GUMBO!!

I finally decided to upload a post about my gumbo. :D



I am from Louisiana, and gumbo is one of my favorite dishes. We used to make it all the time when I grew up. I learned from the best, and my recipe is a blend between my mom's and dad's gumbos.

Its a great meal for chilly spring days. I also happened to make bread bowls the day before, so it seemed fitting to go ahead and serve the gumbo in bread bowls.


This is for a large 12qt pot batch of gumbo...so use a big pot, or cut back on ingredients

Ingredients:

1 heart celery
2 large yellow onions
2 bell peppers
1/2 stick of margarine or butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 qt Chicken broth
3 bay leafs
1/2 cup dry instant roux mix (or look up recipes for making roux from scratch. I want to try to learn how to make my own.) I use Tony Chachere's from http://www.tonychachere.com/

12 chicken thighs
4 lbs of assorted smoked sausage (andouille is good and spicy, kielbasa works too.)
4 Tbsp salt
lotsa fresh cracked pepper to taste
some other herbs if you want, not really necessary

Instructions:

So Ive been making my own gumbo for 6 years, and every single time I make it, it gets so much better than the last time.

1. The soup base is made up of the celery, bell pepper, and onions.
Dice all of them and sweat them over med heat with the oil and butter for 15 min. This gets them really soft and melded. Add salt here to pull out moisture from the vegetables to start the broth.

2. Once that smells amazing, add 1 qt chicken broth, and more water to fill your pot 3/4 of the way up.

3. Bring to a boil

4. Once boiling, start to mix in the roux powder. Use a whisk and get the soup swirling violently, and sprinkle in the powder slowly. You want everything to dissolve well, and try to avoid clumps forming. Try to reach a deep brown in color. The darker the more flavorful. I shoot for milk chocolate in color.


5. Add the bay leaves.

6. Add 12 chicken thighs. Careful not to splash. Maintain boiling for 15 min to cook chicken.

7. Remove chicken and shred with fingers or forks, its ok to let the cool a bit for handling.

8. Add chicken back to gumbo

9. Slice sausage into rings and add to gumbo.



10. Season with salt and pepper, add cajun spicy seasoning if desired.

11. Bring down to med heat and let simmer for 10min - 1 hour to develop flavors.



12. Its ready to eat!!!!



13. Store covered gumbo pot in fridge over night. It ALWAYS tastes better the next day!!!

Thats pretty much it. Super good, invite friends over to help cook it. Good food good times.

Hang free folks, hang free.

ENJOY!!!

Darin

been a long time since i posted anything. Never new how time consuming it would be to try and take pictures while cooking. Ill see if i cant start doing that again.

I got home from a week in mexico with Jess the other night. Had an awesome time. Lotsa nice people in mexico.

I start graduate school this coming monday. Back at Drexel for at least 2 more years.

wish me luck heh

over

Soft pretzels with flax meal

I am a huge fan of soft pretzels. Hell, most Tuesday nights at midnight I even go on a bike ride through center city to get fresh hot soft pretzels. I am also a fan of Alton Brown. He had a show on soft pretzels so I Just had to try them.

Here is a link to the Alton Brown Recipe from Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil for pan
  
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
• Pretzel salt

"Alton Brown's Soft Pretzel Recipe" http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe/index.html

It is such a simple recipe. Flour, water, yeast, butter, salt, and sugar. This time I added a twist, flax seed meal. Flax seed is supposedly very healthy for you, and I like the nutty flavor it adds to things. Seemed to be a good idea.

Using a stand mixer makes this recipe super easy. I like to mix the dough in the machine but I prefer to knead by hand as it is a great stress reliever.

Here is my dough in the mixer.

Letting the dough rise for 50 minutes.

Doubled in size.

After rising, I punch down the dough and break it into pieces. Alton suggests 8 pieces.


A cool thing about baking your own bread, you can put it in whatever shape you want. My friend Annamae wants an 'A' pretzel :D. I also wanted to try out a pretzel bun for my friend Jess. She wanted to know if I could make them.

The trick to getting a proper brown color on your pretzels is to toss them into a boiling solution of water and Baking Soda, also known as Sodium Bicarbonate. More traditional recipes call for lye, which has a pH of 13-14. The alkaline solution is what starts to break down the gluten in the dough and helps form a crispier brown crust during baking. But for those of us who don't want to mess with caustic materials, baking soda with its pH of 9 is sufficient.

Here is a pretzel in the boiling solution. 30 seconds should do it.


Place the pretzels on the baking sheet and in they go! 12-14 minutes.

And here they are, delicious Flax Meal Pretzels!

Matt made a cheese filled pretzel log, and it was my favorite of this batch. I will definitely make more of those next time.



Om nom nom so goood.


I like mine with spicy mustard :D. Enjoy! These turned out so well. I can't wait to make a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with the pretzel bun.

The flax meal does alter the flavor some, but in a good way. It made the pretzels more rustic. I recommend trying these!

Ive taken up baking

Being a materials engineer has its ups and downs. I'm sick of thermodynamics and ceramics processing. So Ive decided to spend more of my time making food. I love food. Its probably the most important part of my life, making and enjoying good food. I really enjoy cooking meals for other people and usually getting approval. Ive taken up baking, and its been very enjoyable thus far. Expect good things!