Quick Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

Gumbo, gumbo, gumbo! As you can see by the name of our blog gumbo is very important to our family. Not only is it delicious and filling, but it is wonderful in that its full of a little of this and a little of that all thrown in and mixed with love. Every persons gumbo is different (and we all ours is the best). In many ways families and gumbo are a lot alike. 

You will notice several big differences with my gumbo. While I do sometimes make gumbo totally from scratch most days I simply don’t have time or the ability (as it’s impossible to stir Roux and watch the little monster at the same time). But I love gumbo… So I cheat. I use a good brand of store bought roux and a rotisserie chicken. Oh, about chicken… while dad prefers shrimp gumbo (and yes it is very tasty) I prefer chicken and sausage.  Also I use a LOT of bell pepper. Really I use a lot of veggies in general as I like my gumbo to be very hearty. 

Keep in mind that almost anything can be changed in amount so long as you don’t start omitting things. If you like less onion, put less onion if you want to use 3 links of sausage instead of 2, be my guest. This is a hard recipe to jack up simply because all gumbos vary so much that it’s totally acceptable if your gumbo is different than my gumbo.  

Some gumbos are thinner than others, some have seafood, some have chicken, some are spicy while some are mild. Some gumbos even include tomatoes and filé… but we don’t talk about those types in our house (Kidding, kidding… I would try your gumbo if it had those things…it just wouldn’t be as tasty as mine ;)  ). So with all that in mind relax, you can totally make a delicious gumbo without all the fuss.

4-6 quarts chicken broth (start with 4 and if you need to add water/broth later you can)

2/3 jar Ragin’ Cajun Fixin’s famous Dark Roux

3 green bell peppers

6-8 stalks celery (8-10 if it’s just hearts)

1 bunch green onions

1 small white onion

4-6 cloves garlic

1 ½-2 cups fresh okra (or a small bag frozen okra)

1 rotisserie chicken

2 links andouille sausage (or if you can’t find it any smoked sausage will do)

2-3 Tablespoons olive oil

¼ - 1/3  teaspoon cayenne

Salt and pepper to taste

2 bay leaves

Bring your chicken broth to a boil in a large stock pot with the bay leaves. Dice all your veggies and  in a separate pan sauté them in the olive oil. Once veggies have started to soften dissolve in 2/3 jar of Roux in the veggies. Add in cayenne and black pepper (wait to add salt until gumbo has cooked for at least one hour as the sausage will contribute to the saltiness).  Add veggie roux mix to boiling broth once roux is mostly dissolved. Stir well. Tear chicken off the bone into manageable pieces and cut up your sausage. Add both to gumbo. Bring back to a boil again and then turn down to low to cook for at least 1 ½ hrs. Best when cooked on low all day. You can add more water or broth if needed but remember the idea is for the gumbo to thicken. It should be the consistency of a thin gravy. 

Serve over steamed rice. I also always accompany mine with a loaf of Italian bread. 

I like to add Tabasco to mine, but Shea doesn’t like his very spicy so he lets it stay as is. 

Also the longer gumbo sits the better it is so this makes AWESOME leftovers.

Johnny's Quick Shrimp Gumbo

This is the namesake recipe of this blog, and my all time favorite comfort food. The reason that this is titled Johnny's Quick Shrimp Gumbo is that the old traditional way to make roux was to cook the flour slowly stirring constantly for a long time. My mother used to take two hours to make roux! The good news is you can get very satisfactory results in about 15 or 20 minutes without spending all day standing around the stove. After the recipe I am going to discuss roux in more detail but for now lets get right into the cooking of gumbo.

Gumbo can have just about anything in it you like but my favorite is plain shrimp gumbo. You can use shrimp, crab, fish, oysters, chicken, sausage, duck, dove or just about any combination you can think of.  As I said before shrimp is my favorite, chicken and andouille sausage is pretty good too.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup fat - olive oil or butter or a combination are good choices
1 cup celery chopped
1 cup chopped bell peppers and or seeded chopped jalapeño peppers
2 cups okra chopped in 1/2" pieces you can use frozen okra, if frozen a 1 lb package works well
2 bunches of green onions chopped
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley chopped
1 tablespoon garlic minced - more if you like
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons of salt - to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper - to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper - to taste
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 1/2 to 2 lbs of cleaned deveined shrimp
20 ounces of water or seafood stock

Instructions:

Start by chopping the vegetables and set near the stove in reach of your pot. In a large pot, I use a 5 1/2 quart enameled dutch oven. Heat the fat (oil) over medium high heat. Add the flour and stir constantly with a whisk if you have one. If not a wooden spoon worked great for my mom and grandmother. Making the roux is everything and it demands your complete attention. You must not burn the roux. If you do, throw it out, wash the pot and start over. Roux is not hard to make at all, it just takes your attention, so don't talk on the phone or do anything else for the 15 or 20 minutes it takes to make the roux. In equal parts fat and flour the roux will form a slurry, it will be pretty liquid and that is fine. Stir constantly and make sure you don't miss any spots. Keep cooking on medium high until the roux gets the color of peanut butter or milk chocolate. At that point especially if you have an electric stove you may want to turn the heat down to medium. Don't forget to keep stirring. I like my roux about the color of an old penny or dark reddish brown. Get it as dark as you dare, the first couple of times it will probably be a little lighter. Not to worry it will taste just fine. After you make it a few times you can decide just how dark you and your family like it. When the roux reaches the color you want dump the chopped vegetables in all at once quickly, then stir with a wooden spoon. This will stop the roux from getting any darker. Cook the vegetables for about 5 minutes. Season with the salt, pepper, cayenne and throw in the bay leaves. Add the water while whisking gently until the roux is dissolved and no longer adheres to the vegetables. Let this cook for at least an hour. If you are going to let it cook most of the afternoon say 3 hours you might want to add a few ounces of water to start with use say 24 oz of water to start with. The longer the vegetables cook in the roux the better. It will taste even better the next day. In fact you could stop right here and finish it the next day if you wish. About 30 minutes before you want to eat put on about 1 1/2 cups of rice. I use Uncle Ben's long grain white rice. If you use 1 1/2 cups of rice, use 3 cups of water, salt to taste maybe a table spoon or two of butter and bring to a rolling boil, cover turn to low and cook for 20 minutes. turn off the heat and let sit 10 minutes. While the rice is cooking taste the gumbo and add salt if needed. About 15 minutes before the rice is done turn up the heat on the gumbo stir in the shrimp and let cook for about 10 or 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice and stir. Serve over the white rice and garnish with some fresh parsley and or chopped green onions if you like.

Active time about 1 hour - Inactive time 2 hours - total 3 hours.

A few comments - if it doesn't have okra - it ain't gumbo to me! You can talk all day about file and all that stuff - fine - I don't care - the above is gumbo to me! If you have to have file you can add it as a condiment at the table - same with Tabasco or Louisiana Hot Sauce.

I prefer to use cayenne as the heat source because it is traditional and because it is controllable. Some people put whole jalapeños in and remove them later. the problem is that you never know just how hot the whole jalapeños will be. Sometime two will be just right and the next time they will have no heat at all. Cayenne is consistent 1/4 teaspoon always tastes like 1/4 teaspoon.

This will serve about 4 people as a main dish with a little left over. This recipe is easily doubled just maintain the correct proportions. If you don't have the money for 2 lbs of shrimp use 1 lb it will be fine. I try to use fresh wild caught shrimp. When I go fishing I buy them off the boat and bring them back. You can't always do that, just get the freshest seafood you can. If there is none, try the chicken - andouille.

The finished product:

Notes on making roux:

A classic roux is one part flour one part fat cooked to varying degrees, depending on the use. It may be cooked for only a few minutes as in a Bechamel Sauce or very dark as in some gumbo. If you know how to make cream gravy you already know how to make a light roux!

The degree of darkness you choose depends on whether you are making Étouffée, Gumbo, or a roux for a gravy or some other stew or sauce. There are as many opinions as there are cooks on how dark the roux should be for Gumbo, so make it the way you like it! I am going to give you some pointers on making the roux and my preferences on color.

To get started you need fat and flour. It doesn't really matter what the fat is. It can be lard, corn oil, olive oil, butter or any combination. I normally use olive oil, sometimes I add some butter if I want to add some richness. If you use butter be sure and use unsalted butter.

As I mentioned above the classic roux is one part fat one part flour, but don't fret over this. My mom used to add just enough oil to make a paste, then she cooked it slowly for hours. I don't do this it just takes too long. I start out at medium high then add the oil, and when it is hot I add the flour. I make my roux in an enameled Dutch oven and I use a wire whisk to stir. I combine the flour and oil and if it is too thick I add a little more oil. Stir the roux constantly and the darker it gets the more you need to stir. If you keep stirring you should not burn the roux. If it starts going too fast just turn it down to medium or take it off the burner if you have an electric stove and it starts to get away from you, but don't stop stirring. I find that when the roux is more liquid than solid, that is more runny than paste it is easier to control. If you burn it, throw it out and start over. Be sure to wash the pan and utensils before starting again.

When to stop? This is a matter of endless argument among Gumbo cooks! Don't sweat it! Its your Gumbo - do it like you like it! Here are some guide lines you can use as a starting point.
For Gumbo I like a dark roux - about the color of and old penny. For Étouffée slightly lighter say about milk chocolate color will do nicely. It should take about 15 or 20 minutes to make the roux. It is important to have all your chopped vegetables in a bowl right next to the stove to dump them in all at once. Don't mess around with this for two reasons. One is that when the veggies hit the roux and are mixed in it stops the roux from getting any darker, the second is that when the cool veggies hit the hot roux it will pop and spatter. You do not want to have hot roux spatter you! It is like Cajun Napalm! When the vegetables cover all the roux at once it stops any spatter. Have a wooden spoon handy to stir the vegetables and roux combination. It is a good idea to turn on the vent fan when making roux. While it doesn't smell bad, it is kind of strong. When you add your liquid when making Gumbo or Étouffée use a whisk to stir out the lumps.

The best way to make a successful roux is to be confident. There is no magic involved so don't worry. It jst takes about 20 minutes of undivided attention.



Enjoy! Johnny

Pasta Sauce (Johnny)

It appears that the Daughter half of the blog has decided to post Pasta Sauce for our first post, so I will just go with the flow.

The reason this sauce is closer to our family traditional pasta sauce is that it has sugar and she is cooking the pasta in the sauce. According to my recollection Grandma Capp always started her pasta sauce with tomato paste and made sweet sauce. My mom did her's the same way, probably because my dad liked it that way. They both cooked the pasta in the sauce. The problem with that is that the pasta continues to soak up the sauce which makes leftovers a little soggy. Solution = Eat it all!

About the meatballs. My grandma or mom did not use Italian sausage to make their meatballs. They just used ground meat. In those days you couldn't buy Italian Sausage at the grocery, and we only made it once a year. Nowadays almost all grocery stores have Italian Sausage and since cooking at home is becoming more and more popular there are lots of recipes and many people have mixers with grinder attachments making it easy to make your own. At some point in the near future I will post a recipe for Italian sausage that has been passed down for a couple of generations. I really like the meatballs made with half Italian Sausage and half ground beef. The combination is wonderful. Either way I use fresh onion, garlic, celery and a little parsley and mince it up finely. Add some parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and an egg or two mix it well and form into balls. In the old days they didn't use bread crumbs but took some stale bread and moistened it with water and worked it into the meat. The pieces of bread are a little larger but work just fine. I like big meatballs about the size of a handball. Two is enough for a guy. I like to fry them in olive oil until they are good and brown, they flatten out a little so they are not strictly balls any more but thats the way I remember them. Do not be concerned if they are not done, just brown them, they will finish cooking in the sauce.

I cook my pasta separately but out of convenience not tradition. Catie is right about the pasta soaking up the goodness of the sauce. I do not include the sugar, as my wife and I prefer a more sour sauce. Try it both ways, I assure you sugar in the sauce is authentic.

By the way the sausage / beef combination makes a killer meatloaf too!

This is my Grandma Capp the original Italian Grandmother, all her grandchildren have great memories of her.

-Johnny-

Spaghetti Sauce (Catie)

So originally I thought my first food post would be Gumbo seeing as how Gumbo is such an important dish to our family that I named this blog with it in mind, however I realized a few days ago that I don't know the measurements to include because its been several years since I measured anything when I made gumbo. SO it looks as though that recipe will have to wait until the next time I make it and can give you all proper measurements.

Instead the first recipe I will share is Spaghetti Sauce. It, like gumbo, is one of those dishes that everyone and there dog makes differently and is passionate that their way is the ONLY way to do it properly but the great thing about it is that you can make small changes and varie the taste of it to your own likeing.

Like many of my recipes this started with a recipe I got from my dad and then altered to suite my taste. Interestingly some of the alterations I did to it made it more similar to how my grandmother and great grandmother used to make theirs. It tugged at my heart a little when my dad told me that. The connection to family through food is important to me and it helps me feel close to them.

I should make note of a few things before I start.

 A) I am not including the recipe for the meatballs I usually put in the sauce because I use part Italian sausage that our family makes every year around Thanksgiving and I will need my dad to post up that recipe at some point. You can use your own recipe for meatballs or you can mix 1 lb. ground meat with 1 lb store bought raw Italian sausage, 3/4 Tbs. onion powder, 3/4 Tbs. garlic powder, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs, and 2 eggs and fry those up in 2 Tbs. Olive oil before adding them. (Ok, so maybe I am including the recipe only I use family made sausage not store bought)  OR you can leave out the meatballs altogether, this sauce is a stand alone sauce and doesn't require any meat to be added unless you so desire.

B) If garlic and onions aren't your thing then you should probably stop reading now unless you are just here for the stories. I mean in general... not just this recipe. I can't think of really anything I make that doesn't include those things. Usually in large quantities. My dad told me as he was writing this out "If someone is garlic sensitive you could use 5 cloves instead of six". I had to laugh...like 5 cloves vs. 6 is going to make a difference to someone who doesn't like garlic...and also why would I hang out with someone who didn't like garlic?! Please.

C) This is one of the few dishes I make that takes a pretty fair amount of time. Most everything I make is a simplified version because I rarely have much time to pour into making dishes that take more than an hour from prep to table. This dish however I save for days when I have all afternoon around the house. It has been so long since the last time I made it that I lost my original recipe and had to hit up my dad to write me out a new one (that I then changed). A good spaghetti sauce needs to cook for most of the day and is always better two or three days after you have put it in the fridge. Most sauces are like that, but that is good news for those of you who like leftovers. I already have plans to have a friend over on Wednesday to help me eat mine.

So enough rambling. Here is my resipe for made from scratch Spaghetti Sauce.

1- 6 oz. can tomato paste

1- 28 oz. can diced tomatoes (or San Marzano tomatoes if you have them)

1- 15 oz. can tomato sauce

1 quart (32 oz... or something like that) chicken stock

1/3 cup red wine* (optional)

6 oz. jar sliced mushrooms (drained) 

1/4 cup sugar

2 medium onion- diced

6 large cloves of garlic- minced

2 or 3 celery stalks- diced

1 green bell pepper- diced

olive oil


 Herb Mix (mix these together in a small dish and set aside before starting ) : 

1 Tbs dried parsley

1 Tbs dried basil** 

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp ground black pepper 


After you have cut up your veggies start by putting 2 Tbs of olive oil in the large pot (7.5 quart pot is perfect) you will be making the sauce in and heating over medium to medium high heat. Once oil has heated add the 6 oz. can of tomato paste and the 1/4 cup sugar and fry. It is important to stir this regularly...do not walk off and do something else or you will burn it.

Once the tomato paste and sugar have caramelized some (2-4 min.) add the diced onion, bell pepper, celery, minced garlic, and your herb mix. You may need to add a little more olive oil at this point as well. Cook siring regularly until your veggies are soft and onions translucent. Then add the wine, scraping at the bottom of the pan to get up any yummy caramelized bits. Let cook for another couple of minutes, continuing to stir. This will cook out the alcohol but leave a really lovely flavor that adds depth to your sauce.

Dump in your can of tomato sauce, can diced tomatoes (with liquid), drained mushrooms, and your chicken stock. Stir everything together and bring to a boil. If you are adding meatballs now is the time to fry those babies up and drop them in.

Once the sauce comes to a boil turn it down to low and let simmer the rest of the afternoon. You may need to add more stock or water if your sauce gets to thick for your likeing.

Lastly, right before you are ready to serve break your pasta (I like linguine in this) in half to better fit in the pot, crank up the heat, and cook the pasta in the sauce until done (10 ish min. give or take a few). Cooking your pasta in the sauce lets it absorb all the yummy flavor.

Enjoy!


*Notes on wine:

Always use a wine that you would drink. I have pretty cheap taste so this is pretty easy for me, but if you wouldn't enjoy drinking a glass of it then don't add it to your food. I used a Chianti Classico for this.

Another thing to keep in mind if you are planning to drink the rest of your now open bottle of wine with your meal is that red wine in particular really really needs to aerate and is best served at close to room temperature. So if you have a wine carafe (preferably with a lid) feel free to go ahead and transfer the continence of your bottle and set it on the table to wait till dinner. OR be sipped on as you cook. 

**Note on basil:

Either you like lots of basil or you don't. I do. If you don't then cut this back to 1 tsp.

-Catie

Introduction (Johnny - Catie's Dad)

I would like to cover a few things that Catie didn't cover. First this is intended to be a warm inviting, pleasant blog about food, family, and the things that make us happy. This is not a forum for politics or religion. Take those two topics elsewhere. That said there are many food related things that center around holidays like Christmas, we would love to hear about those and the traditions that surround them. Those are part of our culture. We ask that everyone respect others traditions. We are after food, culture and the things that we all have in common.

OK enough lecturing. A bit about me. I am a second generation Italian American. My grandparents came to the US between 1903 - 1905. All four grandparents came from Sicily. My mother's family settled in Mississippi. My father's dad came in through Ellis Island like so many others at the time but unlike some he moved south to Louisiana. The story is that he did not like the cold climate, so he worked his way south. He found work on a sugar cane plantation, he had no education or special skill. When he had saved enough money he sent for my grandmother and their young son. They came in to New Orleans. They lived in the Saint Martinville, Breaux Bridge area. This is the heart of Cajun country, my grandmother learned to speak French before she learned English. At some point both families made their way to Port Arthur Texas. My dad's family a little sooner than my mom's. My dad was born in port Arthur and my mom was born in Hattisburg Mississippi. Both grew up as kids in Port Arthur. My mom's father was a Blacksmith by trade, but ran a small business in Port Arthur. I remember that my dad really had a great deal of respect for my mother's father. In 1948 my parents moved to West Texas. We are at the edge of the Chihuahua dessert on the south and the LLano Estacado on the north. It is very arid yet not considered dessert. Technically we are on the southern edge of the plains.

Like many second generation Italian Americans I did not marry an Italian. In this part of Texas there are not many Italians. So even though I am 100% Italian in blood, I don't retain much of my Italian heritage. I don't speak Italian, my parents didn't speak Italian. I think it is a shame, but on the other hand I see myself as American, Texan, then Italian. My grandparents would not let their children speak Italian; they insisted that the kids learn English and become part of their new home as Americans. I respect this very much, yet I wish I retained more of our Italian cultural heritage. The little I have is mostly in the form of food, and a few family memories, and I cling to them tenaciously. So our food heritage is an odd combination of Italian, Cajun, and South West.

Intro (Catie)

The first post on a new blog is always the most daunting. You want it to stand out, catch your readers, pop. But the reality is that most of the time the first post is not all that outstanding...often causing a blog to never take off (or never even get written), so here is my disclaimer:

This will not be the most astounding post you will find on this blog.

Maybe it will be the third or fourth or forty fourth post, but I'm asking that you bare with us and keep reading! I promise you will find something you really like if you hang in there.

Now that that's taken care of on to the fun part:  What is the point of this blog? Well, dear reader, this blog is mostly a cooking blog but it is also about family. My dad, John, had the idea that he and I should start a cookbook and fill it with our takes on the same recipe because while we both like a lot of the same food we both can't help tweak recipes to suit our personal likening and thus usually end up with very different versions of the same thing.

I loved the idea but a cook book is limited... you set a time frame and try and cram in as much as you can before the set deadline. It can end up being really stressful (I've written a few cookbooks for Christmas and its always stressful!) and instead of feeling creative and able to explore you feel pressured. SO I thought maybe a blog would be a better option. This allows us to post at leisure and also allows a much larger range of our family and friends who want to read it the ability to do that right at their desktop (or iPad or whatever).

I should mention that while this is a cooking blog we Capp's have a tendency to get sidetracked to really enjoy sharing. So don't be surprised if there is occasionally a post about a resent fishing trip or other adventure.

And thus we have "The Family Gumbo Pot"... because you use a little of this and a little of that and whatever you have on hand to make gumbo and everybody's is a little bit different, but part of what make it good is the love you put into it and there is no one better to share it with than your friends and family.

Hope you all enjoy!      

-Catie