More Okra: Okra Gumbo
More on Okra. I know, you are wondering why I am blogging on okra in the first place, but some of us love it and the next bitneeds documenting so here it goes.
When my husband was in graduate school, another student working on his PHD in the same program, lived with us for awhile. He was 100% pure-bred Cajun. He taught me to make okra gumbo; his mama's recipe. Anyone, including his mama would laugh at the idea that he taught me how to cook anything. The truth is that we spent alot of time over the phone getting the directions. We had invited several people overto learn with us in what was supposed take 30 minutes (or was it 4) hours later, when everyone was starving, we had our first okra gumbo and we've been eating it ever since.
My gumbo experience to that point was okra as an adder to veggie soups. Not this gumbo. It is mainly okra. You take a huge pile of okra and chop it in the food processor with some onions, bell pepper, hot pepper and garlic. Put a bit of oil in the bottom of a stew pot, add the okra combo, add a bit of water and cook it in a slow oven for several hours: "until you cook the slime out", stirring occasionally. Portion and freeze the "concentrated gumbo solution".
The picture on the left is prior to cooking and the one on the right is the concentrated gumbo solution. Do you see how much wetter the one on the left is?
When ready to use, I pressure cook a whole chicken, cool, take the fat off and debone and put the chicken back in the broth. Add the frozen "concentrated gumbo solution". You have Okra Gumbo with Chicken.
Serve over rice and season with Tony Chacherie's Creole seasoning. It has become a staple in our diet, particularly on cold winter nights. I tried my best to document the proportions for my recipes on my website so you can try it too. http://www.swankcatering.com/soup-and-stews.html
I have never seen this way to cook gumbo outside of southern Louisiana. It IS ugly but very good! I promise, no more okra (well, I don't mean I am going to quit eating it!) I do hope you'll give it a try!
P
When my husband was in graduate school, another student working on his PHD in the same program, lived with us for awhile. He was 100% pure-bred Cajun. He taught me to make okra gumbo; his mama's recipe. Anyone, including his mama would laugh at the idea that he taught me how to cook anything. The truth is that we spent alot of time over the phone getting the directions. We had invited several people overto learn with us in what was supposed take 30 minutes (or was it 4) hours later, when everyone was starving, we had our first okra gumbo and we've been eating it ever since.
My gumbo experience to that point was okra as an adder to veggie soups. Not this gumbo. It is mainly okra. You take a huge pile of okra and chop it in the food processor with some onions, bell pepper, hot pepper and garlic. Put a bit of oil in the bottom of a stew pot, add the okra combo, add a bit of water and cook it in a slow oven for several hours: "until you cook the slime out", stirring occasionally. Portion and freeze the "concentrated gumbo solution".
The picture on the left is prior to cooking and the one on the right is the concentrated gumbo solution. Do you see how much wetter the one on the left is?
When ready to use, I pressure cook a whole chicken, cool, take the fat off and debone and put the chicken back in the broth. Add the frozen "concentrated gumbo solution". You have Okra Gumbo with Chicken.
Serve over rice and season with Tony Chacherie's Creole seasoning. It has become a staple in our diet, particularly on cold winter nights. I tried my best to document the proportions for my recipes on my website so you can try it too. http://www.swankcatering.com/soup-and-stews.html
I have never seen this way to cook gumbo outside of southern Louisiana. It IS ugly but very good! I promise, no more okra (well, I don't mean I am going to quit eating it!) I do hope you'll give it a try!
P
posted by Pookah @ 1:09 PM
1 Comments:
At 11:28 AM,
JMom said…
oh, I've never tried of doing gumbo this way too, but I love it!! especially with the way the okra is coming in now, this is a great way to freeze it rather than just throwing them in a bag and into the freezer :)
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