Having Fun in the Kitchen: Gumbo Isn’t Too Tough If You Have the Time

It was one guy and a date with gumbo-making history. How did it go? Was it edible? Join me in my quest to make my first homemade Cajun dish!

Check, check, is this thing still on?

You guys can read this?

Okay, let’s dive into another culinary article that we’re famous for here at That Park Place.

Just kidding, we don’t often do foodie pieces, and I do them even less than others, but I wanted to share something with all of our dedicated readers out there… plus even those of you reading for the very first time. Yes, you can be in the club too. Everyone is welcome.

You see, I just made my first homemade, made-from-scratch gumbo and I just want to tell you about the experience. We cover everything fun here and, gosh darn it (whoops, did that get us another Twitter ban?), I had a lot of fun making this gumbo for everybody. It’s a huge pot. So c’mon and join me as I walk you through the process, and then who knows, you might want to make your own sometime soon!

First up I had to make the roux. Apparently that’s the most important part of a gumbo and I didn’t want to screw this up. If you don’t get the roux right, it’s game over, good night, drive home safely. So it’s equal parts flour and oil, but the tricky thing here is that the equal parts refers to weight, not volume. How many recipes are like that?

So I messaged Valliant Renegade, since he lives in New Orleans, and he confirmed what all my recipes said. This was going to be a forty-minute-minimum affair. Luckily our site only halfway works this weekend, so I had plenty of extra time that I’m not helping proofread and edit articles coming in. Oh joy!

And thus almost an hour of stirring over a very low heat commenced. I was told to do it in a cast iron skillet, but every once in a while a corner has to be cut. That was my corner. There would be no more!

While the roux was being stirred, I was also somehow cutting fresh vegetables from a local gardener’s market. All sorts of peppers went into this thing, although I stayed away from spicy stuff because guests might not be able to handle it. I love it lava hot, but not everyone does. Of course, it’s not gumbo without okra, so that went in, plus all those peppers, onions, and a bit of celery. Then all of that was set to cook in a crockpot with chicken bone broth.

That’s when I realized that I also bought squash the other day — the yellow variety. That sounded too tasty to leave out.

So I cooked all of that, stirred my roux, then cooked catfish, shrimp and sausages while all of this was going on. At this point, if you have done any cooking, you’re just playing with heat and timing.

When I put it all together, I don’t know if this is how gumbo purists would say it’s supposed to look… but I had a good time with it. So did others!

And you know what? This was the first time in a long time that I have really knocked out an afternoon to just cook one dish. It was a ton of fun! If you need rejuvenating and the chance to show off your culinary artistic skills, I highly recommend making some gumbo. Put whatever you want in it, make it your own! If you do it right, it just might turn out to be a little bit tasty!

For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place! As always, drop a comment down below and let us know your thoughts!