Howdy folks, could someone offer a good Cajun Gumbo recipe. I want to use pan fish (blue gills, perch or crappie) as he main meat. I can't think of better of a better place to ask. Thank you...PA Joe. :help
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Howdy folks, could someone offer a good Cajun Gumbo recipe. I want to use pan fish (blue gills, perch or crappie) as he main meat. I can't think of better of a better place to ask. Thank you...PA Joe. :help
You're going to get 20 different answers because there are so many different ways to make it....I only make chicken/sausage, so I don't know how it would differ from seafood...and it's very simple but good, however part of that is tied to the smokey sausage I use. Water, roux, chicken, (heavily) smoked sausage, onion, green onions, Slap Ya Mama or similar seasoning, chicken bouillion, a little garlic powder....sometimes some Emmeril's Essence...just add whatever you think it needs to taste good, better, or right. :)
Probably better to let someone with a seafood recipe give you the answer you need. lol
You may also want to try a couvillion dish...I've heard it's very good, but haven't tried it.
PA Joe, when we think of gumbo we're thinking of sausage, sausage and chicken, oyster, shrimp, crab sometimes all together in a seafood gumbo, but never fish. Gumbo is a dish that is cooked for a while to get all the flavors out of the ingredients and getting them to marry wonderfully. Fish for more that 10 minutes in the boiling base would fall a part long before you would get it to be gumbo. I guess you could build the base and cook it to finish and then add the fish for the last few minutes before being served but I have no idea how that would turn out. By the way, there are as many gumbo recipes as there are cooks, each with their own twist.
Fish is used more in a Courtbullion where it's cook in a tomato gravy. The gravy is cook to finish and the fish added at the end. You can use any fish but the firmer the fillets the better it will hold together. Redfish or black drum is traditionally used but others can be used.
Not mine but very typical.
Good luck,
"gene"
Gumbo - Cooking Louisiana
Redfish Courtbullion - Cooking Louisiana
Thxs, I'm open to 20 different recipes, lol. I had gumbo in New Orleans back in the 80's and darn that was good so I have to start trying up here in PA to find a good recipe. I got 3lb of fresh blue gills filets, so 1/2 is for gumbo. :-)
I hope ya fry the other half:)Quote:
Originally Posted by freytown
If you want to cook fish in a gravy over rice I'd recommend a courtbullion. It's more of a tomato based sauce.
Here is the recipe I use- it always gets et.
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup bacon drippings
1 cup coarsely chopped celery
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 large green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound andouille sausage, sliced
1 whole rotisserie chicken
1 smoked hamhock
3 quarts water
6 cubes beef bouillon
1 tablespoon white sugar
salt to taste
2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco(R)), or totaste
1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning blend (such as TonyChachere's(R)), or to taste
4 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 teaspoons gumbo file powder
2 tablespoons bacon drippings
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen cut okra, thawed
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons gumbo file powder
Directions
1. Make a roux by whisking the flour and 3/4 cup bacon drippingstogether in a large, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat to form a smoothmixture. Cook the roux, whisking constantly, until it turns a rich mahoganybrown color. This can take 20 to 30 minutes; watch heat carefully and whiskconstantly or roux will burn. Remove from heat; continue whisking until mixturestops cooking.
2. Place the celery, onion, green bell pepper, and garlic into thework bowl of a food processor, and pulse until the vegetables are very finelychopped. Stir the vegetables into the roux. Bring themixture to a simmer over medium-low heat, and cook until vegetables are tender,10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Bring the water and beef bouillon cubes to a boil in a largeDutch oven or soup pot. Stir until the bouillon cubes dissolve, and whisk theroux mixture into the boiling water. Reduce heat to a simmer, and mix in the chicken, ham hock, sugar, salt, hot pepper sauce, Cajun seasoning, bay leaves, thyme, stewedtomatoes, and tomato sauce. Simmer the soup over low heat for 1 hour; mix in 2teaspoons of file gumbo powder at the 45-minute mark.
4. Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of bacon drippings in a skillet,and cook the okra with vinegar over medium heat for 15 minutes; remove okrawith slotted spoon, and stir into the simmering gumbo. Mix in the sausage, Worcestershire sauce, and simmer until flavors have blended, 45 moreminutes. Just before serving, stir in 2 more teaspoons of file gumbo powder.
Thxs for all the input folks and I will use the fish in a courtbullion and make the gumbo with the sausage, shrimp, chicken, ham instead. Thank you PA Joe
another idea for the fillets if you want to try something different...Another member turned me on to this....
spread fillets out in a single layer in a baking dish, drizzle fresh lemon juice over them, sprinkle some cajun seasoning like Tony Cachere's or Slap Ya Mama (whatever you can get up there in PA lol) haven't tried Old Bay, but might work. Then you either lay on some thin sliced onions or I just use onion powder sprinkled over it...next spread a lay of Campbells Creme of Shrimp on top and cover with crushed Ritz crackers. Bake it in the oven until done...it's been a while, but probably 350-400 for 30 min or so, depending on how thick the fillets are. Then you just have to serve with a spatula since you can't find the individual fillets....man it's delicious!
Let me know if you can't find any good seasoning salts like that, and maybe I can help hook you up. :)
We've added bream filets to a gumbo before. As previously said, you just can't add them any earlier then a few minutes to the gumbo being done. Then after they're cooked, do not stir the pot much as they'll break apart. It was good with a different twist. Tonight we're doing a sac á lait étouffée with fried shrimp, potato salad and corn. Can't fry it all the time lol.