Okra and seitan gumbo

Yes, I know it's been over a year since I posted. A lot has happened this year. Some good, some bad. Not sure if anyone reads this anymore and not sure when I'll update next but here's a dish I made a month ago.

I've posted about gumbo in the past and have made it a few times since that post, but this batch was really awesome. I really should write down recipes but eh, I just always wing it and writing them down as a I go a long takes the fun out of cooking for me.

The key to any good gumbo is a dark roux which can take upwards of an hour to develop on a low flame. The darker the roux, the better the gumbo. We cooked the roux for over an hour with constant stirring.

After the roux was a dark chocolate colour, we added in the holy trinity (onions, celery, green peppers), vegetable stock, seasonings (basic ones: thyme, bay leaf, oregano, salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne), then sliced fresh okra and a heavily spiced homemade seitan andouille (can't remember what I put in it). We added in some tomatoes (which I later found out makes this creole versus cajun), simmered for another hour and then served with rice and hot sauce.

It was so good and I'm sad that okra season is over. I might make gumbo with frozen okra but I'm sure it's not quite the same.

Roasted Okra and Jalapeño & Vegetable Gratin

Oven roasted okra and jalapeño & vegetable gratin.

The okra was tossed with olive oil, salt & pepper and garlic powder and oven roasted until tender. The gratin had jalapeño peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, Teese, Tofutti better than cream cheese and panko breadcrumbs. There's also some mushroom pizza in the background (top left) that was leftover from yesterday.

I used about 10-15 peppers and didn't wear gloves when cutting/handling them. My hands were burning for a few hours. Tomato sauce (jarred) was the only thing that seemed to get them to stop burning.

Mental note: wear gloves when handling hot peppers or don't bother with them at all.

ETA: And pronounce it right, people! :D (thanks Vincent for the link)

ETA Again: Do try oven roasted okra. Not as good (IMHO) as breaded and deep fried okra, but it's a lot easier and still super tasty.

Vegan Gumbo

This weekend I was pretty much laid up on the couch due to some back pain (sciatica, not fun!) so the boy made me gumbo on Sunday night with his mom's recipe (we also had some okra kicking around). They lived in Lousiana for a time and he has some Cajun blood in him. His mom is not Cajun but apparently she made the best roux back then. Roux takes a lot of patience due to the constant stirring and let me tell you, she has the patience of a saint so no wonder why her gumbo rocked. :)

Anyway, It was the first time I'd ever had gumbo and I loved it! He substituted Field Roast "Mexican Chipotle" flavour vegan sausages for the Andouille. We both thought it added just the right amount of heat to to the base. As you can see, I doused mine with a lot more hot sauce.

Gumbo's not the prettiest thing to photograph and I suck at plating and lack the patience, but I had to get a photograph to show his mom (she reads my blog). He did a great job on this. :)

I think next time, I'll try my hand at this. I wonder if I'll have the patience for making a dark roux. Probably not, but it will be fun to try.