Making Seafood Gumbo

Yesterday and today I made seafood gumbo. I'd watched the chef Emeril on TV making about five different types of gumbo, and I'd learned there were basic ingredients and a process to follow, but the types of meat and the exact seasonings were up to the cook. I spent several hours on the roux -- a mixture of cooking oil and flour cooked over a low flame. I also included his "trinity" -- chopped onion, celery, and bell pepper. For seafood, I had crabmeat, oysters including their liquor, shrimp -- lots of them, and some white fish I cooked and threw in too. I had made a gumbo before but it was a long time ago, so Emeril had inspired me to try again, and to be very generous with time and ingredients.

The chef has to be lavish with the seafood if he or she wants it to be good. For seasonings, I used salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and an assortment of spices I had around -- basil, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, and from the back of the cabinet -- file, which is ground sassafras, that I'd bought in New Orleans years ago.

The resulting gumbo was pretty good but somehow not very exciting, from my point of view. We ate it over rice and were satisfied, but it just wasn't spectacular. Maybe what we really needed was some andouille sausage to enrich the flavor, I thought. Plus, it just wasn't quite spicy enough, and the roux was good but could be a little thicker. With over a half pot of the gumbo left, I felt there was still room for enhancement.

My husband went out the next morning and bought andouille sausage, four long links. We fried that, sliced it, and added it to the gumbo, along with more file and more cayenne. I'd brought the gumbo to a boil again (at least 3 or 4 times in the whole cooking process) to help thicken it even more, and then simmered it.

The result was stupendous. Finally, we had seafood gumbo to die for. Lunch was a feast for the gods: white rice covered with a generous amount of seafood and sausage in a perfect, rich, spicy,thick, robust roux-based sauce. At last!

Writing a truly shimmering poem or story can be like this gumbo-cooking process. You have some structures, some basic ingredients, and you also use what you find around the house. Early versions may be O.K., but you have to be willing to experiment and try different ingredients to get the final world-class gumbo.

Good cooking to you!

Karen