Christmas means Gumbo. Period. (Recipe Inside)

I consider myself a foodie. Ok...so I'm just plain greedy (idc). One of my favorite dishes of all time is gumbo and in my family, we have it for Christmas or New Year's. My family is originally from Louisiana (Monroe) so it's only right that I know how to make a good gumbo. I learned how to make this dish from my Aunt Drucilla, who my family lost to cancer in 2017. I honestly learned how to cook most of my favorite dishes from her. It's packed full of flavor, meat (land and sea), and yummy hot goodness. One of the key components (major key alert!!!) to making a good gumbo is the roux. It must be dark but it cannot be burnt!

No matter what you are eating or doing this season, I would like to wish you a happy holiday from my heart to yours.

Update: The Recipe (this takes like 5-6 hours)

Ingredients:

3 whole dungeness crabs

3 turkey necks (You can also use chicken. I learned to make it with chicken but the turkey is also booooomb.)

1.5lbs of prawns

1 rope ( the long rope) of smoked turkey sausage

1 pack of cajun chicken sausage

chicken stock

yellow onion

garlic

cajun seasoning

sea salt

pepper

flour

vegetable oil

gumbo filé

3 bay leaves

Prep:

1. Clean all of your crab (get all the gunk out and scrape off the little hair with a knife or something sharp) and shrimp. Shrimp should be peeled and the tails removed. Break all of the legs from the body of the crab.

Cook:

1. Fill your pot halfway with cold water and put it on the stove on low heat. Season the turkey necks with sea salt and pepper. Slice half an onion. Mince 5-6 garlic cloves. Add everything to the pot of water with 3 bay leaves. Cook on low until meat falls off the bone.

2. Make your roux. A roux is flour and oil used to thicken and add additional flavor. Roux should be the color of milk chocolate but not burnt. If you burn it, it could ruin your gumbo. Sautée your flower in oil on extremely low heat and never stop stirring until it is brown. If you are nervous about this or cannot make roux on the stove (like me), you can make it in a cast iron skillet in the oven. Check out youtube for this. :)

3. Add the cajun seasoning to the pot of turkey necks. Stir.

4. Pour the roux into the pot and stir. Let that cook together for an hour.

5. Slice all of the sausage and sautée it together in a skillet in vegetable oil. Once cooked, pour it all into the pot. Stir.

6. Let that cook together for 20-30 minutes.

7. Add in all of the crab. Cook for 25-30 minutes.

8. Add in the prawns. Cooke for 15 minutes.

9. Add in gumbo filé. You only need like a table spoon of this.

Season everything to taste. Serve over rice.

#Lifestyle #WineDine