There are three ways to thicken gumbo, but the most commonly used method is to add roux. Roux, which is made with equal parts flour and butter and slowly cooked over low heat, is added to hot gumbo stock. After adding all the flour, reduce heat to low and cook, stirring frequently, about 45 to 60 minutes or until roux ranges from a peanut butter color to a dark brown red brown or color of milk chocolate and has a nut-like odor it will be very thick and pasty. Dark-brown roux looks like dark melted chocolate and tastes like rich campfire coffee with hints of tobacco.
Dark roux is essential in building the flavor of traditional gumbo and usually achieves its color within 30—45 minutes of cooking, but it depends on the amount you make as well as the heat you use to cook it.
You can fix this by blitzing it with an immersion blender then straining the sauce through a strainer. Solution: If your gravy is too thick, that just means it contains a bit too much flour.
It tastes so good you can eat it on bread or use it as a dipping sauce! When meat is browned, dump in a colander to let the fat and liquids drain off.
You like that extra crunch? When the vegetables are done to your liking, dump in all the ingredients except the meat and the pasta.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes. While that is simmering away, get some water to boil for your pasta. When water is boiling, put pasta into the water. She stirs and stirs. And focuses on color, texture and smell. For over an hour, she stirs. No phone calls, no conversations, no distractions whatsoever. There is an instinctive point of departure — a point of no return that she pushes beyond.
A less brave or sure-handed cook would stop short of perfection. She has the confidence and courage to pursue that hauntingly dark depth of a rich chocolate-colored roux. Hershey bar chocolate is the terminus, and anything more is burnt and destined for the disposal. With no distractions and approximately one hour of time at your disposal, begin by adding the flour and oil.
With a long-handled wooden spoon, begin to stir. Constant stirring and moving the flour around the bottom of the pot is the key to browning the flour evenly to prevent burning. This early stage will go slowly as you begin to see the white flour take on a beige and then a tan color. Continue stirring slowly and evenly, scraping the bottom and the circular crevices of the pot to move the flour around in the hot oil.
At about the half-hour mark, you will begin to see a brown color developing and smell the first hints of toasted flour. This is where the stirring becomes even more crucial. Watch your heat and lower it if the roux is cooking too fast. Constant stirring to keep the flour from staying in one place too long prevents burning.
You will begin to smell an even nuttier aroma as you see the color turn darker mahogany. Most stop here, but you will keep going until you achieve a deeper, darker chocolatey consistency and color. Forget time at this point since you are now cooking by instinct, sight and smell. The utmost attention is needed to your stirring, and when you see that Hershey chocolate darkness, you will know you have arrived.
Turn off the heat, but continue stirring until it begins to cool down and quits cooking. Spoon the roux into a bowl and let cool. Notes I like the neutral taste of vegetable or canola oil, but peanut oil will work fine as well, but stay away from olive oil or grapeseed oil or any flavored oil with a low smoke point.
Refrigerate your roux in a glass jar for up to a year. My wife always makes more roux than she needs. Her rule is that as long as you are spending an hour of your life stirring roux, make enough for the next gumbo, too. Caroline and Company Kaliste Saloom Rd. You will receive an email alert and be the first to see when new Cajun cooking stories and Cajun recipes are added.
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