It’s rainy today here in Beautiful Southern Illinois™ and so I passed some time looking around for something to fix for dinner. Found some of the Andouille sausage I made a while back and thought jambalaya might hit the spot. I try to link to this guy whenever I can, he’s my goto guy when I do anything Cajun-style. The link goes to a jambalaya recipe that informed my take on it today, you could do worse than spend a little time looking over his recipe collection.
andouille
We Love Our Gumbo!
I’m happy enough with how my gumbo turns out that I don’t much use a recipe anymore. The fellow over at NOLA Cuisine always gets my nod when someone asks for recipes for these sorts of dishes, be sure to take a tour of his place – click on his recipe page for sure.
This one has genuine Louisiana made Andouille sausage and chicken thighs. (Link goes to a Cajun Grocer’s page.) I ordered one of their turduckens to have on hand for the upcoming holiday.
Gumbo Pr0n – With Homemade Andouille
…and chicken! I even added some cut okra to this one.
Homemade Andouille Sausage
I used some sausage for the last gumbo that said Andouille on the package but it was a pretty poor excuse for it. I ordered some from a vendor I’ve dealt with before – Cajun Grocer – along with a few other items I can’t get locally. It came the other day but it got me wondering if I could make a credible version of it myself. My go to guy for all things Cajun is this fellow and he didn’t disappoint. I’m new at the stuffing sausage game and made some mistakes, and my smoking set-up isn’t the best but I managed to turn out the smoked links in the photo above. These have spent the night in the fridge. I kept a few back and vacuum packed the rest:
Gumbo Pr0n – Shrimp, Andouille, and Crayfish
Mmm… gumbo. I’ve made this often enough that I was able to put this one together without even glancing at a recipe. We ran across some frozen crayfish tails while were were scouting brisket prices and “we can make gumbo” was the first thing that came to mind.
The general recipe is simple enough: Chop up up the trinity of onions, celery, and green peppers and keep them ready to go, then start a roux and take it to a color that suits you, stirring all the while. I use peanut oil instead of butter, use equal parts flour and oil. A large flat bottom pot and a wooden spatula with a flat tip is the best thing I’ve found for making one although you can do the roux in the oven if you have time.
When the roux is dark enough to suit, stir in the trinity . Season with your favorite spices. Give the veggies five minutes or so to wilt then add your stock. This time I used lamb stock I had on hand but the usual is chicken stock, or shrimp stock. The lamb stock worked great. Bring it to a boil and then simmer.
You are nearly home free, now. Add everything else in its proper time, sausage and chicken can go in early, seafoods go in late. I put okra in this one but that’s optional. Mine came frozen and chopped, I added it to the simmering stock early. It’s said to be a thickener but I really couldn’t say. Adjust your seasonings and serve it with rice.
Tidbits
Mmm… green beans and ham. The meat is some of the cured pork that we buy whenever we go up to the processor about an hour north of where we live. They bag and freeze chunks that are analogous to bacon ends. I’m not sure what their curing method is, soaking in a brine is my guess, then smoking for a spell.
Mrs J is getting serious about wrapping up the patio container garden. I picked most of the peppers. The small sweet peppers are great for pickling – I have been using a simple water/vinegar/sugar pickle. The habs and the Anaheims were frozen whole. I noticed the jalapenos were starting to wrinkle so they got the same pickling as the little grape sized peppers. Still to go are a bunch of cayennes, and the ornamental tri-color peppers that have proved to be hot hot hot. Some other tri-colored peppers have no heat at all.
They brought this long haired chihuahua to the shelter the other day. He was found running free by the roadside with his son. No tags or owner. They think he’s about 8 years old. Heartworm positive, he’ll be there a while, his son has been adopted and he is all alone.
A neighbor called yesterday evening, telling Mrs J there was a momma cat and her kittens abandoned by the road. She found the mom and three kittens right away. They were hungry. Another sweep through the same area found three more kittens.
They all seem to be healthy. We have them all in the back barn for now, all set up with litter boxes and bedding.
Bookending the post with beans. These are red beans and rice. Kroger surprised me the other day with Andouille sausage. I bought a ring and used it here. Just about the perfect addition to the classic bean dish. I tossed in a few boneless chicken thighs to keep the sausage company.
Chicken Gumbo
Sorry about the light posting, we’ve had some work in the kitchen done – some new countertops along with a new sink. That didn’t take too long, and didn’t cause me any pain or suffering. Taking the old countertop to the basement and installing it in a corner down there did take some time and effort. Noticing the lighting was poor hit me when I was weak and feeling handy. Gah. Nothing for it but to replace a dozen cheap shop light fixtures with more cheap fixtures. But hey! They have electronic instant on gizmos!
Now I wait for the new single bowl sink to fit into the hole the old one came out of so Mrs J can have a nice dog wash/deskunking station. It’s near where a clothes washer was installed so the drain and water hook ups are close by and pose no particular problem for this old plumber. Now then, where was I? Ah —
Just a basic gumbo, this one with chicken, Andouille sausage, and tasso.
Gumbo Nights
I was rummaging about in the big freezer and turned up a stick of Andouille sausage. That put me of a mind to make a pot of gumbo. I noticed that Alton Brown was touting a method of making a brown roux in the oven that seemed to be foolproof, and didn’t require one to stand over the stove stirring for a half hour and more:
Place the vegetable oil and flour into a 5 to 6-quart cast iron Dutch oven and whisk together to combine. Place on the middle shelf of the oven, uncovered, and bake for 1 1/2 hours, whisking 2 to 3 times throughout the cooking process.
Seemed to work pretty well:
This was after 90 minutes. It could have spent a little longer and been a bit more brown but I went with it as you see it. More or less following Alton’s recipe, I put it over a medium flame on the cooktop and stirred in diced celery, green peppers, and onion. The roux turned right away into thick mud but I kept stirring it until the veggies softened a bit, about ten minutes. Next was several cups (4-5?) of the stock the chicken I used was cooked in, fortified with some Creole seasoning, along with the canned tomato bits I used in lieu of fresh. I did have fresh thyme and even grow my own bay leaves now. That simmered for a half hour before I added the cooked chicken, thawed pre-cooked shrimp, and the sliced and browned Andouille sausage.
Serve over rice, and be sure to have a bottle of hot sauce on the table lest you be taunted.
What's 4 Dinner Solutions 