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I teach high school French in Wyoming. Our French club decided to host a Mardi Gras Dinner/Fundraiser, and as the club advisor, I'm in charge of the cooking. On the menu is gumbo, dirty rice, and king cake. I thought I was keeping it simple by limiting the menu, until I realized how freakin' complicated gumbo, dirty rice, and king cake are.

I found several recipes, scaled the ingredients, and came up with the following plan (minus the king cake, which will be store bought.) Having never cooked gumbo before, I could REALLY use some help in making sure I don't have any major flaws with the recipe. I don't want it to be too salty (that would ruin the soup) or too spicy (the local tastes here don't much like spicy food. Hot sauce will be available on the side )

Here's the recipes. Sorry for the length; as I said, they're really complicated!

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Day 1 tasks

Shrimp Stock (no idea of yield, but guessing around 3 – 3 ½ quarts of thick stock)

Shells/legs from 20 lbs. shrimp (about 3 lbs of shells)
Water
Vegetable oil
5 small onions
5 carrots
3 celery
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
Sachet consisting of the following:
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. crushed black peppercorns
1.5 c. fresh parsley, chopped
a little chicken broth

Prep

Peel Shrimp, rinse shells under cold water
Coarsely chop onions, carrots, and celery

Cooking
1. In a saucepan or stockpot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and cook until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the shrimp shells and cook, stirring constantly, until shells are pink and fragrant.
4. Add chicken stock to loosen the fond and cook until reduced by half.
5. Add water to the pot to just past the level of the shrimp shells and add peppercorns, bay leaf, and thyme
6. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce to a simmer.
7. Simmer for 45 minutes
8. Add parsley and garlic
9. Simmer for 5-10 more minutes
10. Strain stock, cool immediately

Cajun Roux (enough for Dirty Rice, and Gumbo for 100 people)

10 cups vegetable shortening
10 cups all-purpose flour


1. In large, saucepan (I don’t have cast iron, so I hope stainless should heat evenly enough) heat the shortening over medium heat until melted.
2. Slowly add flour, whisking constantly
3. Continue whisking constantly and cook over medium to medium-high heat until roux is dark brown and very fragrant. THIS WILL TAKE TIME. Allow at least an hour, and be patient. If it burns, you have to start over.
4. Cool and refrigerate Roux in air-tight container.

Day 2 tasks

Dirty Rice n’ Beans (yield 100 servings)

2.5 c. Cajun Roux
8 lb mild pork sausage
3 cans red beans
3 cans low-sodium kidney beans
15 small yellow onions
7 green bell peppers
3 red bell peppers
10 celery stalks
7.5 tsp garlic powder
5 tbsp cajun seasoning
30 c. beef stock
10 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
10 bay leaves
5 teaspoon dried thyme
5 teaspoon hot sauce
5 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
2 small bunches parsley, chopped
4 bunches green onions, chopped
75 c. cooked white rice

Prep
Cook rice according to directions
Seed and dice the peppers
Dice the onions and celery
Chop the parsley and green onions

Cooking

1. Heat large pot over medium heat. Add pork and cook until meat is browned.
2. Add ½ of onions, peppers, and celery and sauté for 2-3 minutes
3. Add dark roux and cook for additional 10 minutes.
4. Add Cajun seasoning, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, thyme, and crushed peppercorns
5. Bring mixture to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Add remaining onion, celery and bell pepper, cover pot and simmer for 30 minutes.
7. While this is going on, heat the beans in a separate pot.
8. Stir in beans, green onions and parsley.
9. Stir in cooked rice until completely incorporated

Gumbo for 100 people

10 pound kielbasa sausage, cut crosswise 1/2-inch thick pieces (half moons)
20 lbs shrimp, peeled and deveined (and decapitated)
20 medium onions, diced
20 celery stalks, diced
3 red bell peppers, seeded and dices
10 green bell peppers, seeded and diced
1 package powdered dried shrimp (this stuff is really salty, so I omitted all salt from the rest of the recipe)
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
30 bay leaves
Cajun seasoning
6 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. black pepper
4 tsp. dried thyme
5 oz dry filé powder
5 bunches green onions, chopped
2 small bunches parsley, chopped
2 dozen eggs
15 cups low-sodium chicken stock
15 cups low-sodium chicken broth
Shrimp stock you made yesterday
Roux you made yesterday

Prep

1. Dice the onions, clery, and peppers
2. chop the parsley and green onions

Cooking
1. Pour equal proportions of chicken broth, chicken stock, and shrimp stock into stockpots and add shrimp powder. Bring this to a boil, while you do steps 2-4.
2. Heat the roux in a pan. As it heats, brown the sausage pieces in a pan with a little oil. Also at the same time, sauté the shrimp in a pan with a little oil, and some Cajun seasoning, until the shrimp is pink. When shrimp is done, set it aside in a fridge until the gumbo is almost ready to be served.
3. When the roux is hot, add the onions, celery, and bell peppers and cook, stirring, until wilted, 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Add the sausage, cayenne, bay leaves, thyme, and garlic powder. Stir, and cook for 2 minutes.
5. SLOWLY add the roux mixture to the boiling stock/broth/powdered shrimp mixture.
6. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered and stirring occasionally, for 2 hours.
7. About 15 minutes before serving, stir in the green onions, parsley, and filé powder. With the filé powder, make sure you don’t add too much, otherwise it will be too thick. Also, drop the eggs in the soup.

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Posts: 786 | Registered: Jun 2003  |  IP: Logged | 

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Cajun Roux (enough for Dirty Rice, and Gumbo for 100 people)

10 cups vegetable shortening
10 cups all-purpose flour


1. In large, saucepan (I don’t have cast iron, so I hope stainless should heat evenly enough) heat the shortening over medium heat until melted.
2. Slowly add flour, whisking constantly
3. Continue whisking constantly and cook over medium to medium-high heat until roux is dark brown and very fragrant. THIS WILL TAKE TIME. Allow at least an hour, and be patient. If it burns, you have to start over.
4. Cool and refrigerate Roux in air-tight container.

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Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by The Rabbit:
Gumbo means Okra, literally. It is the word for Okra in the French creole language. Trying to make Gumbo without Okra is the equivalent of trying to make chicken soup without chicken. It's not just an issue of thickening the broth. It isn't Gumbo without Okra.

And BTW: Given that you are the French teacher and this is a French club activity that ought to be relevant.

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Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Brian J. Hill:
p.p.s. I really wish English had a 2nd person plural form that was distinguishable from the 2nd person singular. "Y'alls" looks really silly, but I can't say "votre." [/QB]

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Posts: 959 | Registered: Jan 2002  |  IP: Logged |