Gumbo! (AM)

On Easter Monday, Rumpy came over so we could watch some TV shows that he acquired through completely legal means, but we nevertheless needed a computer to watch.
We took the opportunity to make and eat some delicious things.
Having the whole day at home in front of the tele presented a good opportunity to make something that requires a lot of time on the stove but yields mega-delicious results. We chose Gumbo.

I'm sure you all know what Gumbo is, on account of Melbourne's latest food truck sensation, the Gumbo Kitchen. Neither of us have been there. Or should I say, neither of us have eaten Gumbo there. Apparently Rumpy has been several times and fully intends to eat Gumbo,  but always gets sidelined by the Po'boy.

Picture of Rumpy's actual Gumbo kitchen po'boy, which I got him to send me just so I could set up the following joke:

Fair enough too, look at that pretty baby all chock-full of fried shrimp. What more can a po'boy do? (heh. Thanks guys)
Anyway, long story short, neither of us had ever eaten Gumbo before so didn't really know what to expect.
All we knew was that it is a delicious sounding thing from the deep south of the US of A. Louisiana in fact, which we all know used to be a French colony until the famous Louisiana purchase in 1803. Happily, the famous Louisiana purchase occurred after the French had an opportunity to impart their cooking techniques, hence the Gumbo began with the making of a roux.

A roux is a combination of butter and flour that is cooked over low heat to form the basis of a sauce. If you've ever made bechamel, you've started with a roux. What I didn't know is the longer you cook a roux, the darker and more intense it becomes. So, after about ten minutes, the roux looked like this:

That's your traditional blonde roux. An hour later, it turned in to a brown roux that looked like this:

WOW, right?
Wow.
Once the roux was done, we could get down to business. The business o f sautéing a mountain of chicken and ham. 

Yeah we did!

 Now some people like to make their gumbo with a little seafood. The recipe we followed had none, but who am I to complain when there is a mountain of chicken and ham involved? I'm no one and I would never do that.
So like I said, we sauteed the chicken and ham then set this little protein party aside while we sauteed a bunch of your garden variety aromatics: some celery, garlic, onion and capsicum and tomato...

...before being brought together along with some chicken stock, chilli sauce, allspice, bay leaves and thyme.

Not the prettiest.

Then, we watched a bunch of TV while that little baby simmered away and filled my house with the smell of delicious. So far so easy, right?

About an hour and a half later, we were ready to add the final ingredient: Okra. Apparently this is an essential ingredient of gumbo, and has natural thickening properties. In it went before I had a chance to photograph it, but basically it looked like a whole bunch of sliced okra.

Half an hour or so of TV later and we were all done and ready to serve.

Ten seconds later we were ready to eat.

Gumbo about to get got. 

I ate this very bowl readers and while it may not look like much, I can assure you it was a total mind blower. It  tastes exactly, and I mean exactly like delicious. It was so comforting and familiar, while also tasting like none of the things I have tasted before. And so rich. But also kind of light.
You know how indian curries are all deep and intense, and thai curries are all light and fresh, but also kind of intense? Well Gumbo is like the mid point between the two. Spicy and hearty and rich, but with this breezy deliciousness that makes it go down so so fine.

Readers, I loved it.  Simple, lazy and like a party in my mouth.

Thanks Gumbo.