Cajun Gumbo Recipe - Mardi Gras
Enjoy a Taste of the Big Easy with this Easy Louisiana Gumbo Recipe
Even if you can't make the pilgrimage to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, you can get in the spirit of the season with an easy and tasty Cajun gumbo.
If you want to start a heated debate, just ask cooks in the Deep South how to make gumbo. Everybody's Momma makes the best one, and to argue is pointless. Swear every gumbo you taste is the very best ever, and you will score lots of Mardi Gras beads and a spot at many a table.
If you can't get to the lower coast for the Mardi Gras season, enjoy your own Cajun gumbo. Tell everyone that it's the best ever, and raise hell if anyone disagrees. This is fine (and expected) as long as you're outside the string of southernmost states. If someone continues to raise a ruckus, then cry and say it's your Momma's recipe. If all else fails, send the gumbo snob on a beer run.
Best Ever Mardi Gras Gumbo (If you make it, remember it IS the best.)
Ingredients:
- 1 lb of boneless stew beef (can also use pork, chicken, or seafood)
- 3 TBS plain flour
- 4 TBS bacon grease (save this from breakfast - strain or dip off bacon particles)
- 1 lb fresh okra cut in chunks about 1 inch long (can also frozen okra - about 12 oz - thawed and drained well)
- 2 large tomatoes sliced in chunks of a 1/2 inch or so (can also use 16 oz can of whole tomoatoes - but drain off tomato liquid)
- 1 large onion chopped pretty large
- 1 green pepper cut in nickel (or close) size chunks
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tsp file powder (herb made from sassafras leaves)
- 1/2 tsp salt (some folks like more)
- 1 TBS hot sauce (any brand is fine - Louisana Hot Sauce is very good)
- rice (cooked with the gumbo poured over when done)
Directions:
- Cut the meat in chunks about one inch. You can buy the meat in chunks and save on the cutting.
- Dredge the meat in the flour. In other words, roll the meat chunks around in the flour until it's covered.
- Heat the bacon grease in a large sacue pan. You want it around medium heat.
- Add the flour coated meat chunks and cook until browned. Stir so that all sides of the meat gets browned.
- Use a slotted spatula or spoon and dip the meat out of the bacon grease and put in a bowl for later.
- Add the okra and stir around until it's browned. This prevents the okra from tasting slimy.
- Once the okra is browned, add the meat back to the sauce pan.
- Add the tomatoes, green pepper, onion and garlic.
- Add enough water to cover the ingredients in the sauce pan. Don't overdo it. Just add water to go above the items placed in the pot.
- Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat. Put a cover on the pot and let the mixture simmer for around 2 hours or until the meat is tender. If you use meat or seafood other than beef, then reduce the time. Beef takes longer to get tender. The mix should look like thick soup when done. It the gumbo mix is getting too dry (or thick) before the meat is tender, you can add a little more water.
- Add the file powder, salt and hot sauce and simmer another 30 minutes with the lid off or tilted. Taste the mixture now and then. You may want to add more seasonings, but do not go overboard. Folks can add file and hot sauce after the gumbo is served if they want more zip.
- While the seasonings are simmering, cook your rice. Some people like more and some less on the rice. Around six cups is a good ballpark figure. That's six cups cooked and not six cups of raw rice cooked. Six cups of raw rice would make enough to feed an army.
- Do offer file (if you can find it) and hot sauce so that family members and/or guests can customize the gumbo to taste.
Notes:
File powder thickens the gumbo and also adds flavor. It's the secret to gumbo in the Deep South. File which does have an accent mark over the e is pronounced like FEE-lay. It may also be sold as "gumbo file."
File is made from sassafras leaves. Sassafras roots and bark has been found to be carcinogenic. Safrole is the culprit. But the sassafras leaves used to make file do not include the carcinogenic compound. So - no worries.
It may be hard to find file powder outside the Deep South. It is sold online. It's a good herb to add to your rack. If you do not have file and decide to make gumbo, use some thyme and savory (around 1/2 tsp each and then taste and adjust as you wish). You may need to cook the mixture a bit longer if not using the traditional file in the gumbo - to thicken and to get the make-do flavors incorporated.
