Gumbo

My daughter was diligently copying much-needed recipes out of my recipe box so that she could take them with her to her new home. I caught her copying the gumbo recipe. I told her it was no good. Poor girl. She thought that, just because she saw me using that recipe every time I made gumbo, it really truly was the recipe. How silly.

Nathan (who is an avowed soup-hater) likes my gumbo. So one time while I was making gumbo, I wrote down the actual recipe and gave it to Katie. Katie conceded to post the recipe to her blog. I'm not sure that this recipe is actually what I make; I "wing it" in the kitchen too much to get accurate recipes recorded. But all I know is that we've only had gumbo once that could compare to this, and that was from some doozy down-home cooks in Mississippi. The trick to making good gumbo into great gumbo is to cook the roux (the sauteed veggies with flour) for a very long time (over half an hour) on very low heat, scraping the pot constantly while the flour browns. It takes time. And it's good if you don't bother. But it's superb if you do brown the flour for a good, long time.