Well, you wouldn't know it walking the downtown streets of San Luis Obispo, but today is Mardi Gras. And it is awfully quiet. For two decades our little town hosted the biggest Fat Tuesday celebration west of New Orleans, and then stupid college students and the internets ruined it. I should say college-aged, since I doubt most of those idiots were ever accepted into a university. What? really? Okay, back in the day I was the Mardi Gras Parade announcer and I loved it. For about 15 years I would show up with a sound system and set up a judges stand on a flat bed truck and hosted the center of the parade. I could be irreverent, unedited, and mediocre - it was an awesome gig. A few times I became the public safety announcer (a skill I developed during Poly Royal parades!) and towards the end, the last couple years of the event, the parade stopped being fun and just felt icky.
In my first years of Mardi Gras got fascinated by New Orleans cuisine. I developed a Jambalaya that is still a family cold-weather staple, and something I love to make for work pot-lucks. Xtina and I used to host a Mardi Gras dinner which would allow me to cook all weekend and make tons of food for friends, and explore all kinds of Cajun and Creole classics. This year, with no time to do it all, the girls voted for Gumbo. I thought I would share my recipe (which I have lightened where possible) and some pics, along with some of my favorite Mardi Gras tunes for you to play along as you cook up a pot of bon temps!
Frank's Mardi Gras Gumbo
Ingredients:
1/4 cu. canola oil
1/8 cu. olive oil
1/4 + 1/8 cu. flour
1 onion chopped
A couple bell peppers, chopped (about 1.5 cups)
1/2 bunch of celery chopped (about 1.5 cu)
4 cloves garlic chopped
2 links andouille sausage, sliced thin, or chopped
1/2 length smoked Turkey sausage (like Hillshire Farms) sliced thin or chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cu water + 1 can chicken broth (fat free, low sodium)
1 breast of chicken chopped (+ 1/4 cu. flour and 1 tsp Cajun seasoning or cayenne)
1 can tomato paste1 lb. shrimp
Hot sauce (like Frank's!), Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, thyme, basil, Italian parsley
Cooked rice (I use brown)
1. Start with a roux. Mix flour and oil in pot by constantly stirring over almost-high heat. Keep stirring. And stirring. And about 15-20 minutes later you should have a dark, chocolate-like roux. If you stop stirring it will burn and taste bad. Season with salt and pepper.2. Throw in onions through garlic, and stir into roux, and cook about 5 minutes. Add sausages, 5 minutes more. Season with Worcestershire and a dash of Cajun seasoning.
3. Add tomato, stir. Add water and broth. Stir, and season with hot sauce. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, and simmer with lid slightly off, 2 hours. Stir a couple times.
4. Meanwhile toss the chicken with the seasoned flour in a bag and refrigerate.5. Add the chicken to the pot, along with a handful of chopped parsley, some dried thyme and basil. Cook 1.5 hours.
6. Add the tomato paste, and stir.
7. Add the shrimp and cook about 20 minutes more, until shrimp is pink.
8. Bowl. Gumbo. Rice. File' powder if you want. Enjoy!
(If you care, this makes at least 8 servings...and a bowl with a 1/2 cup of rice is approx. 391 calories; 129 cal fat, 152 cal carbs, 110 cal protein)
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