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Miss Josie’s Gumbo–Makes 10 generous servings


My husband grew up in Louisiana and this is his mother’s recipe for gumbo with few adaptations. Miss Josie Dyson grew up on a farm in Tangipahoa Parrish. I was lucky enough to visit the old place one day when David and I were in Baton Rouge for the Christmas holidays. The house was low rambling wood house that had a big front porch that overlooked a yard studded with live oaks and pine trees. It was a lot like the house that David grew up in on Moss Side Lane in Baton Rouge.

In 1936 Tommy Kirby and Miss Josie bought 10 acres of pine trees with a low, rambling wooden house. The front porch looked out on a big yard with huge live oaks. Miss Josie said they were so big because the yard had been a mule graveyard, so the spirits and bodies of those mules were feeding those oaks with their long arms dripping with Spanish moss.

One of the most magical rooms in the house was Tommy Kirby’s study, which they added after they bought the place. It was lined with book shelves and at the far end was a fireplace that was usually roaring when we were there for Christmas. Tommy was chairman of the English Department at LSU for years and a Chaucer scholar. He read eleven languages, and I remember him sitting at his desk and working as David’s sons Ian and Will played with Legos on the floor nearby. He had a desk that was made from wood from Josie’s home place, and David writes at that desk today.

Not only was Josie a marvelous cook and gardener, she was a fifth-grade teacher for years. Her undergraduate degree was in chemistry, and she brought that scientific mind to bear on the natural world. She was also famous for being able to shoot snakes out of trees, and taught David to shoot. Behind her house was a horseshoe shaped rose garden with at least fifty different varieties of roses, and beyond that were many varieties of camellias. She was a great story teller, and I’ll never forget her tales of working during a college break during the thirties for Mr. Ferny Hyde, selling insurance in rural Louisiana. Her kitchen was big and many wonderful meals were concocted there, including this gumbo.

My primary change has been in substituting a broth of shrimp heads and shells for a chicken broth base. I got the idea when shopping at my local farmer’s market. They guy who’s there every week selling shrimp told me how to do it, and I never looked back. I never met a crustacean I didn’t like, and this is the ambrosia of crustaceans.

List of ingredients:

For the broth:

For the roux:

For the gumbo:

To make the broth, first shell 2 lbs. of heads-on shrimp and put the heads and shells in 8 cups of water. (Put the shrimp in the refrigerator to use later.) Add the bay leaves, lemon juice, onion, salt and pepper, and lots of fresh parsley. Bring to a boil and let simmer while you are making the roux.

For the roux:

3 Tablespoons of flour
3 Tablespoons of olive oil

Mix the oil and flour in a heavy sauce pan and stir constantly over a low heat until dark caramel brown. At first it will be golden, but it will slowly change color. Do not overcook. If you burn your roux, it becomes bitter and you have to throw it out and start over. As the whole process takes about 30 minutes, stay focused. The final 10 minutes are critical. When the roux is a dark chocolate color, take it off the heat and put it aside, but remember that it will keep cooking in the pot for a while, so keep stirring until the pot cools a bit.

For the gumbo proper:

  1. In a couple of tablespoons of oil saute:
    2 small yellow onions diced fine
    4 or five cloves of garlic, diced fine
  2. When they are translucent, add: 1 chopped up green pepper (I use a red or yellow pepper)
    4 stalks of chopped celery
    3 carrots, diced
  3. When the vegetables are soft, add the roux mixed with the strained shrimp broth. (Pour the broth with the heads and shells and herbs through a wire strainer into the roux pot and mix the two together with a whisk.)
  4. Add one 8 oz. can of plum tomatoes. I usually add a jar of a tomato sauce that I make at the end of every summer or fresh whole tomatoes that I preserve, but there are dozens of choices in any market.
  5. While this simmers, take one package of unthawed frozen okra, and sauté it until it loses all its sliminess. Then add it to the gumbo.
  6. This is the time to add chicken and/or sausage. I like chicken thighs and andouille sausage. Niman Farms makes a great organic andouille sausage in packages of four. Cut the sausages into 1/4 inch slices, and add to the gumbo. Cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces and add. If they are still a little frozen, they are easier to cut.
  7. Now is also the time to add more chopped fresh parsley, fresh thyme, red pepper flakes, a dash (or more) of cayenne, a tsp. of paprika and any other herbs or spices to taste. We like a lot of parsley, which makes a greener gumbo. This is where your personal alchemy comes in and makes the gumbo yours.
    Last time I made gumbo, I put in five different kinds of pepper: freshly ground black pepper, red pepper flakes, a chopped dried jalapeno from my garden last summer, a couple of shakes of the Sauce Boss’s Liquid Summer Datil Pepper Sauce, and a couple of shakes of cayenne pepper. Believe it or not the gumbo wasn’t too hot. I think the different kinds hit your palate in different places. Be careful, but you want your gumbo to be a little hot.
  8. Simmer for a couple of hours. THEN add the 2 lbs. of raw shrimp. You can also add crab or oysters. It is gumbo, after all. Cook for 20 minutes. Sprinkle on filé to taste. Serve over brown rice or by itself. You’ll be singing a Hank Williams song before you know it.

 

© Barbara Hamby