~Post by Mandy
Making gumbo sounds hard, right? You need to get your roux the right color, not overcook your seafood, layer the flavors correctly — all important, yes, but I’m more of a wing it gal when it comes to cooking. I usually follow about 75% of any recipe. Lou Lambert’s recipe, however, for Port Arthur Seafood Gumbo, which I found in his brand new cookbook Big Ranch, Big City, was really easy & turned out as tasty as anything you’d find in New Orleans, or at least in Baton Rouge.
The recipe calls for oysters which I couldn’t find anywhere (even in my very half-assed grocery journey) so I doubled up on the required crab meat & shrimp instead and added clam juice for a some extra flava (typo, but it stays). We also added some fresh okra & one hatch chile that were all grown in my parents backyard garden. My sister Sally (who I love and is helpful in the kitchen because she will touch all of the unsavory things and chops vegetables into the size of perfect little jewels) is notorious for Amelia Bedelia-ing recipes and accidentally added about twice the amount of salt suggested for the recipe — which at first made me mad but then upon tasting it, you couldn’t tell.
Here’s the gumbo as it progressed:
The gumbo tasted delicious.
My dad & my boyfriend (both dudes who are very honest when it comes to food but also ‘traditional men’ in that if it’s hot & there, they’ll probably eat it) cleaned their bowls like Dickensian orphans.
Also, the recommended loaf of French bread was essential for dippin’ and any Louisiana hot sauce will help make it really snap to life in your mouth. So now after making this meal, I know that not only is the barbeque at Lambert’s great, the gumbo ain’t that bad neither — I mean, I made it from just a recipe and I am only a humble bookseller who can’t find oysters — so you know the real thing must be absolutely dynamite.
There are so many inspirational recipes in this book — desserts, sauces, breads, meat (obvs.) — a great book for any rustic and adventurous chef.
The real chef, Lou Lambert, is coming to BookPeople next week (Monday, September 12th, 7p.) He won’t be making gumbo, but he will be smoking BBQ in our parking lot, and signing copies of his new Big Ranch, Big City Cookbook. Come on down!
BookPeople 