Sunday, February 21, 2010

Yumbo

We happened to have all the ingredients in the house for a decent gumbo. This one wouldn't have any okra, which was fine with Cranky. I only buy okra for one or two reasons, and he was happy with no reason.
Nothing special, except I want to share two new things.
One, I made the roux from Bob's Red Mill all-purpose gluten-free flour. I might not have celiac disease, but my gut is a lot happier without gluten. (Besides, I had eaten a little wheat in this morning's dim sum.) The roux came out great! I will do this again, for sure. A nice flavor, good thickening, colored up real dandy.
Two, I have some beautiful butternut squashes from last summer's backyard harvest to use. I cubed half a little one and stirred it in with the Cajun Trinity (the celery, onion and green pepper, though I confess my pepper was a poblano pepper for more flavor). It was like sneaking in extra shrimp (with the real shrimp and andouille sausage). What's not to like? Nutrients, bulk, eating up the pantry... Nice.
OK, all right, Three. We had a little dipping sauce left over from the Chinese dumplings. Tamari, a dribble of chili oil, and a petite splurt of rice vinegar. That went into the gumbo too. Now you know. Awesome.

12 comments:

Chilebrown said...

Did Chris have asparagus this morning? I will be there next weekend. Birthday/Anniverary

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Yumbo (teehee) how wonderful, I don't think I've ever eaten Gumbo, I'll add it to the list of things to do.

Anna Haight said...

This like it has yummy complex flavors indeed!

Kailyn said...

Aw cher, you do not need okra to make gumbo. If you have gumbo file. Did you remember to include the trinity? Also your gumbo seems a bit dark suggesting to me you went the Cajun route in making your roux. I do the Creole thing -- thanks to those family members by marriage -- which means that my roux is about the color of peanut butter.

Greg said...

I agree with Cranky on the okra. All the rest sounds gumbolicious!

cookiecrumb said...

Chilebrown: I didn't go to the market, but Brett Emerson says he's serving Zuckerman asparagus at his restaurant, Contigo. So it's in!

Mouse: How funny to think you might make this dish. What extremely Ozzie dish do you think I ought to try?

Anna: Exactly. Complexity smoothed into a biteful.

Kailyn: Yeah, I know you don't need the okra. But guess what -- I forgot the gumbo file.
I usually chicken out at the peanut butter color, but this flour seems burn-proof, so I went longer. (And I think it looks even darker in the photo.)

Greg: It's great without the okra. I guess I'm over it!

limoncello said...

Did you hear this story on Marketplace last week? Bob's 81 now and rather than sell the company he...gave it to his employees!

(Pardon the tangent)

Anonymous said...

Wow that looks good! I love the errant grain of rice on the side of the bowl.

cookiecrumb said...

Limoncello: I did hear. What a darling man. Did you also hear King Arthur Flour is coming out with a gluten-free line of baking mixes? Celiac is so "IN." :)

Mimi: Blush. The errant grain of rice intrigued me, so I left it there. Then each time I rotated the plate to get the perfect shot, I moved the errant grain so it'd be in the picture. Insouciant OCD.

Zoomie said...

Almost Christmas-pretty! So glad you didn't muck it up with okra.

kudzu said...

Is a half pipe better than none?

cookiecrumb said...

Zoomie: I'm peculiar that way. I don't really want the okra, but I use it in gumbo just because. One time I subbed roasted green tomatoes for the okra; very nice.

Kudzu: No, none is better. :)