How To Make Gumbo For a Big Crowd - and a Garlic Peeling Tip!

How To Make Gumbo Using Browned Flour - In A Hurry and On A Budget

I have seen articles claiming that it is now "cheaper to eat out than to cook". That is simply not true, and this recipe is a great example. While the McDonald's "Dollar Menu" may have a lot of $1 items on it, you are not going to be able to feed yourself for $1. But I cooked this recipe at home, and we enjoyed real comfort food for a total cost of about one dollar per person for the entire meal.

In the days before fast food, people had shortcuts they used to make it easier to get dinner on the table. One of those tricks was to make up some things for the week in advance. My first mother in law made tortillas fresh every morning, but she cooked one pot of beans on Monday, put it in the fridge and dipped out of it each day to make frijoles refritos.  Many Louisiana cooks made up several days' worth of roux at one time, saving themselves about half an hour of stirring at the stove each day.

A trick we had not seen before is to brown flour in the oven to use as a base for the roux. I tried this and when I put it into the hot oil, it browned up beautifully in about 5 minutes.  Wow. This gumbo turned out great, and only required about an hour to make. Paul gave it two thumbs up. Ethan and Chelsey left the rodeo to come get a second bowl to take back and eat in the stands!  So without further ado, here's the recipe. And below the recipe is a breakdown of the cost.

How to Make Browned Flour:

Line a baking pan with aluminum foil and sprinkle two cups of white flour over it evenly. Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 30 minutes. It won't look very dark but it is done by then. Remove from oven and cool. Break up any clumps with a fork or sifter. Store in a jar until ready to use.

Quick Chicken and Sausage Gumbo Recipe 

1/2 cup of bacon grease, shortening or cooking oil
3/4 cup to 1 cup of browned flour
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 cup of chopped celery
2 to 4 cloves of garlic
1 to 2 quarts of water
1 pound german sausage, sliced and browned
1 rotissery chicken, removed from bone and chopped (or 1 to 2 pounds cooked chicken)
1 Bay Leaf
1 tsp Thyme
1 1/2 pounds sliced okra, fresh or frozen (two 12 oz bags if frozen)
2 cans diced tomatoes with juice
2 cups dry white rice, cooked
Creole Seasoning or Hot Pepper Sauce

If you use a rice cooker, get it ready with the two cups of rice and turn it on now. Mine requires 51 minutes to cook that amount of rice, and it holds it hot for a good half hour. Don't be tempted to cook the rice in with the gumbo - it will turn into a goopy mess. The rice must be cooked and stored separately.

Have vegetables chopped before starting on the roux. Also, make sure the little ones are safely occupied somewhere out of the kitchen during this first phase so that you won't have to stop stirring until it is done.

Heat grease or oil in a deep pot, then stir in browned flour. Cook on high and stir constantly until the mixture is a rich caramel color. Don't turn your back and don't stop stirring! This took me about 5 minutes.

 When the color is right, put the onions, pepper and celery in and stir it all together. It will be thick and clump up. That is ok, don't add liquid yet, let it cook for about 3 minutes.

When onions and pepper have softened up, after 3 minutes or so, slowly add a quart of water and use a whisk to incorporate the flour mixture well.

Add Bay Leaf, Garlic, and Thyme. DO NOT SALT - the Tony Chachere's and other creole seasonings have salt in them and can be added at the table to taste.  Of course you can season while cooking if all of your bunch like it hot, but sadly I can't handle the heat, so our hot peppers get added at the table.

Brown the sliced sausage in a skillet and pour it and the pan drippings into the gumbo.  Add the coarsely chopped, cooked chicken.

Bring a quart of water to a boil in a kettle or pan and add it to the mixture. Cover with lid ajar and turn heat down to low. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Add Okra, frozen or fresh, return to a simmer and cook 5 minutes.  Now add the canned tomatoes and their liquid. Simmer for another 10 minutes or until rice is done.

To serve: Put 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup rice in each bowl, and ladle gumbo over it.   C'est Bon!

It is even better the next day. This batch of Gumbo made about 15 big servings, and cost less than a dollar per person.

Here is how I managed that:

I could have reduced the cost even more if I had cooked my own chicken, but I wanted this recipe to save time as well as money. Most of us can manage an hour after work to cook dinner, and knowing we don't have to cook a chicken makes the prospect much more appealing.

I buy rotisserie roasted chickens at our grocery store when they are on sale and use them for things like this. This small one cost $5 and weighed about 2 pounds. You can either use all the meat in this gumbo, or use the dark meat and bits in the gumbo and save the breast to make chicken salad for a nice lunch.

The sausage was on sale. In this case, Eddy Brand, a regional Texas brand, was $2.50 for the one pound link of either all beef or beef/pork (I won't buy sausage with chicken in it). This is a great way to use leftover sausage after a cookout, too.

Bell peppers are expensive! But they are still perfect for cooking with even if they are starting to get a little wrinkled. I watch for them in the "reduced" bin, cut them in half and remove the seeds, then put them in a baggie and pop them straight into the freezer. Pull them out as needed and chop while still frozen.
So this whole large bell pepper cost 50 cents.

Frozen okra, store brand, was $1.00 per 12 oz package at regular price and I used two bags . I figure about 50 cents worth of onions, a quarter for celery, 80 cents per can of tomatoes, maybe a dollar's worth of rice, and 50 cents for oil and flour.  We fed six adults supper with no extra courses or accompanying dishes, two more bowls for Ethan and Chelsey later that night, supper for me and Paul with seconds the next day, and I finished it off last night.

Altogether, it cost about $14 to make, and we got 15 meals out of it. Nothing beats homemade in price OR flavor!

Helping the Gulf Coast: Ask Your Grocer For Wild American Shrimp!

This Mexican Shrimp Cocktail is my version of those served in various restaurants. Mine has a lot less ketchup and is very fresh.

My neighbor fills his yard with tomato plants each year and sells the fruit. These have tender skins so I didn't bother peeling them but if you need to, just put the whole uncut tomatoes into boiling water for 1 minute. Remove them and cut a shallow X in the skin - it will slip right off!

If you don't like seeds, cut them in half and squeeze the pulp and seeds out into a strainer over a bowl so you won't lose the juice. I don't mind tomato seeds so mine has seeds in it.

Chop two medium size tomatoes into small - half-a-bite or less - pieces, and put in a mixing bowl.


I used fresh Thyme, minced superfine, because the cilantro had already set seed and gone the way of all things. Thyme is also a great choice if you don't like cilantro. Fresh herb adds a nice touch with fresh veggies, but in a pinch, even "a pinch of oregano" would be great.

Mince, very finely, one stick of celery and 1/4 cup of sweet onion (we used Vidalias we bought as we passed through Georgia. Texas 1015s would be great) and add to bowl with tomatoes. Red onion would be very pretty in this too.


Put one large or two small cloves of garlic through the press. If you don't have a garlic press, add that to your Christmas Wish List and mince the garlic very very fine.

Add it to the bowl of chopped veggies.


Oh we love the vacuum wrapped fresh avocados - always just exactly ripe, never bruised, and, unopened, they keep a long long time. There's nothing added to them, the vaccuum packaging keeps the air away to keep them fresh. Chop 3 or 4 avocado halves into pieces about the same size as the tomatoes, and add to the bowl.



Squeeze the juice from half of a lime and pour over the veggies. These are large limes - maybe the juice of one lime if you are using small ones or key limes. You could also use fresh lemon or 3 tablespoons of bottled juice.

Add a couple of splashes of Worchestershire Sauce (about one Tablespoon), one Tablespoon of ketchup, 2 teaspoons of prepared Horseradish, salt to taste, and mix well.

Paul likes his with more liquid: if you wish, add one 16 ounce can (2 cups) of V8 juice.



The shrimp: there's more after the recipe on helping the Gulf by using only wild American shrimp. Being in Texas, I consider Gulf shrimp a "local" product, and it's in season right now.

Use your favorite size of pre-cooked, peeled, deveined, cocktail shrimp, with the tails removed. I prefer tiny shrimp, Paul likes large ones. We both decided that next time, I would cut large shrimp in half.

These in the pictures have their tails on. That is very nice for arranging around the side of the glass, but if you are going to toss them in the cocktail, remove the tails.


Chill, and serve in chilled glasses, with saltine crackers. Those that like heat can add Tabasco sauce at the table. Or finely mince a fresh jalapeno (with seeds removed before mincing) that people can sprinkle on to their own taste. A nice easy supper on a hot summer day!

Now then: what's so special about wild shrimp? Many believe that wild caught shrimp is best for the people, the customers, the shrimp themselves, and the environment. Not only is wild shrimp free of antibiotics and other - often banned - chemicals widely used in foreign shrimp farms, it is also shown to contain higher levels of nutrients than farm raised.

It is a healthier product that is easier on the environment and enables self reliance for small businesses on our Gulf coasts. Shrimping is an important part of the Gulf States' and South Atlantic economies (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South & North Carolina).

Demand for wild-caught American Gulf shrimp increases habitat preservation in the United States: wild shrimp live and grow in coastal wetlands and marshes, and their economic value to those local economies means everyone has an interest in keeping those wetlands open, protected, and wild.

When we lived on Lavaca Bay, we had a neighbor who was a shrimper. He sold us fresh shrimp right off the boat. Paul would remove their heads and pack them raw in containers, cover with water and freeze 25 pounds at a time. By adding the water, they don't get freezer burn and they keep fine till next shrimping season.

If you live near enough, you can drive down to the Gulf and buy your own fresh shrimp to freeze, but you can get it inland too. Most cities of any size these days also have markets that receive shipments of fresh shrimp flown in. And many places will even ship it to you.

If your grocer doesn't carry it, ASK for American Shrimp.

You can buy Wild American Shrimp fresh, frozen or canned. Here are some brands to look or ask for (please post if you know of other brands of American wild shrimp and I'll add to the list):
FROZEN:
Arista Brand
Caught Fresh Brand
Dominick Brand Frozen Shrimp
Emeril's Louisiana Shrimp
Premier Shrimp
Sea Pearl Frozen Shrimp
SeaPak Shrimp Co.
Tony Chachere's Shrimp
CANNED:
BumbleBee Canned Shrimp
Orleans Canned Shrimp

And to wrap up, here are some links for more information and sources of sweet American wild shrimp:
Texas Shrimp
Louisiana Shrimp & Seafood
Mississippi Shrimp
Georgia Shrimp
Wild American Shrimp

Heirloom Gardening: Mr Bird's Big Fat Okra - UPDATED: Make that: Charles Wright's Pot Belly Okra!

Heirlooms are not necessarily all "things". Plants can be heirlooms too, preserved and passed down for future generations to be able to grow, whether by division or through seed.

My mother has always collected flowers and flower seeds - most of the plants in her lovely yard were "starts" from friends and neighbors, or seed she collected from abandoned places.

Part of my gardening this year was done on borrowed ground. My friend, Maxine Carter, who let me use her plot also shared her Okra seed with me. She said that the man they bought the property from back in the mid 1970's, a Mr Bird, gave them this seed at that time and that she has grown it and saved the seed ever since.


It is like no okra I have ever seen. The optimim size for picking is about 4 inches long... and 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" diameter! It is huge! And tender as can be even at that stage.

While it is tender, it will "snap" off the stalk. If it bends when you try to pluck it, it has gotten woody. I just leave those pods attached to make new seed.

After picking, it keeps best at room temp where there is good air flow - turned over daily in a basket or paper sack, or laid out in a single layer. It will keep several days like that.

The ones left on the stalk for seed can stay on the stalk until the completely dry and start to pop open. That it when I cut them off (takes a knife), and lay them out in a single layer to dry completely. There is still a lot of water in them at this stage so it can take a month or so for them to dry.  You can then store the seed right in the dried pods. The alternative would be to shell the seeds out of them and then dry the seeds in your dehydrator at a low temp (120 or lower) before storing in paper bags.  The seed will be viable for many years if stored in a dark, dry location.

My friend said that she has never seen anything like it either, and she has always called it "Big Fat Okra".




Paul says it tastes better than any okra he has had before too.  It also freezes and cans beautifully. I just slice it up and vacuum pack it to freeze, or can it in my pressure canner with tomatoes, onions and, if you like, corn - okra MUST be pressure canned. A water bath is NOT safe for canning okra. Please see the directions at the National Center for Home Food Preservation.


We saved seed again for her to have plenty, and I brought some home to add to my heritage as well. So kids, when you find okra seed in with my stuff in about 50 years, you'll know where it came from! LOL!

UPDATE 09/04/14  I finally discovered where this came from. It was not Mr Bird, but Charles Wright who developed this interesting variety of okra at Blanket, Brown County, Texas. Mr Wright was a high school Science  teacher in Blanket. Among other things, he and his wife grew a large garden each year for the benefit of the community - a local lady said everyone was invited to go pick what they could use, and expected to leave enough for others. It was he who developed this okra. Most local people had forgotten his connection with it, and his grandchildren didn't have any information about it, or even any of the seed.   I've printed some seed packets to share around town and help preserve this little portion of Mr Charles Wright's legacy.

My neighbor Mike Caldwell told me that Charles Wright developed this, and that they had also called it "Pot Belly Okra".  Mike reminisced about the massive height of the stalks and the root system. The plants branch out like trees, so that one plant will produce, at the height of the season when it has matured, several pods a day.

The stalks will grow to 8 or 9 feet tall. I just pull them over to pick then let go and they pop back up.  You might could prune them, because of their natural branching habit, but I have not tried that yet.
They will continue producing here in North Central Texas until the plants are killed by frost.

UPDATE 09/2015 I've since been sharing the seed for this okra around the country.  I am eager to hear how it grows in other parts of the country. At this point, I feel comfortable that at least the seed is no longer in quite the danger of being lost as it was when I became the unlikely recipient of some of the last remaining seed. It makes me happy that I got interested enough to keep asking people until I ran into someone who knew its history!