And then when I recently reinventoried the chest freezer when we moved and put all the meats into little labelled tubs (don't just my methods of organization), I saw just how many seafoody stocks we had. So I wanted to bring that down a bit.
And then, well. I just like gumbo.
It was the day that I went to the Dekalb Farmers Market by myself. It's been so long since I made gumbo that I went around in circles a little, suddenly remembering things that I needed and going back for them. As it turned out actually, I had trouble even remembered how I make it. I don't use a recipe but I combine a few recipes we have for my gumbo. I ended up having to look at an old blog post to figure it out.
So you start off by browning the duck legs. I got a pretty nice color on them. There was a lot of duck fat that came out. In the past, I remember using it all in the roux, but it really seemed like too much.
It was at this point in the cooking where I said, "ROUX! That's right!" Since roux is totally the foundation of gumbo, Josh happened to be nearby and he said, oh boy. Oh boy is right.
Anyhow, my roux looked about right. I let it brown more than I usually do since in New Orleans, they actually let it get nearly black, cooking it for nearly 45 minutes. I'm both too impatient and worried about burning it, so no nearly black roux for me.
Once that was good to go, I added in...
My diced onion, celery, and green pepper, which I believe is called a soffrito. I added in a hearty amount of gumbo file. Stir and let cook.
While that was going on, I cut up the andouille. This is Patak andouille, which I got at DFM.
It was about this time that I realized that I had forgotten the shrimp. We have shrimp in the chest freezer but it takes forever to defrost so you can peel it. Then I remembered that Josh had suggested I use some of the Maryland blue crabs we had. Bonus: tasty AND more freezer space regained. So I took a bag out and defrosted them.
When they were defrosted, I cleaned them, took off the aprons, and took out the gills.
This is a picture of all the stocks I used up in my gumbo. I also used up a bag of frozen okra and then this fresh okra I put in later so that it would stay a little whole.
That's one full pot.
It took me a long time to get the temperature right so I was constantly getting up, as it goes with gumbo. I had it at a good light simmer for a while and that's when it started to stick. Stirring is hard when the pot is so full.
After it had cooked down for a while, I took out the duck and boned it. I also took out the crabs and picked em and added the meat to the gumbo. I think it took like two or three hours and I am not exaggerating. I'm kind of sad that you can't SEE the crab in the finished gumbo, but it's there and you can definitely taste it.
Normally, it takes two days of cooking to get the consistency like this.
I ended up eating some the other night without the usual amount of rice and honestly, I can't figure out if I like it or not. I know that's weird.
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