Healthy and Heavenly Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo

Gumbo defines Cajun cuisine. Gumbo is soulful, rich, and so satisfying. It is hearty, comforting. Gumbo transcends seasons, and my family enjoys eating it any time I make it. Traditionally gumbo is a welcomed Holy Thursday meal, a feast to enjoy before the Good Friday fast. While often seafood-based, recipes are as varied as the ingredients you have on hand, and every family (and chef) has its version. Google "gumbo recipe," and you'll get over 1,050,000 hits. But a few must-haves include a nutty roux that provides gumbo's thickness and distinct color and the holy trinity of onion, celery, and bell peppers, similar to the French mirepoix. But arguments abound if okra is essential (absolutely! Gumbo translates to okra), if tomatoes are a no-no (I use them because I use okra and I like the hint of sweetness they add to offset the slight spice of the dish), is filé necessary (sometimes I use it as a condiment sprinkled on at the end, but okra sufficiently thickens it), and is andouille a necessity (if I’ve planned ahead and have it in the ‘frig, it’s my sausage of choice)?

Unfortunately gumbo is not the healthiest of fare, full of fat from the preparation of the roux and often sodium-laden depending on your selection of sausage. But we love this stuff, and I didn’t want to think we had to give up one of our favorite meals in the name of healthy eating. Some years ago, I came across a recipe in Cooking Light that provides a great base for a really healthy gumbo. It is every bit as tasty as a traditional recipe thanks to an ingenious method of preparing the roux. No oil. No butter. No fat! But as it browns, it still has that very distinct, sharp, almost earthy roux aroma that fills your whole house. Do pay attention. You need to stir like crazy and don’t let it burn because then you must start over. This gumbo has a healthy dose of vegetables, and you can vary the proteins to your liking, using shrimp, a firm white fish such as red snapper, crayfish, chicken, or sausage. This recipe below reflects the changes I made to the original, using additional spices, just shrimp and chicken andouille sausage. Enjoy!

Sausage and Shrimp Gumbo

8 – 1 cup gumbo and 1/2 cup rice

1 cup all-purpose flour (I've successfully used white whole wheat flour)

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup chopped bell pepper – green is traditional, but any color works

1/2 cup chopped celery

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup sliced okra

1 cup chopped tomato

1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning (Penzey’s Spices has a nice one)

1 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

A few shakes Worcestershire sauce

5 cups fish or chicken stock

2 bay leaves

3/4 pound sliced chicken andouille sausage

1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions

3/4 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

Tabasco or other hot sauce to taste

4 cups hot cooked long-grain rice

Place flour in a 9-inch cast-iron skillet; cook over medium heat 20 minutes or until browned, stirring constantly with a whisk. (If flour browns too fast, remove it from heat, and stir until it cools down.) Remove from heat; set aside.

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Sauté sausage, breaking up clumps with the back of a spoon, until cooked through. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels.

Wipe out the pan. Heat the remaining teaspoon of oil and add the onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic; sauté 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Add okra and tomato; cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add Cajun seasoning, spices, Worcestershire sauce, stock, and bay leaves, and bring to a boil.

(Be sure to cut the okra smaller than what I did above.)

Gradually add browned flour, stirring with a whisk. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add green onions and shrimp; cook 10 minutes or until shrimp is done. Add in the sausage and cook until heated through. Stir in hot sauce; discard bay leaves. Serve gumbo over rice.

Print recipe here

Vegetarian Brunswick Stew ("please-don't-make-this-again")

In my never-ending quest for “meat and potatoes” vegetarian meals, an amusingly titled book at the library grabbed my attention:  The Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes Cookbook by Robin Robertson. Lots of homey, hearty meat-free main dishes, “American” food as well as interesting ethnic recipes – spicy African sweet potato stew, Indian spiced sweet potato pot pie, Asian-stuffed kabocha squash. Even “steaks,” using mushrooms, eggplants, and seitan “wheat meat," something I’ve always wanted to try.

The only concern I had was the number of recipes that used “fake” meat such as vegetarian sausage links and soy crumbles. I’ve always poo-poo’d these. If you want to eat stuff like this, eat real meat. But I assumed these would make vegetarian meals more meat-friendly for Craig and Connor. I bought a box of Morningstar sausage links, the primary ingredient of which is TVP – textured vegetable protein. While the sodium level is high (300g ram / 13% of the recommended daily allowance), these "fakausages" are much lower in calories and fat than pork sausage (80 calories, 3 grams fat) with 2 grams fiber and 9 grams protein for two links.

Doesn't this look like real sausage?

Let’s give it a try, and I selected the Vegetarian Brunswick Stew. I’ve prepared this traditional Southern stew before and made a few changes to give it a more authentic taste, adding ketchup, okra, creamed corn, and vinegar, but I omitted the standard lima beans. To keep the sodium level in check, I tried to eliminate as much added salt as possible, using no salt tomatoes (actually, some we canned this summer), no salt creamed corn, and low sodium vegetarian broth. The traditional texture of Brunswick stew is said not to be done “until the paddle stands up in the middle.” Using less broth than the original recipe specifies, it fits the bill as hardy and satisfying. As the author notes, the Liquid Smoke imparts a pleasant hickory-smoked nuance to the stew. I made whole wheat cheddar chive biscuits to serve with it.

Those with a discerning eye may notice two items in the photo not listed in the ingredient list below. In the frig I had the “bulb” of a roasted butternut squash that needed used (about 1 cup, diced) as well as a cup or so of cooked farro and added these with the broth, vegetables, and spices. The squash instilled a sweet contrast to the tang of the Worcestershire and vinegar.

BLOGGER’S NOTE: I composed this post before we ate dinner. I really liked it, albeit I may have overcooked the fakausages, which turned a little mushie. Craig said this is not a keeper.

Vegetarian Brunswick Stew

Serves 3 generously

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
6 vegetarian sausage links, cut into ½”- pieces
1/2 sweet onion, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 1/2 cups vegetarian broth

1/4 cup ketchup

1 large carrot, diced

8 ounces canned no-salt diced tomatoes

1 can no-salt added creamed corn
1 scant cup frozen green beans
1 scant cup frozen okra
1 heaping tablespoon Worcestershire sauce – vegetarian, made without anchovies, if you’re a true vegetarian
½ teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon yellow mustard

1/4 teaspoon allspice

Freshly ground black pepper
Few dashes of liquid smoke

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add the onion, celery, and garlic and cook until the onion is slightly translucent and celery begins to soften. Add the broth and next 12 ingredients (carrot through freshly ground pepper) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, or until vegetables are tender.

During the last 10 minutes, add the reserved sausage and liquid smoke.

Crown Roast of Pork, Dirty Rice, and Lemon-Buttermilk Chess Pie - The Perfect Dinner Party

After reading The Pat Conroy Cookbook for my Kitchen Conservatory book club, which has an entire chapter dedicated to Frank Stitt, I knew we needed to host a Southern-themed dinner party. Craig loves to mix it up with dinner guests and indeed we did. No one knew anyone else and these are friends from all parts of our lives. His toast posed the question what wine, red devils, secret dinners, tennis, and pigs have in common? One of our guests quickly and correctly guessed those are the connection between us, and Craig proceeded to share the bonds of our friendships. Everyone clicked perfectly, and we laughed so hard, fascinating conversation abounded, and as Connor pointed you, “you guys sure were loud.” Delectable food, some mighty tasty juice (wine), but best of all, truly the perfect dinner party thanks to our magnificent friends.

Our menu is below and the Pork Crown Roast Stuffed with Dirty Rice and Creole Mustard Sauce, loosely based on an ancient Gourmet recipe, incredibly easy to prepare and fabulous to present. The dirty rice calls for a traditional roux, but I could not bring myself to do all that oil. I am quite proud that I had the patience to successfully prepare the roux with not one drop of fat. And NO NO NO giblets in my dirty rice. (Technically, it's quite far from authentic, but no one complained). While the pork is the centerpiece of the meal, the lemon-buttermilk chess pie was my favorite part of dinner , modified from Cooking Light, more lemony than the original recipe. I am not a dessert person, but it is tart, light, and just divine, what you’d expect of a perfect Southern pie.

Menu

Highland’s Bar & Grill Pimento Cheese

Funeral Pickled Shrimp

Spiced Pecans

Louis Roederer Brut Champagne

Springtime Cream of Asparagus Soup

Crown Roast of Pork with Creole Mustard Sauce

Low Country Dirty Rice

Green Beans Y’all Won’t Believe

Lemon-Buttermilk Chess Pie

Crown Roast of Pork and Creole Mustard Sauce
Serves 12

2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoons vegetable oil
a 12-rib crown roast of fresh pork (about 6 3/4 pounds)
Dirty Rice Stuffing (recipe below)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup 1/2 and 1/2
2/3 cup Creole mustard
flat-leafed parsley sprigs for garnish

In a small bowl combine the thyme, the salt, pepper to taste, and the oil and rub the mixture all over the pork, patted dry. Arrange the pork on an oiled round of heavy-duty foil slightly larger than the bottom of the pork in the middle of a lightly oiled shallow roasting pan and fill the center of the crown with some of the stuffing, mounding it. Roast the stuffed pork, the stuffing covered with another oiled round of foil, in a preheated 450°F. oven for 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 325°F., and roast the stuffed pork until a meat thermometer registers 145°F. Transfer the pork to a platter, cover with heavy-duty foil and let it stand for 15 minutes.

In a 2-quart shallow baking dish bake the remaining stuffing in the 325°F. oven during the last 30 minutes of the pork's roasting time.

While the pork is standing add the wine to the roasting pan, deglaze the pan over moderately high heat, scraping up the brown bits. Add 1 cup water and boil the mixture until it is reduced to about 1 1/3 cup. Add the 1/2 and 1/2, boil the mixture, stirring, until it is reduced to about 1 cup, and whisk in the mustard and salt and pepper to taste.

Discard the foil from the stuffing, arrange the parsley and decoratively around the pork, and serve the pork with the mustard sauce and the remaining stuffing.

Sorta Dirty Rice

1 1/2 cups short-grain rice (I use brown rice)
About 4 cups low fat/low sodium chicken stock
1/2 lb. Italian sausage
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 rib of celery, chopped
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallion greens
cayenne to taste
S&P to taste

In a heavy saucepan combine the rice and 2 1/2 cups chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and cook the rice, covered, for 15 minutes, or until it is tender and the stock is absorbed. Brown rice will take longer and may need more stock. Keep an eye on it.

In a medium skillet, cook the sausage until it is no longer pink; drain on paper towels. Wipe out the skillet, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, and sauté the onion, pepper, and celery until soft.

Heat a heavy skillet, preferably cast-iron, over high heat. Reduce the head to moderate and add 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour. Stir constantly with a wire whisk, scrapping the flour down the sides of the pan. If the flour begins to brown too fast, remove skillet from heat, lower heat, then continue cooking and stirring. Cook for about 20 minutes, until the flour has the color of milk chocolate. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR STOVE’S EXHAUST FAN ON. Trust me on this.

Add the sautéed vegetables, the sausage, and 1 1/2 cups of remaining stock, and simmer for about 20 minutes (add more stock if it thickens too much) to make a gravy.

In a large bowl combine the rice, the gravy, the scallion greens, the cayenne, and salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. The rice may be made 1 day in advance and kept covered and chilled. Let the rice return to room temperature before stuffing the crown roast.

Glorious Dessert - Lemon-Buttermilk Chess Pie

Baked Pompano with Crabmeat with Virginia-Style Sherry Sauce

Three lashes with a wet (whole wheat) noodle. I haven't blogged in forever. With my new job, I got overwhelmed, but the worst of it was that I got behind with writing about the amazing month-long, weekly Julia Child cooking classes I took at Kitchen Conservatory. Really behind. Then I continued to procrastinate. And it’s snowballed. No blogging. So – a clean slate. And I WILL at least do a summary – soon – from the classes.
Saturday night was “at home” date night. We started with Ginger Parsnip Soup with Bacon-Parmesan Crisps from Southern Living. Parsnips. Really? Craig was a bit skeptical. “You could make this for a dinner party.” An unusual combination of flavors, the slightly sweet, earthy flavor of the parsnips work incredibly well with the fragrance of the ginger. We decided we could have made an entire meal of the bacon-parm crisps, and these certainly can stand on their own for an easy appetizer.

Moving to the entrée. Albeit an old cookbook, I picked up Larry Forgione’s An American Place last weekend. Beside interesting recipes based on “American” ingredients, it’s simply a great read. Its layout is a bit odd with basically only three sections, “From America’s Shores” (fish), “From Forests and Farms” (meats), and “From America’s Bakeshops” (obvious), I know I will find many more recipes from this winner. An interesting combo of classic Southern ingredients, the sherry works really well with crab, and is out of this world. This is not difficult, may be a bit time-consuming, and beautiful. We served it with a two cheese (mascarpone and Parmesan) polenta and garlic green beans.

Baked Pompano with Crabmeat (modified) with Virginia-Style Sherry Sauce

Serves 4

1 t unsalted butter

6 oz. lump crabmeat (about 3/4 C)

1 t minced shallots

1/2 C plus 2T dry vermouth

1 t cornstarch

1/2 C half & half

1 t basil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 C fresh bread crumbs

1/4 C ground yellow corneal

4 6- to 8-oz pompano fillets

2 T finely chopped fresh chives.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the crabmeat and shallots and cook for a few minutes. Raise the heat to medium and add 2 T of vermouth. Simmer for about 1 minute.

Stir the cornstarch into the half & half until smooth and add to the saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes, until thickened. Stir in the herbs and season with S&P. Remove from heat and let cool until temperature.

Combine the bread crumbs and cornmeal in a small bowl.

Season the fillets with S&P. Put a quarter of the coole crabmeat mixture on each fillet and spread evenly over it. Sprinkle the cornmeal mixture over the top of each fillet and gently pat down the crumbs so they adhere to the fish.

Lightly butter a shallow baking dish and carefully lay the pompano, coated sides up, in it. Pour the remaining vermouth into the dish. The liquid should come about halfway up the sides of the fish. Bake the fish for 8 to 10 minutes, until just done. **I had to broil for a few minutes to brown the bread crumbs.

Use a spatula to transfer the fish to serving plates. Spoon the sauce (recipe below) around the fish and sprinkle the cives over the sauce.

Virginia-Style Sherry (or Madeira) Sauce
Makes about 1 cup

3/4 C cream sherry or Madeira
1/4 C diced bacon
2 T minced shallots
1 C chicken stock
5 oz. fish bones (I used what the Whole Fish fishmonger gave me after filleting the pompano)
1 T cornstarch
3/4 C half and half
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine the wine, bacon, shallots, stock and fish bones in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, until the liquid has reduced to about 6 tablespoons; skim off any foam from the surface as the liquid reduces.

Stir the cornstarch into the half and half until smooth, and add to the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and lower the heat, and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Season with S&P. Remove all bones and skin pieces from the sauce and keep warm over very low heat.