Sunday Dinner - 26 October 2008

Here is a Emeril recipe from the Food Network Web site. I would cut everything in half.

Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo with White Rice

Prep Time:
30 min
Inactive Prep Time:
0 min
Cook Time:
3 hr 30 min

Level:
Intermediate

Serves:
6 to 7 cups, 6 to 8 servings

1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 pound smoked sausage, such as andouille or kielbasa, cut crosswise 1/2-inch thick pieces
4 pounds chicken thighs, skin removed
1 tablespoon Essence or Creole seasoning, recipe follows
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped bell peppers
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
3 bay leaves
9 cups chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
1 tablespoon file powder
White Rice, recipe follows
Hot sauce

In a large enameled cast iron Dutch oven or large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook until well browned, about 8 minutes. Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Set aside.

Season the chicken with the Essence and add in batches to the fat remaining in the pan. Cook over medium-high heat until well browned, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan, let cool, and then refrigerate until ready to use.

Combine the remaining 1/2 cup oil and the flour in the same Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook, stirring slowly and constantly for 20 to 25 minutes, to make a dark brown roux, the color of chocolate.

Add the onions, celery, and bell peppers and cook, stirring, until wilted, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the reserved sausage, salt, cayenne, and bay leaves, stir, and cook for 2 minutes. Stirring, slowly add the chicken stock, and cook, stirring, until well combined. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, uncovered and stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.

Add the reserved chicken to the pot and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, skimming off any fat that rises to the surface.

Remove the pot from the heat. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chicken thighs from the gumbo and place on a cutting board to cool slightly. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Pull the chicken meat from the bones and shred, discarding the bones and skin. Return the meat to the gumbo and stir in the green onions, parsley, and file powder.

Spoon rice into the bottom of deep bowls or large cups and ladle the gumbo on top. Serve, passing hot sauce on the side.

I love the fall and fall cooking. It is a time of year when on a chilly fall Sunday afternoon, football games are on in the background, Lions getting their ass kicked, you can put the dutch oven on the stove and let it brew up a Sunday Dinner all afternoon. This week is a good example of a meal for that chilly day. What is it? Let's take a look.



Now do you know what it is? It's GUMMMMMMMBOOOOOOO time. I love my gumbo there are so many different ways to cook it. You can put ham in it, turkey in it, chicken, shrimp, crab, sausage, okra, or just about anything else you can think of. For this week I chose chicken, shrimp and sausage. Just take a look at this weeks cast of characters.



Once again can you tell what ingredients I forgot? Well if you can stayed tuned long enough the answers are down below.

Gumbos are pretty simple to make, really. The hardest part is making the roux and if you follow Alton Brown's way even roux is pretty simple. The traditional way of making roux is to use equal parts oil and flour and stir with a wooden spoon over medium low heat for an eternity. As Emeril says it takes two beers. In other words as long as it takes the average person to drink two beers is how long you need to stand by the stove and stir. There is a better or simpler way however. There might be some gumbo purest out there who will disagree but for me this is a no fail way to make roux. There is nothing more annoying than to stir roux for 20 minutes or more and end up burning it in the end. But no fear there is the Alton Brown method of making roux. First preheat the oven to 350 degrees. stir up equal parts of oil and flour, stick it in the oven for 1-1/2 hours and give it a stir every 20 minutes or so. In 1-1/2 hours this is what it will look like.



Almost perfect everytime.

Once the roux is made put it back on the stove over medium low heat or so and add the chopped up veggies.



I'll admit once again I don't remember if this is a trinity or maripoix. Does it really matter? Nope.

Cook those veggies for a few minutes and dump in the meat. In this case boneless skinless chicken thighs and andouille sausage. I should mention that I browned the chicken thighs and sausage in the dutch oven before I cooked the roux. Mix everything together, add the seasonings, in this case bay leaves and fresh thyme.

Now it is time to add some stock. My choice is shrimp stock. You can use chicken broth you buy from the store or make your own but since I had a bag full of shrimp shells saved in the freezer I decided to use shrimp stock. Shrimp stock is easy to make just dump the shells in some water and let simmer for a hour to a hour and a half.

Don't forget when you are about a 1/2 hour from the end to make some rice.



Ahhh good eye if you said there is one of the forgotten indgrediants.

Let all this goodness simmer on the stove for an hour and a half or so and then add the shrimp.



Don't forget don't let that shrimp cook to long or you will over cook it. Once the shrimp is cooked here is what it will look like.



Now it's time to add this stuff.



Oh another good eye if you said this ingrediant is missing from the above photo too. Do you know what File' Powder is though? I will let everyone guess or google it and leave your answer in the comment section.

Right now it is time to take a look at the finished product though.



Mmmmmm good. I will rate it a 4.75 out of 5 forks. I made better gumbo the last time I made it so I can't rate this one as high.

If you have never made gumbo don't be afraid to try. Follow the instructions above for making roux and after that it is as easy as making microwave popcorn.

Update
This is totally unrelated to my Sunday Dinner post but I received this today and thought it was one of the funniest things I have seen this campaign season.

http://www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm

Since I can't figure out how to make a link work from my post you will have to cut and paste the link into your browser by yourself. I think the funniest part is Bill Clinton.