Gumbo

Save time by browning meats first, then make your roux in the same vessel then add the trinity. Deglaze with wine or beer after garlic step. Oh, and this is VERY IMPORTANT: for proper use of okra in Gumbo, take the entire amount and feed it to the neighbor's hogs. This can be done anytime during the process. If you or your neighbor have no hogs, a garbage disposal might accept it.

Very funny, Emmesssy, but this Louisiana girl begs to differ. A proper (oops, gumbos are never proper) gumbo DEFINITELY needs okra for flavor, texture, and thickening. See Linda's suggestion for searing if you're a okraphobe. And you haven't lived if you haven't had fried fresh okra pieces battered with cornmeal. Along with some stewed greens, sliced tomatoes, and cornbread (no sugar). Um um uh!

Browning the sausage and chicken in the pot before making the roux adds complexity of flavor. If you're the kind to save bacon fat in the fridge, gumbo is the perfect dish to utilize it -- I like to use half bacon fat, half vegetable oil for my roux. If you want a true New Orleans style gumbo, patiently stir until it's a deep, dark brown. I've recently been stirring in dark leafy greens at step 6 (mustard greens, collard greens, chard) similar to Leah Chase's famous "Gumbo Z'Herbes" - wonderful.

Regarding okra. A couple of years ago at lunch we talked to the chef at Criollo Restaurant in New Orleans to find out his secret for the great bowl of seafood gumbo we ordered, he roasts sliced okra in the oven and adds to the gumbo just before serving. Easy breezy and now my routine. Fresh okra is best of course, but have done it with frozen.

You have to fry or sauté all of the saliva like liquid out of the okra BEFORE you add it to the pot. Otherwise you make your gumbo with a saliva like texture. Some people may eat that. But A LOT won’t. I used to be that way; I would never eat gumbo with okra in it because it messes up a good gumbo, but my cousin from Lafayette actually showed me how to do it. And okra can make your gumbo taste so much better. And also who cuts the chicken into bite sized pieces?? Use a fork to get it off.

Consider, somewhere along the line, searing the okra before adding it to the pot. (I stir-fry it in a really hot wok) it keeps it nice and crunchy, definitely a plus if you need to convince anybody they like okra after all. And how about giving the microwave a shot at your roux? Lots of info on that on the internet.

I agree with others that a true New Orleans roux is a dark brown. It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to get it dark enough without burning it. I gauge the color by comparing it with the color of a Hershey's chocolate bar. When they match, it's dark enough. Just don't drop the chocolate in the roux!

Brown the proteins first, then make the roux in the same pot. Before making the roux, try baking the flour on a cookie sheet first to both cook and darken it, then add it to the oil -- or the 50 bacon fat/50 oil recommended by Abby. The baked flour will take the roux color past peanut butter to a light chocolate. When the roux is completed, add the trinity in the same pot. Cooking shrimp for 8-10 minutes -- that's just crazy. More like 4-5 minutes.

Dry roux; spread flour in a cast iron skillet. 425F oven for 45 min, stirring every 10 min or so. Dissolve in oil before adding to gumbo. Saves standing over the pot for an hour stirring!

One of the better versions of this recipe I’ve seen online: close to what I think is one of the definitive recipes from an early Paul Prudhomme book. He suggests adding the chopped trinity plus okra to the hot roux—once it’s at the color you want—to both sauté them and cool the roux. This also eliminates the okra “slime” factor. He also describes how to make a roux in 10 minutes with hot oil, cast iron, whisk. Keep kids away and take care: hot roux is kitchen napalm!

A gumbo from the Lafayette region generally has no okra. It's flavored by the deeply browed roux and is not so much thickened as it is dark and delicious. A gumbo from the New Orleans area has okra -and sometimes even tomatoes. But I see other Louisiana folks differ in opinion --gumbo style is argued endlessly, so c'est la vie.

Check out Paul Prudhomme’s flash roux technique. Gorgeous dark roux in about 4 minutes. I’ve used this for over 10 years - my gumbo is almost as good as my New Orleans native grandmother’s.

We call it faux gumbo. Skip the roux, double the okra and cook until it disappears. Plenty thick, more flavor, and way less calories.

While the roux does require near constant attention, I have found if you use a heavy skillet, say cast iron, it can be placed in a 350 oven in between stirrings every few minutes. It doesn't burn in the oven and gives your wrist a rest.

I like to substitute hot peppers for the okra—shishitos work well or jalapeños or serranos.