Gumbo type clarification

[007bond-jb]

I was cookin up a sauce piquante for supper while watching the food network & Emerils show came on. He discribed gumbo types, saying that their are many types of gumbo (duh) if you add shrimp & okra its
shrimp & okra gumbo. If you use a combination of seafood with file`
Its seafood file`gumbo. The main reason to add file` or okra is to thicken the gravy. you can omit both and make more roux which is a thickener as well. Bottom line is you can use any kind of meat rabbit, alligator, Bambi, squirl, ect... You could make a veggie only gumbo but don't serve it my family. BTW He made chicken & sausage gumbo on the show.

 

[SteerCrazy]

I made some chicken and sausage gumbo this past weekend and had some file' powder on hand ready to use but didn't need it. I don't like okra so I didn't use it. I ended up cooking it down so much I had to add more water to it but it came out good. I'll post pics tomorrow.

 

[007bond-jb]

A few other tips, never put file` in a pot of gumbo your gonna reheat. I have lived it the south all my 51 years & didn't know to put the file` powder on the rice before adding the gumbo (it works better don't know why but it does) I saw that on a TV show a while back.

 

[Finney]

Truth is, you can make anything and call it anything you want to. Does that really make it be that... no.

There are bars that sell all kinds of cocktails they call martinis. 99% have nothing remotely similar to a martini. A martini is gin and vermouth. There wasn't even a vodka martini until the James Bond movies. And Seagrams paid to have that done there as a marketing ploy.
Same thing with tiramisu... restaurants and people call any thing with cholate and coffee in it tiramisu. It's not.
And don't get me started on the London Broil topic.....

"Gumbo" means "okra".........

Gumbo: noun
1. okra
2. long mucilginous green pods; may be simmered or sauteed but used especially in soups and stews
3. tall coarse annual of Old World tropics widely cultivated in southern US and West Indies for its long mucilginous green pods used as a basis for soups and stews: sometimes placed in genus Hibiscus [syn: okra]
4. a soup or stew thickened with okra pods

 

[LarryWolfe]

Truth is, you can make anything and call it anything you want to. Does that really make it be that... no.

There are bars that sell all kinds of cocktails they call martinis. 99% have nothing remotely similar to a martini. A martini is gin and vermouth. There wasn't even a vodka martini until the James Bond movies. And Seagrams paid to have that done there as a marketing ploy.
Same thing with tiramisu... restaurants and people call any thing with cholate and coffee in it tiramisu. It's not.
And don't get me started on the London Broil topic.....

"Gumbo" means "okra".........

Gumbo: noun
1. okra
2. long mucilginous green pods; may be simmered or sauteed but used especially in soups and stews
3. tall coarse annual of Old World tropics widely cultivated in southern US and West Indies for its long mucilginous green pods used as a basis for soups and stews: sometimes placed in genus Hibiscus [syn: okra]
4. a soup or stew thickened with okra pods

Amen Brother!!!

 

[Unity]

"Gumbo" means "okra".........

Well done. That should put that question to rest. [smilie=a_bravo.gif]

--John 8)
(Of course, it won't. )

 

[Nick Prochilo]

Blame Cappy, he invented it!

 

[Finney]

Blame Cappy, he invented it!

Stupid Cappy.

 

[SteerCrazy]

Ok, well since I didn't add okra to my 'gumbo' I'll call it a pot of barf looking sh$t that had the texture of snot but tasted pretty good. I'll call it Snarf

 

[zilla]

My in laws are from South Louisiana. they explained it like this. There are two "Styles" of Gumbo, Cajun and Creole. One has a Roux and the other does not. The ingredients depend on what is on hand at the time. I thought that made more sense than other explanations I've heard.

 

[bigwheel]

Well sounds reasonable to me. The way I always heard it splained was Creole cooking is sorta the fancied up big city cooking style of the african americkans who migrated to Nor'leans via the Carribean Islands and influenced by the frog eating Frenchies in some mysterious way..whilst Cajun cooking is more the down home type country cooking of the French Arcadians who found their way to S. Louisiana..Mississippi..and SE Texas when they got themselves booted out of Nova Scotia and had to make do with indeginous ingredients. Do readily agree there is a definite difference in cooking style and ingredients twixt creole and cajun. Having said that will only add I know whut I like when I taste it and will give you my most favorite Gumbo recipe..which I guess must be more of creole extraction since it dont have a roux. I will post it over in the recipe section if I can find it. It come from a restaurant down here called Mack's Steaks and Seafood. May be some sort of chain cuz I know they got more that one. It will make you want to slap somebody's mama. Course I tweaked it up to be even mo betta than it started out.

bigwheel

My in laws are from South Louisiana. they explained it like this. There are two "Styles" of Gumbo, Cajun and Creole. One has a Roux and the other does not. The ingredients depend on what is on hand at the time. I thought that made more sense than other explanations I've heard.

 

[LarryWolfe]

Ok, well since I didn't add okra to my 'gumbo' I'll call it a pot of barf looking sh$t that had the texture of snot but tasted pretty good. I'll call it Snarf

:damnfunny :damnfunny :damnfunny :damnfunny :damnfunny

 

[007bond-jb]

Yall are all rite, some of the best seafood restaurants here all make different styles of gumbo. The smaller mom & pop joints usually have okra but the fancier upscale joints don't. I aint sayin who's is better most all of the place have a specialty which they do better than their compition does. As far a cajun & creole dishes creole tends to make more tomatoe
based dishes, that don't mean cajuns never use tomatoes just not as much quantity in say a gumbo for example. I remember reading somewhere that the roux was introduced by the french long ago. link to the history:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/artroux.html
more history on gumbo, for Finney good post by the way:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/artgumbo.html
yet more history on creole & cajun
http://www.foodreference.com/html/artne ... ssics.html
I still don't like okra

 

[Finney]

That's a great website. Thanks for the link.