Spicy Meat Gumbo

Recently my Sis presented me with a copy of Jamie's America - complete with her own notes scribbled across the Spicy Meat Gumbo recipe inside.  I've been hanging out to give it a try after hearing about her success with it, and decided that the three days I was going to spend at my parents house on a mini break between jobs would be a great time to give it a crack.

Mum was provided with an emailed list of ingredients that we needed for the great cooking extravaganza, and on Monday afternoon I made a start.

Can I just say now.  Any recipe that requires THIS MUCH organising, chopping and sourcing ingredients does leave me a bit cold.  I'm all for recipes with just a handful of ingredients - not a page long list (I ended up ticking things off the recipe as I prepared them, and then again as I added them to the pot to make sure I didn't miss anything).  I subbed out some of the sweet potato and used some parsnip on the grounds that Mum had a heap that needed using up.

So, first things first - I cut up all my chorizo, bacon and got my chicken legs ready (I didn't have any chicken thighs - Mum and I protested when we saw the price per kg and decided not to bother).  Next I cut up the onion, capsicum and celery.  Then I got a bit frustrated with the endless cutting up and Mum jumped in to handle the sweet potato and parsnip while I seasoned my chicken with cayenne pepper, paprika, salt and pepper.  

Next I popped some olive oil in a pot, heated it up and put all the meat in.  Which lead to the frustrating conclusion that the pot was not big enough for that.  Ignoring my Mum's suggestion that I should remove the chicken from the leg bones, I poured it all into a large frying pan and browned it all off.

After the meat was browned, I pulled it all out of the pan, leaving as much of the juices as I could in the pan.  Next I tipped in the onion, celery and capsicum and cooked it off for a few minutes until it went nice and soft.  I was a bit hesitant about the next bit - making a roux.  I know that if you don't cook the flour off properly, the whole dish will taste chalky (haven't we all had a creamy pasta that tastes a bit weird?).  But I threw in my three heaped tablespoons and started stirring on a low heat.  This bit took AGES, and it was really hard to be patient, but I perservered until it went a nice dark peanut butter colour.

At this point, you're supposed to put the meat back in, add some garlic, the sweet potatoes and the parsnip and then stir fry it all for ten minutes.  I quickly realised, however, THAT MUM WAS RIGHT.  Because I hadn't taken the chicken off the bone, my meat wasn't going to fit in the pan.  Let alone the 1.5L of stock I still had to add.... SIGH!  I spent a few frustrating minutes trying to bone the chicken pieces while they were hot, sticky and covered in paprika and cayenne pepper, but eventually the chicken was in the pan and the bones in the bin.

I covered the lot with chicken stock (Jamie said hot, but I said poo to that and poured it in straight from the container) and then brought it to the boil.  Last step was to let it simmer for 45 minutes (or the chicken was nice and tender, and the vegetables soft and cooked through.

Mum cooked up mess of rice to go with it, and we had some crusty baguette slices to sop it up with.

Things I learned while cooking:-

- Listen to your mother.  She is invariably right.
- Check the sizes of your pots before you start.
- Use the best chorizo you can find - ours was not great.
- Gumbo tastes better the second day (I had it for dinner the following night too)
- Taste it before you serve it - mine definitely needed more cayenne, more salt and more pepper