Louisiana Gumbo

My week has been full of studying. This means that my cooking has consisted of warming up leftover gumbo, making oatmeal, microwave spinach and grilled catfish, and spinach omlette. Nothing exciting. However, making the gumbo WAS exciting. This is SUCH a good recipe. It comes straight from a Louisiana kitchen but is low fat. Don't worry, taste doesn't suffer ANY. I've had a native Louisianan tell me that it is great and my family raved over Thanksgiving.

It takes lots of chopping but really doesn't take that much time. You can even prep the night before and cook the next day. The recipe says that okra is optional; I don't understand this because, to me, gumbo isn't gumbo without okra! Also, this was the first time we've used liquid crab boil. If you don't have this and already have dry crab boil, you can use it. I think I used 2 Tablespoons of dry but just put some in and taste. I think the liquid form was spicier. This can be served with rice. We usually put the gumbo is a bowl and put a scoop of rice on top. That way you can get as much rice in your bite as you want. I think that cornbread is required for this, as well. The recipe for the corn muffin in the picture is up coming...it's from Baking from My Home to Yours!

We made this gumbo at the beginning of November but stopped after adding the chicken and sausage. Then we cooled it and put it in large ziplock bags and froze it. When we pulled it out to serve, we thawed it, added the shrimp, okra, and green onions and cooked for the remaining 20 minutes. This is great served right away or after freezing. SO, even thought it makes a LOT, it does freeze VERY WELL! FYI, we use one of those REALLY BIG (I don't know what size but it's probably 1.5 feet tall!) stock pots to make this. That's how much it makes. Now for the gumbo...

I've entered this in the Soup Challenge over at Running with Tweezers. Check out all the other recipes after December 8th.

Louisiana low fat Gumbo

1 1/2 cups flour

4 cups chopped onion

3 cups chopped bell pepper (about 1 is a cup if not too big)

2 cups chopped celery

1 cup chopped green onions (really kind of optional)

3 T minced garlic (we used pre-minced and it was great but I usually use fresh)

2 cans rotel tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 gallon well seasoned chicken stock (Cook your chicken in 1 gallon of water and you have FRESH chicken stock; don't go buy it unless you just want to)

~6 chicken breasts

2 lb sausage, chopped (we use turkey kielbasa)

2 lb raw shrimp (we use frozen)

8 bay leaves

1 teapoon thyme

1 T. liquid crab boil

Tony's Chachere's

1 T parsley flakes

1 cup (that's all???) okra (I use a whole bag of frozen, I think about 12 oz)

Place flour in baking pan and put in 400 degree oven. Stir occasionally with wooden spoon until pecan brown color is obtained ( probably could have gone further here). Season chicken well with Tony's and boil in gallon of water until done. Chop. Boil sausage (if uncooked) in water until done, drain.

Saute veggies except green onions in 1 cup chicken stock. Add roux (cooked flour) to beggies followed by hot stock. Add tomates, tomato sauce, W. sauce, bay leaves, and thyme. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Add chicken, sausage, and crab boil. Cook for 30 minutes. Add shrimp, green onion, parsley, okra, and Tony's to taste. Simmer for 20 minutes. Serve hot with rice an cornbread and a green salad!