The other day I got to cleaning out one of the freezers, and found a bunch of odds and ends and leftovers: some turkey scraps from last Christmas, only a little freezer-burned; half a tube of breakfast sausage, ditto; a pound link of kielbasa. I set them on the counter and stared at them for a while, then went and stared at what was in the pantry, and let what I saw talk to me.
And what they said was “gumbo.” Stews and soups are a traditional way of using up leftovers, as the freezer scraps were, and groceries on the edge of going off. L had brought home a brochure that the state agriculture department was handing out at the state fair, to which she went with Bunrab a couple of weeks ago, and one of the recipes in it was for a traditional Cajun-type gumbo.
Now of course I couldn’t use the recipe as published. It called for both shrimp and crawdads, both of which M and I are deathly allergic to. But looking at the recipe, I realized that I could substitute the turkey and sausage for the shrimp and crawdads and have a perfectly respectable non-seafood gumbo.
So I did that. I got out my stewpot, and chopped vegetables and diced meat, and made a roux, and a couple of hours later the following occurred.
Lone Star Turkey-Sausage Gumbo
Recipe By : Sam Waring
Serving Size : 10
Categories : Stews, Cajun
Amount Measure -------- ------------ -------------------------------- ½ cup Peanut oil ½ cup Flour 1 cup Yellow onions, diced ¾ cup Celery, diced 1/3 cup Anaheim chili peppers, diced 1/3 cup Red bell pepper, diced 2 tablespoons Fresh jalapeños, minced; optional 1 tablespoon Fresh garlic, minced 2 Bay leaves ½ teaspoon Black pepper ½ tablespoon Bouquet garni ¼ teaspoon White pepper 6 cups Chicken stock 15 ounces Diced tomatoes 15 ounces Corn, canned 1 pound Pork sausage, sliced ½ pound Bulk sausage, sautéed 1 pound Cooked turkey, diced Kosher salt 1 teaspoon Hot sauce (optional) 4 cups Hot cooked rice
In a frying pan, sauté the bulk sausage until it is brown, then drain on paper towels.
Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet or stock pot over a low flame. Add oil and flour to make a roux. Cook the roux, stirring CONTINUOUSLY, 20 to 25 minutes until it is the colour of milk chocolate. Do not try to do ANYthing else while you’re making the roux, and I mean it when I say stir continuously. It will burn in a whipstitch if you don’t stay right there with it. (If you do burn it—meaning you start to see black flecks, or the oil starts to smoke heavily—throw it out and start over with fresh oil and flour. There’s no salvaging a scorched roux.)
Add the onions, celery, peppers, and garlic. Sauté for a few minutes until vegetables begin to soften; then add the bay leaves, pepper, bouquet garni, and white pepper and let cook for a couple of minutes until the herbs are fragrant.
Increase the heat to high, and whisk in the stock, one cup at a time, until fully incorporated. Bring to a boil for a minute or two, then reduce the heat to low simmer, add the tomatoes, corn, and sausages, and allow to simmer for one hour. Add more stock or water if the stew becomes too thick.
Increase the heat to medium and add the chopped turkey; cook for about five minutes. Remove gumbo from the fire, and adjust the seasoning to taste with kosher salt, cayenne, and hot sauce. Serve over hot cooked rice.
Source:
adapted from The Tastes of Texas: Go Texan Recipes (Texas Dept of Agriculture handout, 2014)
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Per Serving: 630 Calories; 42g Fat (60.2% calories from fat); 24g Protein; 38g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 76mg Cholesterol; 1125mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain (Starch); 2½ Lean Meat; 1 Vegetable; 7 Fat.
And it was downright delicious. I got the roux right (I’m apt to rush and burn it), everything thickened up just the way it should, and it was what a good gumbo ought to be. Even M, who doesn’t like stews, ate it and liked it.
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