morsels45

morsels45 said

Gumbo

It starts with a roux and you do not stop stirring for forty minutes.

Gumbo
Photo: Amadscientist, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. A photo of the dish, not of these exact recipes.

That was somebody else’s answer. Yours takes about twenty seconds: a handful of either-ors, then one dish.

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How to make gumbo

2 genuinely different takes — a classic, and a faster or lighter route. The same ones the app hands you once you have decided.

Forty minutes of roux

150 minutes · serves 8 · Hard

What you need

  • 200ml oil
  • 200g plain flour
  • 2 onions, 2 peppers, 3 celery sticks, all diced
  • 400g andouille or smoked sausage
  • 500g prawns
  • 400g chicken thighs
  • 2L stock
  • 3 bay leaves
  • Cayenne and thyme
  • Rice and file powder to serve

What you do

  1. 1Equal oil and flour in a heavy pot on medium-low, and now stir. Constantly. For forty minutes, until it is the colour of dark chocolate. If it catches even slightly, throw it away and start again — burnt roux ruins everything downstream.
  2. 2The diced vegetables straight into the hot roux; they stop it cooking further and that is the timing.
  3. 3Sausage and chicken in, then the stock a ladle at a time, whisked.
  4. 4Simmer 90 minutes with the bay and thyme.
  5. 5Prawns in for the last 5 minutes only. Over rice, with file powder at the table, never in the pot.

With a jarred roux

60 minutes · serves 6 · Easy

What you need

  • 1 jar dark roux
  • Onion, pepper, celery
  • 300g smoked sausage
  • 300g prawns
  • 1.5L stock
  • Cajun seasoning
  • Rice

What you do

  1. 1Soften the vegetables, stir in the roux and seasoning.
  2. 2Stock and sausage, simmered 40 minutes.
  3. 3Prawns for the last 5. Not the same, and it is a Tuesday.