Laura’s gumbo
Laura: not sure why this text is so big and bold...anyway, the gumbo: the smell is all about the onions hitting a smoking hot roux...gets in your hair, your clothes, is awesome...
some random tips for an almost no-fail chicken sausage gumbo:
1 lb chicken
1 lb sausage (highly smoked)
two stalks celery
two onions
1 bell pepper
1 bunch green onions
3 - 32 oz cartons Best Yet reduced sodium chicken broth (rouses)
flour and oil for roux
(1 cup flour - 3/4 cup oil)
or
roux in a jar (Kary's, Savoies, etc)
use boneless skinless chicken thighs(just enough fat and skin left on for some good flavor) cut them in chunks, season them with salt pepper and poultry seasoning, and brown on the side;
use some real good smoked sausage, andoullie works well; slice it kind of thick; put half of it in with the chicken to render it down; put the other half in with the roux/onion mix to do the same;
roux in a jar works well; pour off the oil on top, take about 1/4 of the jar, mix with about a cup of water, carefully microwave, stir it up till it looks like thick liquid fudge, then add it to the onions you brown down first; start adding about half of it, then more as needed to flavor and thicken;
hint: save some of the chopped onions, celery, bell pepper and green onion to add to gumbo about halfway through; the rest is put into the 'base' along with the onions, roux of your choice, and the browned chicken and sausage;
make sure you add all of the rendered chicken and sausage juice after browning to the base;
a little liquid smoke sometimes helps, as does kitchen boquet or a similar darkening agent to get the look you want;
The drill:
brown chicken and sausage as directed in one pan while making the roux in the gumbo pot;
if using roux in a jar, cook down onions in the gumbo pot, adding the celery and bell pepper right before adding the meats and the roux;
You want to make sure the meats are mostly cooked before adding to the mixture;
season with salt and pepper and a little cayenne...maybe a touch of poultry seasoning...add a little liquid smoke if necessary...
the base will be the onions and veggies, the roux, the meat, that you start to thin with the chicken stock...keeping the heat med to low...slowly add more chicken stock to the mix while on the heat, tasting for flavor...
build it up to the flavor and consistency you want...you can add some roux in a jar as needed for flavor and body...add the chopped green onions a little while before ready...simmer on low heat a good while, till everything is cooked, blended, right color, consistency, flavor...try to keep the chicken in chunks, rather than overcooked and shredded;
can smell it now
good luck
tlyons
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Thursday, May 12, 2011
We're being Morganza'd
Morganza...the name of a late nite UHF station (remember those?) horror movie host?
Or maybe a brand of shortening (remember that stuff?)?
Oh, yeah, Morganza, as in 'Morganza to the Gulf' hurricane protection levee for Terrebonne Parish, and as in "Morganza Spillway", a space dedicated to letting the waters have their way when the big rivers get full to save the cities, kind of like applying leeches to the face to prevent a problem in the groin...
Living in coastal Louisiana is becoming an annual exercise in irony, humility, blather, astonishment, surrealism and gamesmanship of the cruelist sort, a headlong pitch forward into the future, a lit cultural and economic fuse forever hissing toward....what? Gradual annihilation is what, but that's a whole nuther set of cyclopedias (remember those?)
back to Morganza...which has become the default term for the proposed levee system...never liked it, as it has nothing to do with south Louisiana, save being the place where the excess water may go; even suggested to the PowersThatB once they rename it "Terrebonne Levee System", which got a reaction of basically horror, because, as was explained, years have been spent pushing 'Morganza' and to rename it would be a disaster, etc;
So, we are opposites, polar, in that a Morganza is threatening to flood us from the North and West, and another Morganza is designed to protect us from storm surges from the Gulf;
Just another warm and sticky day on the inland coast...
Or maybe a brand of shortening (remember that stuff?)?
Oh, yeah, Morganza, as in 'Morganza to the Gulf' hurricane protection levee for Terrebonne Parish, and as in "Morganza Spillway", a space dedicated to letting the waters have their way when the big rivers get full to save the cities, kind of like applying leeches to the face to prevent a problem in the groin...
Living in coastal Louisiana is becoming an annual exercise in irony, humility, blather, astonishment, surrealism and gamesmanship of the cruelist sort, a headlong pitch forward into the future, a lit cultural and economic fuse forever hissing toward....what? Gradual annihilation is what, but that's a whole nuther set of cyclopedias (remember those?)
back to Morganza...which has become the default term for the proposed levee system...never liked it, as it has nothing to do with south Louisiana, save being the place where the excess water may go; even suggested to the PowersThatB once they rename it "Terrebonne Levee System", which got a reaction of basically horror, because, as was explained, years have been spent pushing 'Morganza' and to rename it would be a disaster, etc;
So, we are opposites, polar, in that a Morganza is threatening to flood us from the North and West, and another Morganza is designed to protect us from storm surges from the Gulf;
Just another warm and sticky day on the inland coast...
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Record flood of 1973
As we are constantly reminded via every source of media that exists, the waters are rising. Every year South Louisiana gets to show the rest of the world in a high profile way something new: hurricanes, storm surges and assorted disasters man-made and otherwise, usually Gulf of Mexico in orgin.
This time it's flooding from the North. As in most of North America.
What used to be called, and maybe still is, "backwater flooding from the Atchafalaya" is threatening Terrebonne again.
Reference is made to the title above. I remember Gibson being pretty wet back then; when you could pass on the highway, there was standing water, and it was a definite hardship for the folks on Bayou Black. I also remember crawfish scuttling across Highway 90, and people shoveling them up and filling whatever could hold them to the ever-spilling brim.
Just as Cocodrie is a foreign country to many who live but a few miles away, so be Gibson to plenty in the other direction. Nonetheless, flooding is flooding, mud in your living room is still a mess.
Which calls into question some pixels in the Big Picture when it comes to flood protection and coastal restoration. Flooding is what formed the ground we stand on. And pour highways over. Levees and massive structures begot the excruciating death dance to our environment that we are are witnessing, a generation at a time.
So just how much and how long can we stave off the inevitable? Ignore nature at our own peril. Two years without a storm has been great. A dozen more would be greater. Unfortunately, to be diligent means expecting the worse, and always leaving a little bit out there"just in case" we get a Big One, with the legendary storm surge that inundates Schriever...that would complete the trifecta of the coast, the basin and the 'high land'...don't want to be any kind of harbinger, whatever the hell a harbinger is, but it's almost time to start charging the batteries and changing the fluids in the generator.
This time it's flooding from the North. As in most of North America.
What used to be called, and maybe still is, "backwater flooding from the Atchafalaya" is threatening Terrebonne again.
Reference is made to the title above. I remember Gibson being pretty wet back then; when you could pass on the highway, there was standing water, and it was a definite hardship for the folks on Bayou Black. I also remember crawfish scuttling across Highway 90, and people shoveling them up and filling whatever could hold them to the ever-spilling brim.
Just as Cocodrie is a foreign country to many who live but a few miles away, so be Gibson to plenty in the other direction. Nonetheless, flooding is flooding, mud in your living room is still a mess.
Which calls into question some pixels in the Big Picture when it comes to flood protection and coastal restoration. Flooding is what formed the ground we stand on. And pour highways over. Levees and massive structures begot the excruciating death dance to our environment that we are are witnessing, a generation at a time.
So just how much and how long can we stave off the inevitable? Ignore nature at our own peril. Two years without a storm has been great. A dozen more would be greater. Unfortunately, to be diligent means expecting the worse, and always leaving a little bit out there"just in case" we get a Big One, with the legendary storm surge that inundates Schriever...that would complete the trifecta of the coast, the basin and the 'high land'...don't want to be any kind of harbinger, whatever the hell a harbinger is, but it's almost time to start charging the batteries and changing the fluids in the generator.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Welcome, my friends, to the show that...
Always fun to stumble on to something that had been tucked away for whatever reason...like this web-log...
Suppose in generations past this stage of life, 'middle age' or however you want to describe plusfifty, was a more settled time less subject to changes of any sort...or was it? Know that the two plus years since I've posted here have seen enormous changes for me personally...that may just be my nature, as any two consecutive of my past years were probably fraught with change as well, but not like this pair;
Fortunate in that I knew all of my grandparents quite well, being among the older of the 'next' generations for them, and blescursed that I am with my minutia memory, I can compare their lives at my age approximately for some kind of perspective of inter-generational middle-age, (MA)...
Leaving out the traditional life changing events, the births, deaths, tragedies, etc., I have to note that being MA now is way more different that in the fifties and sixties and seventies...a 'duh' statement, I know, but now time for some relevant comparison.
Suppose in generations past this stage of life, 'middle age' or however you want to describe plusfifty, was a more settled time less subject to changes of any sort...or was it? Know that the two plus years since I've posted here have seen enormous changes for me personally...that may just be my nature, as any two consecutive of my past years were probably fraught with change as well, but not like this pair;
Fortunate in that I knew all of my grandparents quite well, being among the older of the 'next' generations for them, and blescursed that I am with my minutia memory, I can compare their lives at my age approximately for some kind of perspective of inter-generational middle-age, (MA)...
Leaving out the traditional life changing events, the births, deaths, tragedies, etc., I have to note that being MA now is way more different that in the fifties and sixties and seventies...a 'duh' statement, I know, but now time for some relevant comparison.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Hurricane in Maine
Friday morning...will there be a debate? will there be a deal? will I get to go the the rocknbowl to see rico and the stringbeans? Now that's what I'm really concerned about; got three blue tarps nailed taut, three "adjustments" and two quotes for hispanic shingling this week, all courtesy of Gustav; meeting with another roofer at 1 today...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
left at shrimp, right at redfish
Cocodrie, LA
Camp PMarine
What a nice place...kept wandering around the "camp" and marvelling, yes, actually marvelling at how the place simply worked: dish towels fell to hand in the kitchen area; how the pantry doors hinged to open, exposing another split row that hinged open to access the fixed shelves in the rear; how the large lined garbage bin, would slide out, easily accessable to the what ever was chopped and discarded on the large island, where two chopping boards and a block of cutlery stood out and ready for some chopping action...as I planned to do some of the cooking, I couldn't have been more pleased with the layout;
Met, Mark Robicheaux, WSJ &
Steve Johnson, Nature Conservancy;
Re-visited:
Delbert
Steve
All the Wells, inc. Noah
Contingent Louis, featuring Albert;
Capt. Bowman, who helped Hermann manuever between the pilings; never a doubt here;
met: Thomas McClian, lockport;
Arrived to real shrimp spaghetti, done absolutely right (with the really fresh shrimp added to the simmering sauce as the heat is turned off) along with a day-old scratch fresh seafood gumbo;
The food bar was set high, befitting the Olympics atmosphere of the weekend; as I had committed to preparing breakfast for the assembly Saturday, I knew that the menu I'd planned should clear without a problem;
tbc
Camp PMarine
What a nice place...kept wandering around the "camp" and marvelling, yes, actually marvelling at how the place simply worked: dish towels fell to hand in the kitchen area; how the pantry doors hinged to open, exposing another split row that hinged open to access the fixed shelves in the rear; how the large lined garbage bin, would slide out, easily accessable to the what ever was chopped and discarded on the large island, where two chopping boards and a block of cutlery stood out and ready for some chopping action...as I planned to do some of the cooking, I couldn't have been more pleased with the layout;
Met, Mark Robicheaux, WSJ &
Steve Johnson, Nature Conservancy;
Re-visited:
Delbert
Steve
All the Wells, inc. Noah
Contingent Louis, featuring Albert;
Capt. Bowman, who helped Hermann manuever between the pilings; never a doubt here;
met: Thomas McClian, lockport;
Arrived to real shrimp spaghetti, done absolutely right (with the really fresh shrimp added to the simmering sauce as the heat is turned off) along with a day-old scratch fresh seafood gumbo;
The food bar was set high, befitting the Olympics atmosphere of the weekend; as I had committed to preparing breakfast for the assembly Saturday, I knew that the menu I'd planned should clear without a problem;
tbc
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