Gumbo is an easy, great food to make. It does, however, take time. It's a
lot like the curry recipe on this site. There's not much to it, if you do
it right, but it takes a long time to make. Just like the curry is all
about the onions, the gumbo is all about the roux. A roux is nothing more
than flour and fat cooked together. In this case, it's flour and vegetable
oil. You can use peanut oil, but I didn't have any for this recipe. This
is the #1 most important ingredient in your gumbo, so don't mess it up.
Luckily, there is a fool-proof way to make roux. Traditionally, roux was
made by putting flour and oil in a pan, and stirring like hell for about
20 minutes. This is very time consuming, but it works. However, the roux
is very easy to burn, and burnt roux is good for only one thing. Throwing
away.

That said, here's my gumbo recipe (the ingredients are in the order
they are used):

The roux:
1 cup flour
1 cup vegetable oil (or peanut, if you have it)

The trinity:
1 chopped onion (1 and 1/2 cups or so)
4 chopped stalks of celery (3/4 to 1 cup)
1 chopped green pepper

The spices:
1 minced jalapeño pepper
4-7 minced garlic cloves

The thickener:
1 1lb frozen pack of chopped okra

The liquid:
8-12 cups of chicken broth
3 large bay leaves

The meat (chopped into bite sized chunks):
1-2 lbs of chicken (I use boneless skinless dark meat, but breast
would work)
1 lb of andoullie sausage

Mix the flour and oil in an oven safe pan (I used a cast-iron dutch oven),
and put in an oven preheated to 350 F. Cook for 2 hours, and stir about
every 30 minutes. You will know it's done when it looks like dark peanut
butter. When it's done, put it in a large pot on the stove, on about
medium high heat. Continue stirring, and never let it sit still for more
than about a minute. This is because if it burns, you have to start over.

Add the onion, green pepper, and celery, and continue stirring until the
vegetables are limp. This will take 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic/
jalapeño, and continue stirring. About 2 minutes after you get a good
whiff of the garlic cooking, add the okra. Keep stirring, and cook the
okra until it's well thawed. This is another 5-10 minutes. When it's all
glopping around in the pot, start adding stock (I warm the stock in
another pot, and pour it in so it boils quickly). Stir it up good, and let
it boil. Bring to a good boil, and add about 3 bay leaves. Add the meat,
and let it return to a boil. After it boils, turn down the heat, cover,
and simmer for about 2 hours.

Ladle over rice, and enjoy. It should be served with a vinegar based hot
sauce (Tobasco, or similar), and some saltine crackers.

http://cooking.mikeski.net

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