July 4 - An Australian Family Celebrating Our American Heritage - inspired by Bill Ives family Gumbo

Cold early July winter nights in Australia - time for a Cajun Gumbo perhaps ? Great slow - comfort food ! And hey - today is July 4 - American Independence Day isn't it ?

In Australia many of us with family from the UK tend to think mostly of our Anglo Saxon heritage - overlooking the mix - other Europeans eg  the Basque - the Hugenot - plus the Asian - the African-  the Middle Eastern - and also the Americas.

Both my husband and I have American heritage in our family trees - in my case - the details are very very hazy and uncertain - whereas my husband's is more certain - California - from Sierra Nevada via South Africa. So sometimes as a reminder I do like to do some American themed cooking.

Recently I was inspired by Bill Ives as he shared his mother's Cajun Gumbo with Paula Thornton (aka Rotkapchen ) in a post #e2conf Boston Conference convo. I was delighted when he responded to my request for a genuine Southern Gumbo recipe : sharing his 2004 blog post : First Make a Roux - please read it : it is such great knowledge sharing. 

I had done Gumbo's with a Roux once or twice - although more frequently "cheated" without a Roux via a slow cooker approach. If you find risotto's take time - be warned - Gumbo's take much much longer.

Tonight I used Bill's Roux as the base, with a modification of my own KerrieAnne's Chicken, Andouille & Vegie Gumbo (see below).

 

after about 45-60 minutes of slowly stirring over low heat to avoid burning the Roux it slowly browns - deepening in colour

I hadn't intentionally done it as a July 4 theme - somehow it just worked out that way after coming across Bill's Gumbo convo's.

Then I did a Twitter search this morning and discovered lots of folks salivating about their Gumbo's.  There seemed to be so many Gumbo themed tweets this weekend - then it dawned ... of course July 4 - I was just so busy and nearly hadn't realised the date. And. in Australia we don't necessarily appreciate that Gumbo is July 4 theme fare in the south around New Orleans Louisiana (NOLA)

I'd googled Gumbo's a few times in the past ..  and it's now been 3 years since I visited Gumbo Town and downloaded its Gumbo pages - but it remained my favourite inspiration ( until I read Bill Ives' post). Here's some Gumbo links to Gumbo Town ....

• Seafood Gumbo
• Chicken & Andouille Gumbo
• not to mention "Making the Roux" : "More than anything else, it's the roux that gives gumbo its particular character. ... A Cajun roux is just flour cooked in fat until it acquires a dark color and a deep, complex, somewhat smoky flavor with nut-like overtones." - I love the advice given by Gumbo Town - great knowledge sharing

Then a check of Delicious social bookmarks on Gumbo revealed an intriguing story - the debate over the history of Gumbo - as well as YouTube Gumbo.

For the last few years I used the above Gumbo Town pages as inspiration for my own KerrieAnne's Chicken, Andouille & Vegie Gumbo :

Ingredients

1/4 cup Canola oil                                        

1/2 cup plain flour ( aka all purpose flour)

500gm ( 1 lb) chicken breast chopped small pieces                 

500gm ( 1 lb) Andouille sausage - sliced 

2 cups chicken stock                                    

1 capsicum (bell pepper) chopped finely

2 cans tomatoes (400g size)     - sometimes I use 4 tomatoes for less tomatoey Gumbo                     

2 tbpsns parsley chopped

2 tbspns Worcestershire Sauce                    

2 leaves spinach chopped 

2 onions finely chopped                                

optional Tabasco sauce

2 carrots finely chopped                                

optional Jalapeno peppers

1 medium potato diced                                  

1 cup Okra chopped

2 sticks celery finely chopped                        

1/2 tspn cajun spice

2 zucchini's (courgettes) finely chopped                            

1 bay leaf

20 ml crushed (minced) garlic           

1 tspn lemon juice                        

shake each of thyme black pepper cayenne pepper ground cumin

Method

1. Make a roux like in Gumbo Town's pages
2. Add stock - slowly - a little in time - stir in each lot
3. Add all other ingredients except spinach and zucchini
4. Simmer gently until vegetables are tender but not mushy
5. Add zucchini & spinach and simmer another 5 minutes
6. Serve over steamed rice

Then there's Gumbo Pages : " dedicated to the preservation of New Orleans culture."- I really liked Mark Savoy's Gumbo & the Simple Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

 - not to mention American Government Health Page Chicken Gumbo & About.com's Gumbo pages : for the time challenged there are slow cooker Gumbo's : eg Chicken & Sausage at About.com or the Epicurious slow cooker version.

 

A few more ideas that I discovered during my Twitter search on July 4 2010  ....

• Seafood Craving's Scallop Gumbo
• Healthy Home Recipe's Chicken Okra Gumbo with Sausage
• Karol's Kitchen Seafood Gumbo
• Mahalia Jackson Okra Gumbo
• Myriam's Seafood Gumbo
• Two Silly Yak's Gumbo - suitable for Coeliac's  ?
• Fishing News Daily : Creole Shrimp Gumbo with Duck

Now we have a huge quantity of Gumbo leftovers - some to my Mom (aka Mum in Oz-speak) - some for my husband's lunches (instead of brown bagging it) - and a few nights during the week.

My 77yr old Mum hadn't tried Cajun Gumbo before ... and tonight she lined up for seconds ! So good to see her enjoying such a range of international foodie experiences. She always has liked to be experimental - guess that's where I get it from !