Daytime Kitchen: Basic Gumbo

Chef Richard Perry from Longfin Grill Food Truck is in the Daytime Kitchen cooking up gumbo, jambalaya and etouffee.

Here's a basic gumbo recipe:

Basic Gumbo Recipe

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 red bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), diced

1 medium onion, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 package (10 ounces) frozen, cut okra

4 cups of Fresh Stock or Store Bought Stock (chicken, shellfish or fish)

Toast Flour in oven on cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes, 375 Degree

In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot, heat oil over medium. Sautee bell peppers, onion, celery, garlic, and dried herbs; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Add Toasted Flour, stir in flour with vegetables. Add stock and okra. Add any kind of meat or seafood you desire. Bring to Boil, reduce heat to simmer for 1 hour.

Gumbo

In short, gumbo is comprised of vegetables and the meat and/or shellfish of your choosing, seasoned to spicy perfection, and it has a more soupy consistency than its Cajun rice cousins. Important: The rice is served on the side. If it has rice in it, it ain't gumbo.

Jambalaya

But it might be jambalaya, and if you've ever had paella, you can use that as a reference point for this dish. Think of it as a hearty bowl of flavorful rice with a whole bunch of good stuff added, like shellfish, veggies and andouille sausage. Pro tip: The Creole version has tomatoes, but the Cajun version does not.

Étouffée

Now, this entree is special because it employs a cooking technique called smothering, from which the dish derives its name. (Étouffée is French for smothered or suffocated.) This thick, spicy stew is most commonly made with crawfish and served over rice.

1. Cooked Flour on sheet Pan (flour is cooked in the oven to dark tan color instead of with oil in the pot)

2. A fully prepared Cooked Gumbo in a Pot.

3. Vegetables to prepare the dish live.

How to make a Dark Roux for Gumbo, Etouffee and Jambalaya

How to make Gumbo

Gumbo - a mix of vegetables and meat or shellfish with thickened stock - is thinner and served as a soup alongside rice that's cooked separately.

Jambalaya as a distant relative of paella. It's got protein and vegetables (sometimes tomatoes, sometimes not), with rice and stock later simmered together or combined before serving.

Etouffée's a main course, made of one type of shellfish (crawfish or shrimp, for instance) that's been smothered in a thick sauce and sometimes served ladled over rice.