Category: Cooking

This is based on a recipe from my favorite Louisiana cookbook, “The New Orleans Cookbook,” Rima Collin & Richard Collin. I’ve simplified it a little bit but it is still delicious. 

Ingredients

2 T vegetable oil

2 lbs boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenders

2 onions, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch scallions, white parts only, chopped
4 cloves garlic, pressed
3 T chopped parsley

1 lb andouille sausage, cut into quarters and chopped

1 T salt
2 bay leaves
1 t thyme
1/2 t black pepper
1/2 t chili power
1/2 t basil
1/4 t cayenne

2 cups white or brown rice
3 cups water (3.5 for brown rice)

optional: 1 lb peeled shrimp

Directions

1. In a big dutch oven, heat oil and brown chicken over medium high heat. Remove chicken to separate bowl.
2. Add vegetables and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, about 10 minutes.
3. Add andouille sausage and spices, cook 5 minutes more.
4. Add rice without water and cook for 5 minutes, stirring and coating rice well with cooking liquid.
5. Add water and add back chicken. Bring to a boil. Set heat to lowest setting and cover. Cook one to two hours, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender and chicken has begun to fall apart. (Brown rice takes longer than white rice.) 
6. If using, add peeled uncooked shrimp for the last 15 minutes of cooking. Separate any large pieces of chicken with a fork. Serve hot. 

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The dreaded broken roux … It’s when something goes wrong in cooking gumbo, and instead of a luscious, uniform, thick roux, you end up with a separated sauce that seems to have tiny globules of flour floating around in oil. It’s totally gross, and it’s a classic broken roux. (Some would call it a separated roux.)

I used to have lots of problems with broken roux (roux’s?). I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong … I wondered if I was adding the water (some people add stock) at the wrong temperature. One article I read advised a lukewarm stock … I fiddled with that for awhile and couldn’t come up with anything like consistent results. Finally, I read somewhere that it was a myth that you should add EQUAL parts of fat and flour to make a roux. This advice said you should add more flour than fat, by anywhere from a third to a half more flour, to avoid the dreaded broken roux. I started doing this, and lo and behold, I haven’t had a broken roux since. Coincidence? Perhaps. There is art and mystery in the cooking of the gumbo.

Another important question: Is there a fix for a roux once its broken? I only found one fix for a separated roux, which is taking pre-made cold roux from “roux in a jar” (which I don’t normally use) and mixing it into the gumbo with the broken roux, and then bringing the whole thing to a boil for a few minutes. (I like Savoie’s Old Fashioned Dark Roux). I have a hunch this isn’t so much about fixing the broken roux and it is masking the broken roux. But we do what we must in such cases … And if you don’t have roux in a jar on hand, I have no other solution to offer. Sorry!

 

My Louisiana grandmother would make a delicious carrot cake for our birthdays that I’ve come to think of as the quintessential New Orleans-style carrot cake. Its distinguishing features: 

• No raisins;
• Square cake;
• Chopped pecans mixed into the cream cheese frosting.

The ingredients of the frosting are cream cheese, butter, confectioners sugar and pecans. That’s it!

Here’s a photo of this cake, which is very dear to my heart. 

I’ve been on a mason jar salad kick and this is my best-looking one yet. Tomatoes, shallots, mushrooms, ginger dressing, pasta, salmon and salad.