The CookingBites Cookalong: Gumbo

In South Louisiana there are gumbo cooking challenges. I have had gumbo made with alligator, duck, venison sausage, any number of weird ingredients. I have used smoked wild pheasant in a gumbo. Every couple of years G goes to South Dakota on a pheasant hunt. I tried cooking pheasant numerous ways and it was always a bust. A very lean, tough bird. Smoking the birds in G's smoker with pecan, apple or hickory wood made it a perfect addition to a gumbo. The tough flesh can be cooked for hours.
 
morning glory said:
I was (am) going to use a mix of prawns (shrimp), mussels possibly crab. Then I thought to add chicken (but not a lot). And in place of andouille which I simply can't get, use some smoked Polish sausage. Not intending a tomato base.
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Cajuns don't typically mix meat and seafood in gumbos. Meat gumbos are meat gumbos, and seafood gumbos are seafood gumbos.

Cajun food came from using what was readily available, so I'd say use any shellfish that are readily available to you, where you are. Same for sausage, any good smoked sausage will work as a substitute for andouille if it is not available.

CD
 
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ElizabethB said:
In South Louisiana there are gumbo cooking challenges. I have had gumbo made with alligator, duck, venison sausage, any number of weird ingredients. I have used smoked wild pheasant in a gumbo. Every couple of years G goes to South Dakota on a pheasant hunt. I tried cooking pheasant numerous ways and it was always a bust. A very lean, tough bird. Smoking the birds in G's smoker with pecan, apple or hickory wood made it a perfect addition to a gumbo. The tough flesh can be cooked for hours.
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Back in Port Arthur, I went duck hunting every winter in the marshlands around Sabine Pass. I would bring my ducks to a good friend's mother, and she would make some outrageously good duck gumbo (with sausage). There were plenty of places to get the ducks processed (basically plucked and cleaned) in town. She would put the whole carcasses in the gumbo, and simmer until you could pick the birds up by the bones, and the meat would fall off.

CD
 
ElizabethB said:
I tried cooking pheasant numerous ways and it was always a bust. A very lean, tough bird.
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I'm cooking pheasant tonight. The usual way I cook it is pot roasted for about an hour with lots of vegetables, herbs, stock, brandy - strain off the stock and reduce with more brandy & a splash of cream.

Here is one I cooked last year (after browning the pheasant but before pot roasting).

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morning glory
Looks wonderful!
Is that wild pheasant or farm raised? What I have tried roasting was wild bird. Leaner and tougher than farm raised. There are a couple in the freezer from last year. I will try roasting again.

Long grain white rice is usually placed in the bowl first then the gumbo is added. When eating out we order the rice on the side. At home we frequently skip the rice. We do eat carbs but try to limit them.

caseydog

We have both dove and teal in the freezer. Both would be good in a gumbo. There is a restaurant in town that I am not a huge a fan of. It is OK but not in my top 5. There is one dish that they make that is the best. Duck and andoullie gumbo. They use farm raised duck, make their own andouille and use a duck stock. It is everything a gumbo should be - dark, rich and packed with flavor.
 
ElizabethB said:
morning glory
Looks wonderful!
Is that wild pheasant or farm raised? What I have tried roasting was wild bird. Leaner and tougher than farm raised. There are a couple in the freezer from last year. I will try roasting again.

Long grain white rice is usually placed in the bowl first then the gumbo is added. When eating out we order the rice on the side. At home we frequently skip the rice. We do eat carbs but try to limit them.

caseydog

We have both dove and teal in the freezer. Both would be good in a gumbo. There is a restaurant in town that I am not a huge a fan of. It is OK but not in my top 5. There is one dish that they make that is the best. Duck and andoullie gumbo. They use farm raised duck, make their own andouille and use a duck stock. It is everything a gumbo should be - dark, rich and packed with flavor.
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It depends what you call wild - here they are mainly raised on farms but then released into the wild in time for the game season which starts in September/October. So the pheasants I am cooking are shot in the wild.
 
caseydog said:
Cajuns don't typically mix meat and seafood in gumbos. Meat gumbos are meat gumbos, and seafood gumbos are seafood gumbos.

Cajun food came from using what was readily available, so I'd say use any shellfish that are readily available to you, where you are. Same for sausage, any good smoked sausage will work as a substitute for andouille if it is not available.

CD
Click to expand...
ElizabethB said:
morning glory
Looks wonderful!
Is that wild pheasant or farm raised? What I have tried roasting was wild bird. Leaner and tougher than farm raised. There are a couple in the freezer from last year. I will try roasting again.

Long grain white rice is usually placed in the bowl first then the gumbo is added. When eating out we order the rice on the side. At home we frequently skip the rice. We do eat carbs but try to limit them.

caseydog

We have both dove and teal in the freezer. Both would be good in a gumbo. There is a restaurant in town that I am not a huge a fan of. It is OK but not in my top 5. There is one dish that they make that is the best. Duck and andoullie gumbo. They use farm raised duck, make their own andouille and use a duck stock. It is everything a gumbo should be - dark, rich and packed with flavor.
Click to expand...

But it is just not the same if you don't have the risk of biting down on a #6 game shot pellet. :ohmy::laugh:

CD
 
morning glory said:
I though nutria sounded like a trendy vitamin supplement - but oh.....it seems to be coypu which looks rather like a hairy water rat.
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Yes, they are giant rats. They were introduced to the Gulf coast for their fur. They thrived in the marshlands, and became seriously overpopulated. They are very destructive to cash crops like sugar cane in coastal Louisiana and Texas. They eat, and reproduce. That's about all. When I was a teen, we used them for target practice. They are not protected -- in fact, killing them is encouraged. They are that invasive and destructive to ecosystems.

As for eating. I have never tried nutria. I've had the "opportunity," but passed on it. I've been told they are gamey, and very greasy. Feeding on sugar cane would probably make them pretty fatty.

They look like rats -- 20 pound rats.

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CD
 
Where I live along Lake Erie's marshes, muskrat is our "nutria" and it made its way into the Sunday dinner of hasenpfeffer when growing up. I was NOT a fan. My dad was a hunter and trapper and have fond memories of following him into the marshes to harvest the offerings of the season - fish, ducks, geese, turtles and muskrats. All of which appeared on our dinner table in one form or another.
 
Nutria is a serious problem. When the population gets really huge the state will offer a bounty. Hunters are paid for each tail turned in. The fur is beautiful. As luxurious as beaver. Unfortunately nutria fur never caught on.

Another very strange gumbo ingredient is Pouldeau (pool DO). American Coot. AKA mud hen.

I have never eaten either nutria or pouldeau. I would try Nutria. I have eaten squirrel which is another rat. I have heard that Nutria has a clean taste. Not as gamy as you would expect because they feed on vegetation.

Pouldeau - not so sure about. Everything I have heard is a nasty, muddy, gamy taste.

In his book GUMBO LIFE Tales From the Roux Bayou Ken Wells talks about Pouldeau gumbo. He was generous in his report but obviously not impressed.
 
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