1 chicken, cut into parts
Chicken stock (optional)
½ can of roux
2 large onions, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 lb. plain smoked sausage, sliced into coins
Cajun seasoning
Salt/pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder

Fill a large soup pot 1/3 full of water and/or chicken stock. Heat to boiling and add roux, stirring constantly for 5 – 10 min until all clumps of roux are completely dissolved. Stop stirring and allow the roux mixture to boil until it is frothing. Once this starts, let it continue for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add chopped sausages and vegetables, holding back a small handful of the green onions. Give it a stir and then season. Let it all come to a boil again, turn the fire down to medium and cook down for 30 minutes. Add chicken, return to boiling, turn fire to medium and cook for 45 minutes until chicken is cooked. As chicken is cooking, skim off any brown imperfections or excess oil and discard.

Keep fire on medium to low heat. Remove and cool chicken, then de-bone the meat and return it to the pot. Taste the gumbo and season again, if necessary. When seasoning is perfect, add in the reserved fresh green onions about ten minutes before serving. Serve over white rice in bowls.

Notes:
Be very sure to purchase plain smoked pork sausage without cheese or Italian herbs. Check the ingredients list if the name is ambiguous. Herbs will wreck the flavor of the gumbo.

A large soup pot means something 6 to 8 quarts in size.

Either homemade or canned chicken stock can be used, but the canned stock might be salty so I would not include salt in the first seasoning. I usually used a half and half combination of water and stock to start the gumbo.

I often used all dark meat to make this gumbo – chicken legs with the back attached – but it is traditionally prepared with the whole chicken. You choose according to your family’s taste. Any combination of parts equal to the weight of one chicken would work.

My dad’s rule of thumb for seasoning was one good sprinkle across the entire surface of the pot. So the first time the recipe says to season – give a good sprinkle of Cajun seasoning and a lighter sprinkle of the salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders as they are all contained in the Cajun seasoning. Once the chicken is cooked and the recipe says to season again, the gumbo usually needs salt and Cajun spice. Mine usually got a bit more of all the other seasonings as well, but it depends on what you give it the first time. It will be a learning process to get your taste buds adjusted to which seasoning is needed, but try to make it taste like mine and when unsure, give a pinch of one thing, let it cook for ten minutes and taste again to see if you got it right. If not, add a different one and repeat the cooking and tasting again. Too, remember that individuals can always add more hot sauce and Cajun seasoning to their own bowls. You do need a certain amount of spice to give the gumbo it’s proper flavor but there’s no need make it very spicy in the pot, especially if you’re serving children.

The brown “imperfections” I mention in the recipe looks like brown goop on the surface. Sometimes there is very little and sometimes there is a ton, but it should come out before serving. Regarding the oil, there should be only a thin layer so remove any more than that.

8oz. smoked link sausage
2T maple syrup
2 lb. frozen hash browns
2c milk
6 eggs
2oz grated Cheddar cheese
¼ c grated Parmesan
½ t dry mustard
¼ t pepper
2T green onion, snipped with scissors

Preheat oven to 350 and grease casserole with oil. Sauté sausages until brown, add syrup, cook one minute and arrange in single layer in casserole. Top with hash browns.

In medium bowl, whisk remaining ingredients and pour over hash browns.

Bake one hour or until center is set. Sprinkle with green onion. Cool 10 min. Cut into squares.

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker or large pot. Cook tightly covered on high heat or simmer over a very low flame for 5 to 6 hours. Serves 4 to 6.

Notes:
I never thought that my kids would eat this, but it passes because the potatoes and sausage. They don’t even seem to notice the cabbage… somehow. {shrug} Ya just don’t ask questions when your kids eat cabbage without complaining. Though personally, that amount of cabbage is a little much. I tend to use a little less than one half of a large head of cabbage. Oh, and I think I double the stock proportion. But you give it a try and see what ya think.

Chop vegetables and slice sausages into coins. Brown sausage in cast iron pot, then remove.

Saute vegetable mixture until transparent then add sausage back with seasoning, beans and a cup or two of water. My dad’s rule for the seasoning is to give the surface a thin film with the cajun spice, just a pinch of cumin, and salt/pepper to your own taste.

Simmer over low-heat for several hours to cook down. Do not allow all of the water to boil away. It is your “gravy,” so be sure to add more if necessary. May remove some beans once very soft to mash and return to the pot. It thickens the “gravy” a bit. Be sure to taste for more seasoning. I find it usually needs more salt/pepper, dash of Cajun spice and garlic powder. Cook the rice now while you let the final seasonings cook in.

Serve over hot white rice once beans are very tender and it has had time to mingle all the tastes. Easily feeds four people.

3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 lb hot Italian sausages
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 green bell peppers, cored, seeded and cut into thin strips
28-oz can diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 cup uncooked small pasta (tubetti, ditali or shells)
5 sprigs fresh basil and 5 sprigs fresh mint, tied together in a bouquet garni
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large skillet with a lid, heat the olive oil over med-hi heat. Add the sausages and onion; cook, turning the sausages to brown all sides, until the onions are just tender, about 8 minutes

Add the garlic and bell peppers and cook another couple of minutes.

Add the tomatoes, water, pasta, basil, mint, salt and pepper (make sure the pasta is submerged). Raise the heat to high and cook until the liquid starts to boil. Turn the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the sausages feel firm and the pasta is tender, about 25 min.

Cut the sausages into slices or leave whole for serving.

Notes:
Not being able to decide whether the kids could handle hot or mild sausages, I opted for the garlic as I know that is a taste they like. Browning the sausages with the onions howver were causing the onions to burn, so I separated the sausages into a skillet until brown then added them back to the onions.

3 bell peppers seemed a bit much, so I reduced that to 1 really big bell pepper. Oh, and I chopped it into bit instead of strips. The smaller they are when you start cooking, the fewer “what are the green things?” questions at the dinner table.

I added a can of tomato paste with the diced tomatoes and left out the cup of water as I boiled the pasta separately. To me, sauces like this are always better after a lot of simmering, so that’s why I left out the pasta. I let this one “bloop-bloop” – aka simmer – for an hour and a half. Left out the mint too, as my poor plant is slow to get going this spring.

Madame Queen’s Cornbread Dressing

1 baked cornbread crumbled
1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground pork
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large bell pepper, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 chicken bouillon cube, dissolved in 1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon oil
3 tablespoons onion tops
3 tablespoons parsley
seasoning to taste
milk to moisten

Saute onion, garlic, bell pepper, and celery in sauce pan with the oil. Add the meat and bouillon cube that has been dissolved. Cook meat until light brown. Mix with crumbled cornbread, onion tops and parsley. Add more milk to moisten if necessary. Season to taste. Bake at 350 degrees until brown.

This dressing can be prepared the day before and baked the next day which is a good to know for holidays.

My living grandmother was following just about the same recipe, except the browning the meat part. Once the vegetables became transparent, the meat was added but cooked for quite some time after it had turned light brown. She would let it stick to the bottom of the pot just a little, then from a cup of water perpetually at the side of the stovetop, pour in like 1/8 cup of water. It was just enough to allow her to scrape the browned bits off the bottom with her spatula and allow it to keep browning without burning. And that’s the cycle – brown, water, scrape. I really believe it gives a greater flavour to the meat in a recipe like this.

But it’s also the basis for any good gravy making. Recently, I attempted a pork roast in my dutch oven on the stovetop. My neighbour couldn’t believe I wasn’t doing it in the oven, but I remember my father doing it this way and wanted to try. I seared every side first, then added the remaining vegetables of the marinade I had stuffed into little holes all over the roast. No, I’m not talking potatoes and carrots, but the three veggies Cajuns won’t do without – onions, bellpepper and celery. In this case, I added in garlic. There was never too much garlic for pork, according to my Dad.

Again, once the vegetables were withered and mostly transparent, I began the brown, water, and scrape. I let it do that all afternoon. Half way through I put a good amount of water – a cup or two – in the bottom to turn all the delicious brown stuff into the gravy. But I still had to be watchful and careful it did not burn. The roast did fall apart in the end, but I just forked it into serving size pieces. It and the gravy was the best I’d ever done. I was so proud!

I experimented with this technique last week when I made chili. A pound of beef and a pound of pork after the vegetables, and browned them until at least half of the meat was just kissed with that dark brown color. From there, I followed the instructions on the back of the chili seasoning packet – yum, yum! OH, only belatedly did I realize the seasoning was only sufficient for one pound of meat, so I scrounged out this homemade version to get the double seasoning I needed and it worked. It was my first chili that I really liked. For bean lovers, just add the beans with the tomato sauce.

2 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
dissolved in a little cup of water

I’ll post more recipes to use this browning technique with as I find them.