Gumbo Night

I know it's been a long time since my last post, but, you know, life.  I actually wouldn't even be making this post if it weren't for Robyn who sent me these pictures.  I figured "well hey, half the work is already done."

So earlier today I really started to have a hankerin for some gumbo.  The only problem was that I hadn't made gumbo in a very long time -- so what I did was, I googled it.  I looked at a lot of different ways of making gumbo and all different ways.  This is what I ended up doing:

I made a roux with vegetable oil.  I think normally I would have used butter, but I always hate how easy it burns.  Anyway, that's what I did, and got it as dark as I could stand before my arm almost fell off from stirring.

Once the roux was done, I started cooking up the rice as well as the holy trinity of onions, bell peppers, and celery.  While that was going I incorporated the chicken stock and the roux, and threw in some okra.  Then I added the sausage, and the trinity once it was cooked pretty good.

Then the spices:  oregano, cholula sauce, tony's creole seasoning, black pepper, parsley, and probably some other junk I can't remember right now.

At the last minute I threw in the shrimp.

OOOH WEEE that was some good old gumbo.  Here is the ingredients list:

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup regular white flour

8 cups of chicken stock

2 large sticks of celery cut into 1/2" pieces

2 bell peppers cut into 1/2" pieces

1 large onion cut into 1/2" pieces

1/2 pound of okra cut into 1/2" pieces

1 pound andouille sausage (I used chicken ones *gasp*)

1 pound peeled and de-veined shrimp

2 cups uncooked rice

a bunch of spices, whatever you like, but you need parsley and definitely some spicy stuff.

This was enough for 5-6 people, with some people getting seconds.