. Tabasco sauce

* 3 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

* 2 tbsp. garlic

* 1/2 cup red wine ( yes this leans more toward Cajun)

* 1/2 lemon thinly sliced ( add after above is mixed well)

* tsp cayenne

* tbsp. salt

* Bay Leaf, 1-2

* save parsley and chives for last

* add file' when you plate it up..( its a common mistake to add file' while cooking, on the contrary you add it after the fact.)

Preparing the Roux:

* Add the oil, bacon grease and okra, you slowly cook it down, and I mean SLOWLY! After its getting a little slimy as okra does, add the bouillon cubes, and continue to stir and cook slowly, stir every 5 or 10 minutes, it will take up to an hour, to cook down the okra, if its fresh you may need to add a tsp or two of broth, frozen has water in it, you do not want it soggy or wet, the point is to dry it out, brown it, and get it dark, mash it as you stir it, and near the end add a half a jar of flour roux, or about 1 cup of homemade flour roux. stir it until it is well blended and ready to get going.

Preparing the Trinity:

* chop up your onion, bellpepper and celery, the special spark to all Louisiana cookin'

* stir it into your roux and add all the herbs, spices, and salt and garlic, just save the lemon,parsley, chives, and file' for later.

* last you add the wine, you know why....let it loosen up that roux and make it pliable for the next step.

Next, add the broth:

  * as you let the broth slowly simmer into the roux, trinity and spices, prepair your meat if you have not already done so. Before you add the meat, add the lemons to the gumbo, yes whole lemons....yum!

Add your meat in, and stir.

Lastly,

Let the gumbo cook at a simmer for a while, about 45 minutes or so, longer if you like, the flavors will blend together in such a way, that you have no idea whats in there, it is an amazing aroma and will taste even better. Add the chives and parsley about a tablespoon of each about 5 min.'s or so before you turn down/off the heat. The hidden okra roux will throw people off, and taste wonderful!

Plate it up....add it atop a bowl of rice if you like or a hollowed out french role.If you serve this to anyone, *warning*, they may freak out and get all too happy about the taste, it keeps going, there are many levels of flavor you do not expect!!!

Add a pinch of file' to your bowl..and wallah!!! Enjoy the sunset on the water, and taste the creole flavor, it's a bit of heaven on earth.