Cooking Gumbo at Ricky's 2009

Chef Ricky's

Cooking 2 kinds of Gumbo

October 20, 2009

Ricky and I had a day off, so we thought that we would do a "Road Trip". I had a roasted turkey carcass; we deboned it, put the bones in a pot, filled with water, veggies, and left it on a medium heat. OH, yea, and we asked JoAnn (his wife) to watch it while we hit the road!

Our thoughts were to make 2 gumbos, one a Turkey with Andouille Sausage. The other a non-meat, Seafood File' Gumbo.

So, we got a couple of beers, left the Mid City area headed for LaPlace (about 20 miles west of New Orleans) in search of "The Best" Andouille. We purchased a couple of lbs from both Bailey's and Jacob's. After a taste test and a couple more beers, with some hot boudin we agreed that Jacob's has the more smoky and leaner Andouille.

Also after a trip to a local Seafood store, we picked up some okra, fresh shrimp, fish filets, oysters and gumbo crabs. On the way back to Mid City, we stopped at the Homedale Bar, to have a couple of more beers and make sure we had everything we needed. OK, OK, it was just an excuse to hit the bar!

The afternoon found us peeling shrimp, making a seafood stock with the shrimp heads, dicing onions, celery and peppers. Ricky made a BEAUTIFUL dark chocolate roux.

I switched off to gin, Ricky hit the wine.

Evening found us browning off the andouille, deglazing the Dutch ovens with onions and wine. Then slow simmering both Gumbos! Drinking a little more of Ricky's gin. Keith brought over 3 liters of Belgium Beers.

After a beautiful meal with 3 bottles of wine, and dinner liqueurs; Calvados, and Lemoncella. Ann drove me home, Keith barely stumbled across the street. I picked up my car the next day.

Ricky got to do the dishes!

What a fantastic "Road Trip"!!

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