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So I decided I would make some gumbo. Though I live in Chicago with good access to somewhat real andouille, I figured buying things is for quitters: I'm gonna make it. holttho posted:I used a bastardized cross between Ruhlman and TheSpicySausage.com andouille #1 recipe. I picked up some of those family packs of 'blade chops' as they were somehow cheaper than a whole-intact shoulder. Ground and stuffed about 6lbs of sausage, then smoked for about 3hours in a somewhat warm smoker (about 150-170F). I use a hotplate with a pan of wood chips (apple this time; it's what I had on hand) and my horrible, cheap, prone-to-starting-itself-on-fire smoker. So I have made the OP-quote gumbo recipe in the past, and the only change I make is I use slightly less roux. The OP calls for a 9:9oz roux, I use a 6:6oz. Also, I didn't bother to get any file. Otherwise, I made the recipe pretty faithfully. Day 1: LARD!  I do the oven baked roux, as I've never been let down by it and it is very forgiving. The first two pictures here are within about 3-5 minutes of each other, then every other picture is about 20 minutes apart in a 350F oven. Just take it out, stir till it is completely smooth (it will separate a bit) then pop it back in. I could have probably gone another 40-60 minutes if I was daring, but it was closing in on bedtime by the last installment and I wanted time to cool it off before I chucked it in the fridge.  Day 2: The rest of it 1:1:1 onion:celery:green pepper. I would say there is probably a little over a cup of each, though the way I do this, I probably won't use all of it. The way I do this is after it is all diced up, I mix it all up nice and even and once the roux is back up to temperature, I toss in the veg a handful at a time. What I am looking for is the roux to stick completely to the veg with none pooled on the bottom. I used about 90% of the trinity. It's gonna hiss and steam and try to bully you something fierce, but stay strong! Stir it hard. You'll tame it yet. Hit the brakes as late as you dare.   Get the stock ready to dump and saute/fry the vegetables for roughly 10 minutes then kill it with stock. Normally I make my own stock, but I had enough dishes to create for the party I am making this for. I used 2 boxes and 1 can chicken broth. However, I only dumped in the can and one of the boxes. The other was going to be fortified with my process leftovers. Since I made the sausage myself, I had some bone scraps and onion as well as the excess trinity and all the shrimp shell. Also, I had some potato peels from the Cajun potato salad I am having for accompaniment as well as some mushrooms that I needed to use up. Toss it all in. Hell, I paid for it, I'm gonna get my money's worth.  Toss in chicken thighs and let simmer for 3+ hours. Dump in the fortified stock when it's ready. Add spices. The chicken will disintegrate into little strands by the end of this. Toss in sliced okras and a couple sausages cut into 1/4" slices. Only want to put these in within 30 or so minutes before finishing or the sausage will get tough and the smoked skin will lose its pleasant snap when bitten. I thought about frying up the sausage before putting in, but they are already powerful flavorful, so I didn't bother. Realize the gumbo is a little thick, dump in half a Tecate.  Just before transferring to the crock pot to bring to my party, dump in the shrimp and kill the heat. There is more than enough heat to cook the shrimp through in the gumbo. Serve with potato salad and rice(on the side) and bread. I forgot to take a picture of the final bit, but I brought roughly a gallon of gumbo and went home with an empty crock. Recipe used: 6:6oz dark lard roux 1c diced onion 1c diced celery 1c diced g.pepper 15 okras 1.5lb of chicken thigh meat. I used boneless, but that's because it was a good deal and I didn't want to bother fishing out the knob of cartilage afterwards. 1lb 41-50 shrimp 2lb andouille (2) 48oz chicken stock cartons + (1) 24oz chicken stock can ~1T cayenne pepper ~1T thyme 3-4 bay leaves couple good cracks of pepper salt ~6oz beer ------- As I said, I served this with a potato salad, no photos of that, there ain't much to it. But here's the recipe. It was drat good. ~3lb Yukon gold potato. Boil in seasoned water until just tender. Cut into ~1/2" cubes, chill completely. Make a "Cajun" mayo and spice it up! (I had been drinking for quite a while by this time, so I just kinda winged it. Forgive any potato salad heresy on my part): 1yolk, 1c neutral oil, some white wine vinegar, lemon juice, a dash plus two more dashes of mustard powder, some cayenne and cumin. A splash or four of your favorite hot sauce; two pinches of salt and two of sugar. Beat it. Seriously, make your own mayo. It takes maybe 60 seconds to make a cup of oils worth with a hand whisk. Don't be scared about the "one drop of oil at a time" people. Just don't dump it all at once. Finely dice green pepper, celery, and some dill pickles, but get rid of the seeds part of the pickle. That's just goop; use only the flesh part. Retrieve potatoes and fold it all together gently, chill and enjoy. holttho fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Nov 13, 2014 |
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Nov 13, 2014 23:12
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:40 |
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OMGVBFLOL posted:Sorry if this has been covered before, I couldn't find specifics: 1. Smoked salt can also be acquired, though it won't add too much smokey flavor, especially considering the cost. Real, true smoke flavor is next to impossible to harvest for later use. There are so many highly volatile oils and esters and whats-its that flit away into the ether within minutes leaving you with a hollow imitation. Liquid smoke is the best we can currently do, it's only ingredients are water and smoke. 2. You will probably want some sort of rack to ensure air on the underside as well as to prevent it starting to braise when it releases juices. Just put some big aluminum foil on the rack beneath the one you are operating on. Or a pan if you enjoy cleaning things. As far as the oven goes, chances are if your oven isn't convection, it also isn't sophisticated enough to maintain a low, 200F temp. But, this can be remedied simply by using a small ball of foil to wedge the oven door open. Keeping the door open a crack will help achieve a low temp and make the oven work much more frequently to maintain it, which will cause a constant heat and air flow from the heating element on the bottom to the open crack at the top front. As a final note, you will probably want to invest in an oven thermometer or a probe thermometer so that you can fine tune the temp dial.
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Feb 12, 2015 16:03
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They say if you've tried every bottle of wine that's ever been made and your favorite is Two-Buck-Chuck, then that's what you drink.
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Feb 13, 2015 06:19
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The important thing would just be to add the stock slowly and see where it ends up. Everybody has a little different preference on what thickness it should end at. I use just a little over 3 quarts, but taking the long simmer into account, I probably lost a pint of water or so. It's easy to add more, hard to take it away. Taking the roux off the heat for a few minutes will help it to cool down a bit, but that stuff hangs onto heat like crazy. (Doubly so if you are making this in cast iron) Ideally what we are doing by that is to not have the 400 degree fat instantly burn your trinity. I usually just have the trinity be a tiny bit damp when I throw it in. Not dripping wet or anything, but just a little bit of water to tank the heat in the roux. Rinse them in a colander and let them sit in the sink and then remove the roux from the heat. Both should be good to go in a few minutes. Just remember you need to toss it in and stir immediately, so you don't want a giant steam cloud ruining your day.
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Feb 26, 2015 15:51
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When it is at the white/blonde stage, it'll have little to no smell outside of the smell of flour and the fat used. But as it gets darker, it'll take on nutty smells. My lard roux had a really nice peanut-buttery aroma to it and was wonderful. Butter will definitely change the smell, (for the better) though you may want to clarify the butter if you want to take it to the darker stages. The milk solids may cause trouble if you are inexperienced with using straight butter.
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Feb 27, 2015 19:35
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Crumbly corn bread (if you indeed judge that as a fault) is just lacking a binder: moisture, protein, or gluten are really the only options. One or more of those will help it stick together better. I know some people absolutely hate it, but I really enjoy little nibs of sweet corn in it, and the moisture they provide (plus replacing the water in the recipe with the juice from the can) can help hold it together. Protein from egg whites will also help it set a little firmer. But, with extra whites in it, you'll have to be more attentive with the cook temperature. If you cook it too hot, the whites will just seize and dry out anyways. That is where having the cast iron screamin hot when you put in the batter will help you get that wonderful crust on the outside while still letting the crumb stay relatively temperate. Though, the best solution is to just get some butter, whip it together with some honey, slather some on there and just let the troubles melt away.
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Mar 4, 2015 17:15
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Purged shellfish have a slightly sweeter, but less ...aquatic?... flavor. They're also less likely (but not guaranteed) to have less grit in the 'vein'. If you were going to do it yourself, it takes a good 12-18hours to do it. Unless you or your guests truly prize that straight-from-the-bayou flavor that purging reduces, it is absolutely worth it for $8 on 20lbs.
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May 26, 2015 20:06
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:agree: Just depends on how squeamish you think your guests are. Diff'rent folks; diff'rent strokes.
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May 27, 2015 06:22
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You know the old saying: If you can't eat several pounds of decapods in one sitting with no grains or roughage, you're too old!
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May 28, 2015 14:13
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Replacing lard with butter isn't going to cut calories. Fat is fat is fat is 9 calories per gram. Butter is (in the US) roughly 80% fat, ~15% water, and the rest is milk solids - slightly higher fat content in EU. If you are making a roux with butter, the water will be long evaporated as you brown the roux. Technically speaking, the water has to be gone for the browning to occur; and once that occurs, its just pure fat. Lard isn't evil; it is actually pretty decent for you in terms of other readily available fats. It has slightly less saturated fat than butter, and so long as you avoid the hydrogenated types, has no trans fats. As with all great foods - make the real thing, just eat less of it.
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Jul 14, 2015 17:58
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If you whip honey together with butter, you can make any style cornbread and you and your guests may dial in the sweetness as they desire. It is A Very Good Thing.
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Jul 19, 2015 01:09
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The first ingredient in that recipe: "at least 6 cold beers for the chef" I like where this is going! 
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Sep 2, 2015 03:01
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I would always recommend using separate seasoning and separate salt, never the celery/garlic/etc-salt combos. Not only can you control exactly how much of each you can put in your dish, but 'salt' doesn't always mean 'table salt', and is a fairly broad category of things. Much in the same way that McDonald's can claim their burger patties are only 'beef, salt, and pepper', the definition of salt is loose (also pepper in that case). Most blends are simply the seasoning + sodium chloride + anti-caking agents, but other, more-questionable brands may have salts like MSG or other higher salts in them. Granted, I personally have no problem with MSG or other options, I just want to be the one to make the call as to when I use it.
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Oct 1, 2015 14:33
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The question would ultimately be what level are you trying to achieve and who your audience is. Quality frozen shrimp is exceptional, (ALL decapod seafood is frozen as it arrives to your market, it is impossible to have it any other way unless it is still alive. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.) and the shells and head contribute a bunch of complex flavors, but are by no means required. If you're putting something together for the Paul Prudhomme Cajun/Creole Authenticity Committee, then you might not score high with something that wasn't fresh. But if you are putting together a good meal for a good time with friends, then you will be amazed at how well good frozen options can be. I live in Chicago and have pretty slim choices on fresh non-lobster shellfish year-round. But a good eye** for frozen stuff and you'll be on your way to greatness. A lot of people want (for whatever reason) to make folks thing that 'frozen' and 'fresh' are opposites on a scale. Not by a long shot. Maybe in 1941 when it took four hundred hours to freeze a bunch of carrots which were then left in a shipping container for nineteen months would quality suffer, but nowadays with IQF stuff going from literally in-the-ground to being cryogenically rock solid in less than an hour, quality and flavor are preserved to an astounding level. As for stock making, it is wonderfully forgiving. Just toss in whatever healthy scraps you got from your vegetables, any bones, skin, uglies, or carcass from your meats, a bay leaf and some pepper, and you got yourself a stew, baby. Only rule of thumb for a general use stock is to avoid any vegetables that have the word "green' in them. Green peppers, green peas, green lettuce, anything like that; they will utterly dominate the flavor of the stock. And not the way you want. Onion/carrot/celery butts, mushroom stems, all the parts that 'meh, I'd rather not eat' are wonderful in the stock pot. All those chicken neck bones that you'd never eat, but are flavorful and nutritious and $0.29/lb are PERFECT. Toss 'em all in some cold water and bring up to a simmer for a low, lazy afternoon. Don't add salt, as you may need it reduced at a later time and you'd just end up with a salt lick. You can just add salt after reducing. **When looking for frozen anything, the biggest thing to look for is that each 'thing' is an individual piece. Not a brick or frozen lump. 'Lumpitude' clearly indicates that the product has been thawed and then re-frozen which will have a definite loss in quality. Next time you are in the grocery store, pick up a bag of frozen baby peas. Notice they are all single individuals. That's because they were frozen as individuals, then packaged together. Shrimp is no different than peas. Of course, if there is freezer burn or weird discoloration, they are immediately rejected. Something they say about fishmongers is that if they are good, they'll let you smell the product. That is true of a fishmonger, but rarely of a mega-mart meat counter minimum wage guy. Try it if you like, but the above will likely serve you the most and the best.
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Dec 15, 2015 06:10
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Never tried em. I'll have to bust out my "On Food and Cooking" when I get home to see if the culprit flavor compounds found in green beans, peas, etc. is also found in okra. Alternatively, I could just whip up a mini-batch and say 'nuts' to all that book-learnin'. Of course, if you are making gumbo which has plenty of green peppers and okras in it, then by all means toss them in the stock that is going to be used for the dish. Hell, you paid for them, get your moneys worth! Just don't throw in the white membrane parts of the green peppers. They are bitter and untasty in any preparation. Though if you are going to do it, be mindful that even the stems of okra have some mucilage (the slime). Not nearly as much as the pods proper, but it could over-thicken your dish if you're not careful. Good stocks are the basis of so many cuisines. They are always worth knowing about. If we had to completely re-invent world cuisine from the ground up, both sausage making and stock/broth/bullion making would come out unchanged. They are both the most logical, efficient, and tasty ways of making the best with what would otherwise be the worst.
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Dec 15, 2015 22:27
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It's one of the prime ingredients of red beans and rice, though that is the only recipe I know offhand that uses it. Being a northerner and all. The recipes are pretty simple to make, and Alton Brown did a decent episode to the whole red beans and rice preparation, which included making pickle pork. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/red-beans-and-rice-recipe.html http://neworleanscuisine.blogspot.com/2005/04/pickle-meat-or-pickled-pork.html
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Dec 21, 2015 22:48
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Four months in a regular freezer isn't too bad, provided it wasn't in the door or anything. A chest deep freeze, on the other hand, four months is nothing. Though, if you do the ice-cubes thing (while convenient) it isn't great for longevity; too much surface area. You will just want to look for freezer-burn-type desiccation on the surface and if it is there, just scrape and rinse it off with hot knife and water for a bit to get rid of it. And with most long term stocks, you will want to bring it to a full boil for a good minute or two before use. You never know what took up residence during the cooling phase. Spoilage isn't really the big concern in the freezer, just oxidization and if you left fat in/on it, rancidification. Those are somewhat recoverable, but with any freezer-archaeology finds, just be a bit wary before you start dumping your expensive ingredients into possibly off stock.
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Apr 27, 2016 14:23
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I would imagine you would cook them like how you'd do small shrimp: just dump them in as you kill the heat. The residual heat'll cook em nicely without overdoing it.
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Apr 29, 2016 17:20
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The thickening power difference should be negligible between standard flour types (AP, bread, cake). Thickening is a function of starch gelation, which is the carbs taking in water, and not the proteins responsible for gluten, which is what the flour grades are letting you know. However, the thickening power is greatly dependent on how far you take the roux. The most basic, white roux will have 4-5x the thickening power of a very dark roux.
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May 2, 2016 21:53
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Klyith posted:Oh man that explains some things. I once made an etoufee for an event where I was working in an unfamiliar kitchen, and between not having great equipment and cooking for people that I didn't know all that well, I stopped it at kinda medium. I ended up only putting like half the roux in and it was still a bit over-thick. Yea, fine tuning the thickness on a gumbo or something at the end can be a bit fiddly since you don't always know exactly how thick your thickener will get. 6oz by weight would by nearly 35%(!) overweight for a cup. A true "cup" of flour is very nearly 125g. I just remember it as 1/8th (of a kilogram). And since I rarely touch flour without a scale handy, it works great.
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May 20, 2016 04:08
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So today in Chicago was the middle of a 'heat advisory' as it was 94F and 80% humidity. What better to do with these conditions than cook something from my new favorite cuisine: I figure sweating it out for a few hours in a sauna-esque kitchen with an absolutely biblical thunderstorm going on outside with pint after pint of some lovely crisp cool beer will get me in the right place. I know we northerners know nothing of wet heat, but you know, baby steps. I'm using the OP recipe from That Works as I've never been steered wrong. My only change was (I don't know if this is blasphemy or not) but I like just a dash of cumin in my Hot Wet Rice. Also, my local Mexican grocer rarely carries cayenne as that would be too gentrified; I will cobble together some heat for it using some Arbol, Piquin, some Birdseye chilies I grow, and something that I lost the label to. I'm making a double batch; using a home made/smoked andouille sausage and a goodly amount of chicken thighs. I used all the chicken scraps + 2 Tecate beers in a pressure cooker to make some manky stock for the cookin. Used the rendered chicken fat to fry all the meats and saute the veg. poo poo, I paid for it, I'm gonna use it all.     Not pictured: an absolute haze of aromatics that I just can't clear out of the kitchen. This will be my life for a good few days. Another great success! Rice turned out just perfect cooked around 325F for 40min.
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Jul 22, 2016 05:35
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I would also always recommend using a home-stock, but if you looked in my pantry right now, you'd find both bullion cubes and a jar of MSG. The right tool is the right tool even if sometimes it is a bad tool.
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Jul 29, 2016 21:12
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Hey, that's probably me! I still do all the charcuterie stuff, though don't have much time to post anymore (new job that doesn't offer the time/privacy to do so)holttho posted:
holttho posted:So I decided I would make some gumbo. Though I live in Chicago with good access to somewhat real andouille, I figured buying things is for quitters: I'm gonna make it.
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Oct 26, 2016 00:37
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I do the oven method when I want to see how far dark I can get it. I would recommend starting on the stovetop high heat to get your roux to a mid-brown (or however far you are comfortable to take it stovetop) just so it doesn't take 4 hours. But then once you feel your courage start to wane, toss it down in the oven at about 350ish and give it a stir every 10 minutes or something. As the oven is nice and gentle, you can take your roux darker than you thought possible with reduced burning risk.
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Feb 16, 2017 02:27
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4-5 quarts of gumbo at a simmer has enough heat in it to fully cook a good 2lbs of 41-50 shrimp (somewhere between fridge an room temp) even after the heat has been killed. That volume with 4lbs and I'd leave the heat on for just a few minutes tops.
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Mar 30, 2017 02:00
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In a stock, it's recommended that vegetable matter to be cooked no longer than about 90 minutes. More than that and you will see the stock get murky in both appearance (which is fixable) as well as flavor (less so). The things basically just start to degrade and you'll end up with a pot of muck; all the fresh and aromatic flavors we want are extracted within an hour provided you diced it all well enough beforehand. Fish and seafood need similarly short stock times- only heavy beef bones need the all-day dinner to extract their goodness.
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Mar 30, 2017 14:23
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:40 |
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Tough luck on that, but don't be discouraged. 'Never be afraid to fail a dish' is what most professionals/teachers will tell you; it's the only way to push your boundaries. As far as the roux, I would echo everything everyone has just said, but doubly so on cast iron. A dark roux will burn at the drop of a hat, but a nice thick piece of cast iron between it and the flame will give you a modicum of insurance. Klyith posted:*this can be important because a roux can have weird phase changes where it goes from liquid to sort of clumpy and back as it cooks. I have no idea why it does, and sometimes it doesn't happen. I think it's related to how how you're cooking it. Anyways the flat whisk is crucial when it goes clumpy. When a roux is at the proper proportions of fat to flour, it is a non-Newtonian fluid. Too much fat and it is just a fat with flour suspension, but when you hit it just right, it will become a shear-thickening liquid. Any motion through it (causing shear force) will cause it to firm up. Shear thickening liquids are notorious for resisting convection currents; hence burning. But, you can just simply overpower it with a good whisking and force it to mix. Silly Putty is an example of one as well: it was soft and goopy at low speeds, but if you ever hit it hard against the table, it would shatter.
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Apr 1, 2017 00:48
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