It had been frigid all week. No, really, seriously cold... you remember... that weekend it got down to minus 5 here in Yonkers. A few days later, it wasn't nearly as bad, but it was still cold! So I wanted something hot and comforting. There had been huge sales on chicken breasts, Andouille sausage, red peppers, and onions.
I also had a few frozen shrimp and an overabundance of celery. There was even some cooked rice in the fridge from a Thai curry I had made a few days before.
GUMBO!!!!!
So, not unlike Asian dishes... Prep everything before you start!
I chopped: 1 onion, 1 red pepper, some garlic, 3-4 stalks of celery, and 1 andouille.
I thawed and heated a quart of my homemade chicken stock, and tossed in a few hands full of frozen shrimp shells.
Next I got out some bay leaves, and my habañero hot sauce (in place of the wimpy jalapeño called for). Then, in a splash of EVOO, I sautéed the Andouille, removed it... then sautéed the diced chicken breast, just until it started to color (not cooked through), and removed it... Then deglazed the pan with a bit of white wine.
I then made a roux with 1/4 C canola oil and 1/4 C AP flour. This is not a typical French roux blond...
Cook it for at least 10 minutes until it is the color of old bricks!
I know. It's scary. But keep going, keep whisking...
It took me about 15 minutes, but I'm a coward and I had the temperature pretty low...
When you can't stand it any more, toss in the onions, celery, garlic, and red peppers, and cook for a few minutes...
Add 1 C chopped tomatoes and 1/2-3/4 C stock... Bring it to a simmer...
Lower the heat and cook for about 20 minutes, then add the sausage and chicken back in. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Turn it off until dinner.
When dinner time comes, reheat it, taste for salt, and... in the last minutes, gently poach a few shrimp in the sauce. DO NOT overcook them!
Reheat your rice, scoop the rice into hot bowls, top with the sauce, and garnish with minced scallions and red peppers.
Eat! Enjoy! Repeat!
GUMBO REDUX!!!
So here's a picture of the original gumbo a few days later...
Two things: all stew-type dishes are truly better the next day or the day after, and, when there was a gigantic sale on wild-caught American shrimp, I decided to poach a few and lay them ever so delicately atop the gumbo.
Even better than the original!!!
PS. And the chicken stock I used to poach the shrimp both times (infused with lots of shrimp shells) is now a wildly tasty shrimp broth! A gift that keeps on giving!