Gumbo Methodology

Now that I live in the frozen, yet unsnowy north, I have to make gumbo if I want it. I learned this lesson in New Jersey, where I would see gumbo on the menu and foolishly order it. People seem to think it's the same thing as soup. And while soup is good, it serves a different purpose than gumbo. I've been making versions of this since late 2006, and I like my way because it's more of a method than a recipe. I use it to clear out the fridge of vegetables on the edge.

Traditionalists would be appalled, but I don't much care. To my thinking, gumbo really only requires a few elements to be legitimate: roux, either okra or file, and the trinity of celery, onion, and green pepper. Everything else is negotiable. I also use an unconventional method to make roux, stolen from Alton Brown. He makes it in the oven to prevent burning, which I think is genius. It takes longer, but is foolproof.

The gumbo method is: make roux, cook vegetables in roux, add liquid, add meat, finish with a secondary thickener. There are many varieties, including a tomato based version, and versions without meat. There's a lot of room to play around. Just remember, if someone serves you a gumbo that isn't thickened, then they're cheating.

Ingredients:

Roux:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup fat (oil or melted butter, your choice)

Vegetables:
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
Other random vegetables (greens are an excellent choice, but you can use anything)
Creole seasoning
Thyme
1 quart chicken stock

Meat (any or all, or none, as you prefer):
1 chopped chicken breast
2 links andouille
1 lb shrimp

Secondary Thickener:
1/2 lb sliced okra OR 1 tablespoon file powder (never both)

Directions:

To make the roux, whisk together the flour and fat in an oven safe pot. Bake in an oven at 350 for 1 to 1.5 hours, stirring once every 30 minutes. Color is the most important thing here, it should have a walnuty color or darker. You may need longer to achieve it.

Once the roux is done, move the pot to the stove on medium heat. Add your vegetables and stir them. Stir in creole seasoning and thyme to taste. It shouldn't be very spicy, but have a lot of flavor. Cook vegetables and seasoning for a few minutes, until the onions are soft. Add the chicken stock and stir. Once it boils, reduce heat to a simmer.

If you're using chicken or sausage, brown those meats in a separate pan and add them to the pot. That keeps the gumbo from getting greasy. If you're using shrimp, add them 15-20 minutes before you plan to serve your gumbo.

If using okra, add it now. You'll need to cook your gumbo for at least an hour after this, until the okra is no longer slimy.

If using file, stir in 1 tablespoon 15 minutes before serving.

Serve over rice, with hot sauce on the side. Crystal is best, but Tabasco is usually all that's available. The texture should be somewhere between soup and gravy.

Bourbon Bacon Jam

I'm still on break, so I've been doing some fairly ridiculous and/or hardcore things. Roller derby for one. I joined NH Roller Derby. I get drafted onto a team at the end of the month, which is super exciting! I've also taken the opportunity to spend more time with the Gentleman in Question.

Thursday, he presented me with a truly ridiculous idea: spreadable bacon. He'd eaten it over Thanksgiving at a friend's house, and even had a recipe. So obviously we had to try it. I've made a few traditional jams before (I'll tell you about the Strawberry Thyme Balsamic jam soon, and maybe the Blueberry Ginger Orange), but the concept of meat jam seemed odd to me. It was the bourbon that convinced me. Last night, we put it together, which was a nice distraction from the Saints loss. Then the Gentleman convinced me to watch The A-Team, cementing the ridiculous trend.

We used this recipe from Serious Eats, with a modification. The Gentleman is partial to shallots, so we substituted a bunch of them for one of the onions. I admit that we didn't really measure that, and eyeballed it instead. Otherwise, we followed the recipe exactly. I have to say, it's delicious. It's savory, and sweet. It'd be good with fried eggs.


Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds bacon (nothing fancy, just ordinary bacon)
1 medium onion, diced
4-5 large shallots (equal approximately to the size of the onion), diced
3 medium cloves garlic, diced
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup (use grade B for a strong maple flavor)
6 tablespoons coffee
6 tablespoons bourbon
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

Directions:


Chop the bacon into 1 inch pieces, and cook in a skillet until just crisp. You will probably need two skillets, or have to do this step in batches. Unless you have a giant cast iron skillet of doom, like the Gentleman.

Remove the bacon and drain it on a paper towel (which you've smartly layered on top of some tin foil to keep your counters from getting greasy). Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat. Sauté the onion, shallot, and garlic in the bacon fat until the onion is soft. 5-10ish minutes should do it.

Pour in the vinegar, syrup, coffee, bourbon, and sugar. Stir vigorously, and scrape up any bits that are stuck to the pan. Bring it to a boil (shouldn't take long), then boil it for 2 minutes. Add the bacon back in and give it a nice stir.

Move the whole mix to a crockpot, and cook on high uncovered for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Ours only took 3 1/2. You can cook it less if you want a more jammy texture, or put the cover on.





Move the whole mix again to a food processor, or a blender, or a chintzy supermarket chopper, and pulse a few times until the mix is chopped into a paste. Put your bacon spread into clean canning jars and store in the fridge. We got about 16oz of spread.

And 8 oz of bacon grease.

Short Term Wins

Clearly business school ate my life. The end of my first semester was a scramble to get everything done, with a nice healthy dose of misplaced self doubt. I did make things, I swear, but nothing all that spectacular, nothing worth putting down the accounting and fundraising projects to write about.

My creative mojo is starting to return however. School prevented me from engaging in another Christmas cookie extravaganza, and the disappointment about that seems to have jump started me. But there is an obstacle: the unfinished objects. There are bins in my room of yarn and knitting projects that were started and abandoned. Several are at least three years old, dating to my time in New Jersey.

And then there is the sweater. It looms. It sulks. It nags like a mom who doesn't like your boyfriend. I started the damn thing well over a year ago. And while I lived in New Orleans, I had the excuse of it being too hot to work with thick, shed-prone wool. Not so in Boston, and the truth is, I have made progress. The sleeves are almost done. But it lags. I knit and knit, and yet feel no closer to the finish line.

What I need is a short term win. The concept came up in my organizational behavior class last semester. The basic idea (as I remember it, which is to say that I could be completely wrong, but I don't care) is that early success in an endeavor keeps people energized to continue to work towards their long term goals. There needs to be a small, tangible reward at the beginning to serve as motivation, and as reinforcement. It seemed incredibly intuitive to me, and I'd figured out a version of the sentiment when I was teaching knitting during my time at Down Cellar.

Learning to knit is definitely a long term project. For many new knitters, it can take a few projects to really get the hang of it. In my personal experience, the first object or two that you make will be terrible. That's just the nature of learning something new. At the time, I figured that it was best for beginners to make things that were cheap and quick, to bolster their confidence. The Yarn Harlot said it first, as she believes that the ideal first project is a hat, rather than the traditional scarf, precisely because they don't take long to make, and the joy of finishing something can spur you to start another project.

 Her suggestion has stuck with me after all these years. I find myself stuck on the Icelandic sweater. My confidence and desire to work on it is lagging. What I need is a booster. A reminder that I am a proficient former professional knitter. No sweater will hold me down, dammit! So I took the Yarn Harlot's advice, and knit a hat. It took three days, and is made from the abandoned roller derby helmet panty I started for Running of the Bulls, back in July. I will make a pair of fingerless gloves to go with it, and then redouble my efforts on the sweater.