Best Recipe: Gumbo

After living in New Orleans for a year, I have found an appreciation for Cajun cooking. Cajun food, quite frankly, is not the prettiest of cuisines (true Gumbo is actually dirty brown in color,) but the flavors will warm you up, body and soul.

This particular Gumbo recipe is an amalgamation of several that I have picked up--which is in essence what makes good Gumbo. So cook, serve, and let the good times roll.



GUMBO
Ingredients
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup flour
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp chili powder
2 large bay leaves
3 cloves chopped garlic
1 cup diced yellow onion
1 cups diced green bell peppers
1 cup diced red bell peppers
1 cup boiled rice
1 package frozen okra
2 cans chicken broth
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cups boiled crawfish tails, or, raw shrimp (or both)


Instructions
Rinse 1 cup of rice and boil until cooked. Drain and set aside.

Heat the chicken broth on medium-low heat in a medium pot

On medium-high heat, cook the roux (what thickens the gumbo) in a separate large pot by heating the oil and slowly adding the flour. Cook until the roux has developed a reddish-brown color.

Add the salt, black pepper, chili powder, garlic, onions, and peppers to the roux. Cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender. Add the diced tomatoes (with the liquid) and the chicken broth to the vegetables. Add the bay leaves. Put on medium-low heat, cover and let sit for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Remove cover and add the okra and seafood. Recover and let sit for 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Once the seafood has cooked, remove the bay leaves. Put the boiled rice in bowls. Serve gumbo over rice.

Enjoy!



Picture: http://czerniec.com/2007/02/19/shrimp-gumbo.jpg