Decide a traditional dish, any dish. Likelihood is, that area’s natives will swear up and down that there’s the technique to make it—and none of these methods can be precisely alike. Such is the case with gumbo. 

Partially, it’s as a result of there isn’t a one gumbo. You’ve acquired your Creole gumbo vs your Cajun gumbo. Your okra vs your filé. There’s seafood gumbo, sport gumbo, and greens gumbo (aka Gumbo z’Herbes), typically served on Holy Thursday. Relating to preparation, some thicken their gumbos with roux whereas others depend on okra alone. Some swear that gumbo ought to be soupy, whereas others (like me) insist it’s a stew and ought to be thick sufficient to face your spoon in it. 

Most people serve gumbo atop rice, except, in fact, you are in Cajun nation and nestle a scoop of creamy potato salad into the bowl. (Belief me. It is scrumptious.) Some cooks add tomatoes to their gumbo (tomatoes!) whereas others drop in boiled eggs and even poach them proper within the roiling stew. 

You get the image: Gumbo is versatile and endlessly customizable. There could also be nice variation throughout areas, households, and even on totally different days, relying on what you’ve within the fridge. However all gumbos are equal within the eyes of the Lord.

A Bowlful of Historical past

Gumbo can be quintessentially Louisiana. The state’s individuals, its specific historical past, and its pure assets are elementary to its terroir. 

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that gumbo would not exist with out the contributions of enslaved Africans. The transatlantic slave commerce introduced many indigenous components to the Americas, together with okra. Most meals historians agree that the identify gumbo is derived from the Bantu household of languages spoken by these West Africans. Ki ngombo, quingombo, and gombo, refer alternately to the thickened stews West Africans made with okra or to the mucilagenous vegetable itself, relying on the dialect. Okra thrived in Louisiana’s scorching, humid local weather, and stays a selection gumbo ingredient, each for its taste and its thickening energy.

Louisiana’s Choctaws additionally made stews thickened with filé, floor sassafras leaves that they known as kombo. Coincidence? Possibly. Some culinary historians imagine filé was used when okra was out of season, but it surely’s probably that the traditions developed individually. Certainly, some imagine kombo to be akin to savvy advertising by enterprising Native Individuals buying and selling filé at market. (Learn extra in Robert Moss’s historical past of gumbo, okra, and filé.) As we speak, many cooks go for okra or filé, whereas others insist on each. Filé lends gumbos a greenish hue and a grassy, natural taste that’s, sure, paying homage to root beer. It is typically served tableside or sprinkled in simply earlier than serving–however by no means cooked into the gumbo, as warmth turns the powder unpleasantly ropy.

Germans contributed smoked-meat and sausage traditions that translated into the andouille, tasso, and different components generally discovered within the gumbo pot. The French, in fact, contributed roux. As Daniel Gritzer explains in his article on the right way to make roux, there are lots of kinds of roux, distinguished by how lengthy they’re cooked and the way darkish they get. Peanut butter–coloured roux is customary for Creole gumbo, rendering the stew lighter in colour however thicker. Darkish roux is Cajun all the best way: The murky base offers Cajun gumbo a deeper, extra intense taste but in addition renders it thinner, as extra of the flour’s thickening energy is cooked out.

First You Make a Roux, Then Bow Earlier than the Holy Trinity

It is a well-worn joke that almost all New Orleans recipes begin with a roux. It is actually true for many gumbos. Whereas you can also make a roux-less gumbo–say, when you’re an okra- or filé-thickening purist or when you simply wish to velocity the method—however, for me, gumbo simply is not gumbo and not using a roux. The identical goes for okra…and hen, and sausage, and shrimp. 

My recipe follows the Creole custom, beginning with a peanut butter–coloured roux for a lighter, thicker stew versus a thinner, darker Cajun gumbo. 

As a result of I skip the stock-making step (to avoid wasting myself one other hour of cooking), I add just a little bacon grease to the impartial canola or avocado oil, which deepens the flavour of the general stew. A very powerful step to creating roux, although, is to not burn it. Severely, do not: A burned roux can not be salvaged.

Learn sufficient about gumbo and you may be taught that tomatoes are customary in Creole gumbo. You will not discover them in mine. Tomatoes have been by no means utilized in gumbo in my Creole household, in order that they’ll by no means darken my gumbo pot.

Layers of Taste

Whereas the inventory is simmering, I flip my consideration to the okra, which have to be sautéed individually till you “prepare dinner the slime out it,” per my mom’s directions. I do know: The identical slippery texture that provides okra its thickening energy additionally makes it a polarizing ingredient. However I’m right here to let you know that correctly cooked okra isn’t slimy. Sure, it is going to undoubtedly be sticky once you’re chopping it. (As children, we favored to steal the discarded lower pod stems and stick them to our necks, Frankenstein-style. See, okra is enjoyable!) You will notice proof of this stickiness for fairly some time because it sautés. 

Here is how I deal with it: Utilizing frozen lower okra eliminates the sticky chopping ceremony, but it surely does take longer to prepare dinner till you not see mucilagenous ropes. Often, I desire to make use of entire recent pods (or ones I froze from final season’s backyard) and steam them entire till vivid inexperienced and barely tender, which eliminates a lot of the slime earlier than you chop into it, making the last word sauté take much less time. The knife will nonetheless get just a little sticky as you slice the steamed pods pre-sauté. Merely rinse off the slime and wipe it with a humid fabric midway by means of.

Along with sautéeing the okra individually, it is necessary to season the hell out of it when you do, like, aggressively. The important thing to gumbo is constructing taste, layer by layer, and this can be a essential place to construct it. Certainly, I add most of my seasonings immediately into the okra, solely sprinkling spices into the inventory pot to fine-tune the flavour towards the tip. It makes for okra that might be too closely seasoned by itself, however good for the pot. 

As you sauté, you’ll discover the okra begins to disintegrate and bits follow the underside of the pan. It is a good factor: These super-seasoned browned bits add one more layer of taste.

Time Is a Main Ingredient

One other most necessary ingredient for a greatgumbo? Endurance. Gumbo won’t ever be a fast weeknight dinner (not actual gumbo, anyway). It is an all-day affair. I like to recommend inviting a few family members to hang around within the kitchen with you. As a result of why not make it occasion?

My favourite technique to put together gumbo is on a chilly winter weekend, visiting with family and friends within the kitchen, cocktail in hand because the home windows change into more and more steamier. It is really a labor of affection, not simply out of your fingers, however all those who got here earlier than and added their contributions to the gumbo pot. Certainly, it is time nicely spent.