Roux is a brown sauce made from cooking flour in oil at a 1:1 ratio. Those are the only ingredients. For gumbo, people try to get the roux as dark as possible--deep, deep brown. It takes a long time of constant stirring, so that you don't scortch it. As voodoo says, don't try it without a heavy iron skillet. The deeper you get the color, the richer the gumbo will be, and you can tell. You don't need a commercial creole seasoning if you don't have it in Australian. It's just more convenient. But, you can get all the ingredients separately. Here is Emeril's spice mix: http://www.gumbopages.com/food/creole.html as for the sausage, like voodoo says, surely you can find a pork link sausage in Australia to slice. The main difference is don't use one with fennel (as in Italian Sausage)....most smoked sausages don't have fennel. If you really want to get it right, you can make your own Andouille Sausage with a meat grinder. lol Here is another Emeril recipe. <a href="http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:bjNt3VX1QBQC:www.foodtv.com/foodtv/recipe/0,6255,13885,00.html+andouille+sausage&hl=en&ie=UTF-8">Andouille Sausage Ingredients.</a>
LOL, I could see Smeggy telling his wifey, "I'm going to the outback to catch and slaughter a warthog for sausage for some authentic gumbo." "Are you sure, honey." "Yeah, how hard could it be. I saw Michael do it on Survivor." "Well, I'd feel a lot more comfortable if you would at least ask for advise on that Rockets site of yours, honey." btw voodoo--turns out that "oven roux" is just flour on a baking sheet with no fat/oil. You just brown the flour dry. Cook at 350 for 20-25 minutes stirring every 5 minutes. crazy stuff. I assume you later turn it into a sauce consistency with either stock/water or maybe butter before adding it to the gumbo pot.
If you do an oven roux (and you want to be low-cal), let the browned flour cool before mixing it with water. Make sure the water is cold too. (I use some crushed ice with it). If your flour or water is too warm the glutens will react too quickly, and you'll be left with a gravy that's full of lumps. If you want to make it easy on yourself, use a blender to initially mix it. Also use a blender if you're going to try and mix it with stock instead of water. sidenote....this is why a very dark roux loses most of it's thickening qualities....most of the glutens in the flour have been "cooked out."
two other things: you can also do an oven roux with oil. The heating is more even, so you don't need to stir. I've never heard of anyone getting a really dark roux from this process though. Milk chocolate should probably be about as dark as you're gonna get. If you're doing the oven roux without oil, make sure you occasionaly shake or stir the pan...otherwise only parts of your flour will bake.
heypartner and pole, thanks for the information on the oven roux. I may try that one of these days for a gumbo or other roux based dish like a shrimp stew. emmm, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
Ok Clear on the Roux and Creole can Roux with eyes shut and find something similiar to Creole seasoning Now back to the sausage, if i can get Chorizo at a Continental Deli here should I be able to get Anouille Sausage???? hope so... so Anouille is the type... right??? and in short is a Cajun smoked sausage correct??
it is spelled with a "d," Andouille. but what we are trying to tell you is any smoked sausage without fennel will do.
Hey Smeg, Speaking as someone with a Cajun dad (and the Cajun last name to prove it!) who lived in New Zealand for 13 years: you can find stuff to make gumbo in the antipodes, it just takes time. Creole and Cajun seasoning, for example, can be made from scratch if necessary, but Masterfoods sell a ready-made Cajun spice. You can't get the same kind of sausage but a spicy deli sausage usually works. Make sure you use a cast-iron pot to make the roux, otherwise it's easy to burn. You can get okra (often called ladyfingers down here) in Polynesian markets or shops.
Oh bugger, I forgot about the edit being stuffed. Had to leave my desk at work for a moment. Anyway: if you're trying for seafood gumbo (an altogether more temperamental dish) I have to say it does suffer without the appropriate crab or crawfish, although you can manage with oysters, NZ green-lipped mussels and a white-fleshed fish of some kind. *Plus*, when you serve it: it should have the consistency of a medium soup with rice floating in it, not like a curry with a pile of rice and sauce covering it thickly. OK, sorry, the Cajun cooking spaz in me came out there.
Actually, Smeg....they're pretty hard to describe, but they look like this: It's a vegetable that two to three inches long usually. The outside skin has somewhat of a velvety feel to it. When you cook them, they tend to fell somewhat slimy, but they do a good job of cooking down and thickening gumbo. I've made many gumbos with them....and many without.
Pole, that is what thought they were, can get those, will let everyone know how i go in about 6 hours. Smeg
I just laughed my ass off at the whole okra exchange. Everyone knows that O.K.R.A. is an anacronym. I just can't think of what it is for....
just got invited to dinner and then have a bbq tomorrow night for Mrs Smeg's sisters bday, so the Gumbo will have to wait, although i went to the markets, and got blank looks about Andouille or any kind of Cajun Sausage, will keep searching.
