Best Thing You Ever Cooked? (Mine was a gumbo)

Most years I take an afternoon on the weekend after Thanksgiving to cook something that isn't a turkey. This year I made seafood/sausage gumbo, and I flat-out nailed it. I actually do think it was the best thing I ever cooked, and probably in the top 10 things I ever ate. My girlfriend, who hates spicy food, ate three bowls. My brother, who has bad fish allergies, phoned 911, stuck himself with an epi pen, and managed two bowls before the ambulance arrived.

The downside is that the preparation is non-trivial. I've made this recipe before without homemade fish stock and it was good but nothing special. This year I happened to have some fish stock in the freezer that I'd nearly forgotten about and it made a huge difference. I've typed up both the "WOW!" and "Good but nowhere near what it could be" variations of the recipe below.

Hope you like it!

Seafood Stock
You know how all the snooty cookbooks go on and on about how making your own stock really is the only way to go? They finally wore me down and I decided to try it. It actually does make a huge difference.

Starting about January of last year, I started saving the peelings from all the shrimp I bought (they're cheap here; YMMV) and other miscellaneous fish goo. Every time I got any shrimp shells, lobster carcasses, or fish bones, I put them in a plastic bag and stuck the bag in the freezer. By about mid-June, the freezer was overflowing. I'm guessing I had the shells of 10-15 pounds of shrimp, the shells and innards of a couple lobsters, and a few miscellaneous fish skeletons.

Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a stock pot. Add in:

• 2 small onions, dices
• 2 small carrots, diced
• 4 celery stalks, diced

Cook until softened. Add in:

• All your shrimp shells & lobster shells. (mine filled a large stock pot)
• 2 bay leaves
• some white wine
• black pepper

Also, when rooting around, I discovered a couple of shrink-wrapped tilapia that were too freezer burned to cook, so I threw them in too:

• A couple of freezer burned tilapia.

Fill to the top with cold water. Bring almost to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for a good long while (45 minutes-ish?). Strain. Pour liquid into a clean pot and refrigerate or freeze until ready for use.

I ended up with about 3 gallons of stock that was the color of brown lake water and smelled like fish, but not in a good way. It did not appear promising. I stuck it in the freezer and forgot about it until I went digging for frozen peas last week.


A Poor Substitute for the Above Stock Recipe That Has The Advantage Of Being Something You Didn't Have To Start Work On Six Months Ago
The gumbo recipe calls for 3 pounds of shrimp. Shell them. Heat about 1 tbsp oil in a stock pot. Add in:

• a quartered onion
• 1 finely chopped carrot.

Cook for a minute or two

• Add the shrimp shells. Cook for about a minute.

Add about 2 quarts water. Bring to a soft boil, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.

Strain out the shells, onion, and carrots. Add in:

• 24 oz. bottled clam juice

1. Make a roux.

Heat about 1/2 cup vegetable oil in a frying pan. Gradually add in about 1-1.5 cups flour, a tablespoon at a time. Stir constantly.

The roux is done when it is about the consistency of peanut butter. Traditionally, it should also be about the color of peanut butter, but mine always ends up about the color of Hershey's chocolate. Possibly I'm doing something wrong, but the end result (the gumbo) is good.

This takes about 20 minutes and is extremely boring as the stirring must be more or less constant. If a well-meaning s.o. or housemate pops in and asks "is there anything I can do to help?" enlist them to stir the roux even if they were just being polite. They will forgive you when they taste the gumbo.

When the roux is done, take it off the heat and continue to stir until it cools down a bit.

2. Chop ingredients.

• 4 big yellow onions, finely chopped
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 big jalapeno peppers. (The jalapeno seeds contribute significantly to the spiciness. I usually only use the seeds of a single pepper.)
• 2 green peppers, seeded

Melt 5 tablespoons butter in a large stock pot. Add onions, peppers and celery. Cook until softened, about 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. More Chopping

Slice 1.5 pounds andouille sausage, ideally fresh from an actual butcher shop/meat counter, not that shrink wrapped crap. Add to the veggies, together with:

• 4 biggish cloves garlic, smashed and chopped. (NOT run through a garlic press)
• 4 cups okra, sliced about 1/2" thick

Cook until the okra stops making those white thread thingies, about 5 minutes

4. The Worst Is Over

Add in:

• 1/2 teaspoon thyme (dried actually seems to work better for some reason
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 cups diced tomatoes (canned is fine)
• About 2-3 quarts fish stock.

Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes

5. Getting there

Whisk in the roux. The idea is to add color and substance, not turn the whole thing into sludge. Stop when the soup is a bit darker than tea but not as dark as Coca-Cola.

Simmer for another 45 minutes.

6. Voila

Bring the soup back to a boil. Add in:

• 3 lbs. shrimp
• 4 cups crab meat
• 1 pint oysters + their juice

Cook another 3-5 minutes, until the shrimp are pink and curled and the oyster edges have started to curl.

You can serve over rice or just eat as a soup.


What's the best thing you ever cooked?

Fraulein said:

I grew up in Cajun Louisiana, and honestly, I would never consider using tomatoes in a gumbo. I think what you made was more like a stew or what most would call a Creole gumbo.

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I probably should have put in some disclaimers before I hit submit. (I forgot gumbo recipes are a wellspring of jihad.) For the record, I'm only asserting that it was tasty by non-Louisiana standards.

I'm not generally crazy about okra, but I do like it in this. Not sure where the tomato idea came from, but I like them in most anything.

Fraulein said:

If you'll excuse all of the cultural trash-talking...

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I will if you'll excuse my excess of self congratulation in the OP. I, um, may have had a couple beers with the gumbo.

Julie Worth; said:

Much easier (and less toxic!)

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Seriously? Roux is toxic?

I'll defer to Fraulein on this, but I believe cajun roux is traditionally made with vegetable oil. Or possibly I'm being a philistine again.

selkn.asrai said:

The steak took months to get right. Cast iron pan = essential. Thank God for great-grandmothers and the kitchenware they leave for the next generation (or three).

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Yes indeed. When my grandmother died, I drove through five states to get her cast iron skillet & biscuit pan.