Dinner tonight - or last night.

leftovers from yesterday's lunch at Ninki with my pal Eileen

I had the tofu and veg tempura and a couple of pieces of chicken

Set had the california and salmon rolls, the rice and the rest of the chicken

Ninki just serves too damn much for lunch. Then again, we got three servings out of 1 $10 lunch bento box deal.

I suppose it exists there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmigiana


my former Sicilian neighbours (I miss you Joeby) served an amazing chicken Parm as part of their Christmas dinner (thank you for the leftovers Joeby) - the spicy marinara sauce was worth the incredible messiness

I can always learn..

oh, wait, eggplant, sicily

Well, of course.

I'm just not a fan of let's throw some cheese on it to fix a dead chicken.

Today I’m making a chicken, shrimp and spicy sausage gumbo!





Here is the recipe.

Authentic New Orleans Gumbo
How to make it
For the roux: Blend flour and oil thoroughly in a thick
skillet and cook over medium-high to high heat, stirring
CONSTANTLY. BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO BURN
IT!! If you see black specks in the roux, you've screwed it
up. Dump it out and start over. Keep cooking and stirring
until the roux gets darker and darker. It's best to use a
very heavy bot or skillet for roux-making, especially cast
iron. With a good cast iron Dutch oven or skillet, you can
get a beautiful dark roux in only about 20 minutes.
You should turn the fire down or off as the roux nears the
right color, because the heat from the pan will continue
cooking it. You can also add your onions, bell peppers
and celery to the roux as it's near the end of cooking to
arrest the cooking process and to soften the vegetables
(this is the way I like to do it). KEEP STIRRING until the
roux is relatively cool. Add the roux to the stock.
Sprinkle the chicken pieces with Creole seasoning and
brown in the oven. Slice the sausage and brown, pouring
off all the fat (especially if you're using fresh Creole hot
sausage).


Sauté the onions, green onions, bell pepper and celery if
you haven't already added them to the roux, and add to
the stock. Add the chicken and sausage(s). Add the bay
leaves and Creole seasoning (or ground peppers) to
taste and stir. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce to a
simmer; let simmer for about 45 minutes. Keep tasting
and adjusting seasonings as needed.
Add the okra and cook another 30 minutes or so. Make
sure that the "ropiness" or "stringiness" from the okra is
gone, add the parsley, crab halves and claws (if you're
using them). Cook for another 15 minutes, then add the
shrimp (and if you've omitted the hard-shell crabs, add
the lump crabmeat now). Give it another 6-8 minutes or
so, until the shrimp are just done, turning pink.

5 Qts. chicken stock (MUST be homemade!)
1-1/4 cups flour
1 cup oil
1 chicken or guinea hen, without giblets, cut up
1 to 1-1/2 pounds andouillesausage, sliced about 1/4"
thick on the bias (you may substitute hot or mild smoked
sausage if good andouille isn't available) and/or fresh
Creole hot sausage, browned
4 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 blue crabs, cleaned, broken in half and claws pulled off
(or for a more elegant looking gumbo, omit and instead
add 1-1/2 pounds lump white crabmeat, picked over for
shells and cartilage)
3 pounds okra, sliced (leave out if you don't like okra, but
be sure to add filé at the end if you leave out the okra)
2 onions, chopped
1 bunch green onions with tops, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped
5 ribs celery, chopped
several cloves garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
Creole seasoning to taste, OR
black, white and cayenne peppers, to taste
Salt to taste
Few dashes Tabasco, or to taste.
1 - 2 tablespoons filé powder (ONLY IF YOU DON'T
USE OKRA!)
Steaming hot Louisiana long-grain rice

I’m now making the ruex. I’m going to be making a large pot so I can freeze some to have another time

When did you make your 5 quarts of chicken stock?

I bought it not quite sure how to make that yet.

Boy that looks good.

best chicken stock is never hard to make. It mjust sounds weird.
TAKE one bigass chicken and, after roasting and carving off the meat for dinner and another lunch, take the chicken frame and put it in a baking pan into a 400 degree oven and let it bake and turn the bones brown. Then immediately dump the frame into a pot and cover with water (two chiken frames makes the stock even richer)
Add celery and a couple wole onions that have been halved.

BOIL this over a low heat for several hours and season to taste. Strain and cool and freeze for up to month. its good stuff

When Mrs F maks hers, she always dips a bouquet grani in the cooking stock. Into a muslin wrap she adds rosemary, thyme , a couple of smashed garlic cloves and about 6 cloves of cloves) This rides in the stock and is removed at the end of cooking. The cloves adds a bit of something that is undeniably an essence of richness

That sounds easy enough! I will do that next time, thank you!

Great post.
Harvey (I mention him every so often) used to use a biiig stock pot, and he added a serious amount of vermouth besides the water; what e're the meat, that was his frenchie learning. Biig - something like 12" diameter.

I don't buy much volume of meat, but I like real stock. I should get bones from a good butcher... thinking, Keller's of Abq.

You know I couldn’t find Louisiana long-grain rice! So I’m just going to use regular long grain. I didn't even know there was such a rice!

So many kinds of rice, so little time..

It smells wonderful!

And I'll be taking leftovers tomorrow!

In some parts of the world, throwing away a ham bone is considered a crime.

That’s a great recipe, it was delicious. Chicken, sausage and shrimp! Just a little spicy but not too spicy.

roasted carcass stock is just the best

great explanation fman

Can you explain this part a bit more? How long/ how brown? (Might give it a try -- I've made chicken stock but not with the browning step.)

I promised Antonio I’d make brownies tonight for dessert.

I’ll have to work this off tomorrow morning!