Recipes!

[Dannyalcatraz]

Its getting late in the year, and soon we'll be gearing up for all kinds of special events involving food. This thread is to share some of the recipes the posters of ENWorld will be whipping up for friends, family...or just for themselves!

I'll start with the gumbo I just made last weekend. I have a tough audience: my entire family is from Louisiana, and several were cooks. Professionals.

And I passed muster!

Actually, I did better than that- they've always enjoyed my gumbo, but this week's was the best I've EVER done.

1) Ingredients: well, they vary. Typically, you're going to need some kind of sausage, poultry, seafood and your seasonings. Some kind of pork is also pretty common- ham, salt pork, etc.- but I don't use those anymore for health reasons. (They're too salty, and I have extremely bad sodium-dependent hypertension.)

I used:
Turkey (2+lbs)
Louisiana Hot Sausage (beef) (1lb)
Country Sausage (beef) (1lb)
8 cleaned blue crabs (snow crabs also work quite well)
Raw whole large gulf prawns w/shells (2+lbs) (smaller shrimp will work too, but don't use anything smaller than your pinky- they'll disintigrate)
black pepper
red/cayenne pepper
2 large yellow onions
bay leaf (3-5, depending on size)
dried parsley (fresh will work too)
thyme
fresh garlic (diced, it should be a pile the size of your fist)
reduced sodium chicken bullion (2 cubes)
chicken broth (1 can)
celery flakes (chopped will work as well)
File (pronounced fee-lay)/Sassafras Powder (3-6 heaping tablespoons)

There were also the 2 secret ingredients- home-made stock (turkey and shrimp)*.

You will probably also need the biggest stock pot/cauldron you own.

2) You start the actual cooking with preparing your roux, equal parts flour and vegetable oil (I used canola), slowly browned over low heat. You want something between caramel and chocolate, and it will take about 15-30 minutes of slow mixing and constant stirring. Stir carefully and constantly- you want it brown and toasty, but you don't want to burn it (or you'll have to start over)...and if you're too vigorous, you'll make it splatter. And that translates into burns.

3) Once you have a nice brown roux, stir in your onions for a little fry, then add your 2 kinds of sausage (chopped into medallions). After everything has cooked a bit, add your chicken broth, your bullion, and your stock. Raise your heat to get your pot to a boil.

4) As your pot is heating up, add in your turkey (shredded), the bay leaf, the garlic, peppers (to taste), celery, and thyme.

5) After your pot reaches a rapid boil, let it do so for @15 minutes, then reduce to a simmer/slow roll and cover.

6) After about 40 minutes, add your seafood. Blue Crabs are fairly small and will cook relatively quickly- they're done when their shells turn red. (Some people boil them first in a separate pot, then add them later.) Shrimp will also cook quickly, the smaller ones faster than the bigger ones. They're done when they're opaque and pink.

Turn your pot down to low heat.

7) Add your File. To avoid clumping, shake it in gently while continuously stirring the surface. Once its in, stir your whole pot to distribute your seasonings.

At this point, its basically ready to serve, but the longer you keep it on low heat, the more time your flavors have a chance to distribute throughout the pot.

Serve over rice in a big bowl!

* To make the turkey stock, take the carcass of 1-3 turkeys (usually left from the aftermath of some big meal) and cook in enough water to cover most of the bones. If you have some onions, celery, and carrots that are old enough to be visually unappetizing but not actually spoiled (you know, dried out but not fuzzy & discolored), add them. They're full of flavor that will only help.

Heat the water to a simmer- DO NOT BOIL! Doing so may break down cartilage and sour your stock. Let it cook at this heat for a few hours, then remove the bones. Use a strainer to get the meat and whatever veggies are in there out.

Once all of the solids have been removed, bring your pot to a boil in order to concentrate your stock. This will take a couple of hours- keep it boiling until its concentrated down at least enough to fit in your largest tupperware container or glass bowl. You can concentrate it further if you want to.

To make the shrimp stock, do the same, except you use the shrimp shells and the heads you got from cleaning & prepping your shrimp (if you have them). Get the pot up to a simmer and let it cook for about an hour, then remove the shrimp. After doing so, boil the stock to concentrate it. When I did this, I went from about 8 quarts to 4 cups of liquid.