GUMBO
In its way, looking at all its ingredients, gumbo is the American dish.
We so often hear that American cultural touchstone—that "we are the melting pot." Next you hear or read it, think on gumbo, that thick mix of seafood, vegetables and sausage given us by the Creole cooks of Louisiana. In truth, gumbo is as American a "melting pot" as could be, for it takes in all of us.
"Gumbo" derives from the Angolan name for the key ingredient of any gumbo, okra, a finger-shaped fruit indigenous to West Africa and there called "ki ngombo." In the mid- to late-1600s, slaves brought okra with them to the New World to which they were sent upon capture. As I say, gumbo, the stew, is as American as it gets.
Okra thickens any gumbo stew in which it appears due to its mucilaginous calling-card, the certain viscosity that every gumbo cook appreciates for the way it binds together all the stew's many other ingredients—and that every gumbo eater craves for its texture.
But the true "base" of any gumbo is its dark chocolate-colored roux, that 50/50 mix of fat and flour that backbones so much of Creole cooking. You might dry-bake your roux's flour to get all the moisture out of it, and also to enhance its nutty flavors, until it is a light brown color and ready to absorb any new moisture into it.
Do that by laying the flour out on a small baking sheet and roasting it for a couple of hours in a preheated oven set to 200 degrees. Because you are likely dealing with a small amount of flour—a cup or less—just keep an eye on it; when it reaches the color of café latte or peanut butter, pull it out, let it cool, and make that roux.
This is New Orleans' Chef John Besh's gumbo recipe. It is that American melting pot, but even more: it is a sensory miscellany, a heady, savory "melting pot" of the senses—a delicious jumble of textures, tastes and flavors, even sights and aromas.
Such a stew.
RECIPE: Mamma's Seafood Gumbo
From "Besh Big Easy: 101 Home Cooked Recipes," by John Besh (Andrews McMeel Publishing). Serves 10.
Ingredients
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup flour
2 large onions, chopped
6 blue crabs, quartered
1 stalk celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 quarts shrimp or shellfish stock (recipe below)
2 cups sliced okra
1 tablespoon fresh or dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 pound smoked sausage, sliced 1/2-inch thick
4 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons from "My Creole Spice Jar" (recipe below)
Salt and pepper
Tabasco
1 pound medium wild American shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 pint shucked oysters and their liquor
1 cup crabmeat
6 cups white rice
Directions
Make a roux by heating the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot over high heat. Whisk the flour into the hot oil. It will immediately begin to sizzle. Reduce the heat to medium and continue whisking until the roux turns a deep brown color, about 15 minutes.
Add the onions, stirring them into the roux with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat to medium-low and continue stirring until the roux turns a glossy dark brown, about 10 minutes. Add the blue crabs and stir for a minute to toast the shells, then add the celery and garlic. Raise the heat to medium and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the stock, okra, thyme, and bay leaves.
Bring the gumbo to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally and skim off the fat from the surface of the gumbo (moving the pot half off the burner helps collect the impurities).
Add the sausage and green onions to the pot and cook for 15 minutes. Season well with the Creole spices, salt, pepper, and Tabasco. Add the shrimp, oysters and their liquor, and crab meat to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Serve with rice.
Shellfish or Shrimp Stock (a variation on the Besh Chicken Stock)
Making stock is not complicated. I freeze the carcasses from every chicken I roast and make stock when I have enough of them. I start by putting the carcasses in a stockpot. Often I'll brown some chicken and/or turkey wings in the oven (about 1 pound of bones total), and throw them into the pot as well. I then add a couple of chopped carrots and celery stalks along with a few cloves of crushed garlic and a couple of bay leaves. Then I pour in enough cool water to cover the bones by a few inches and bring to a boil. Then simply simmer for about 2 hours. Strain it all and you're done. (And remember, in a pinch, do as so many New Orleans home cooks do: use water).
For Shellfish Stock: Use 1 pound shells from shrimp, blue crab, crawfish, or lobster.
For Shrimp Stock: Use 1 pound shrimp heads and shells.
My Creole Spice Jar
I believe you need this simple spice mix to infuse your cooking with authentic flavor.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons celery salt
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon ground allspice
Directions
Mix all ingredients in a small jar, shake it up well, and use it to season your gumbos (and soups and stews). It'll last for months.