Men Can Cook: Slow-Cooked Super Bowl Gumbo

3 tablespoons each of oil and flour, stirring for 15 minutes until it turns reddish-brown to make a roux.

 

Then, dump in:

1 onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 package of sliced frozen okra

1/2 lb. smoked sausage

3 cloves minced garlic

1 12 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 cup of chicken broth

1 boneless, skinless chicken thigh, cooked and diced

2 slices of cooked bacon, diced

Whatever diced fish you feel like putting in

 

And without a Crock-Pot, you do it the old-fashioned way: in a covered pot inside an oven set at 175 degrees for 5 to 7 hours or to your desired level of doneness, then adding 1 lb. of cooked, de-veined shrimp for an additional 20 minutes of cook time. Serve it over a bed of cooked white rice with a bottle of hot sauce and a jar of gumbo file powder on the table.

 

Laissez bontemp roulez! Yay-eee!

 

Gumbo has quite a history in our family. One day in October of 1955, my mom suddenly got a craving for gumbo. On the way home from work that day, she stopped at the grocery store and bought all the ingredients, made the gumbo, and ate every last drop that night. (My dad hated anything that smacked of Southern cooking, so sharing wasn't even an issue).

 

She went to the doctor a couple of days later, and... well, I think you can guess the rest.

Done