It was 11:20PM, and I was out in the yard, playing with my doggies before taking them for a walk when I got a call from my paternal aunt: she was hysterical. I thought someone was in jail or in the hospital. In reality, she was supposed to take a huge amount of gumbo to work Wednesday morning and she had just ruined it.

I grabbed some stuff, made a stop at Kroger, and headed over. I arrived to find out that she was making 2 distinct batches. One had seafood, one didn't.

I fixed her gumbo issues- the resulting batches are not up to my usual standards, but they're damn good. It is @2:10AM as I write this, and we are cleaning up.

Nothin' like great gumbo!

Danny makes a mighty rad gumbo!


Of course, you couldn't release it to the public without a taste or three, right? It either let you sleep satisfied, or kept you up with excitement.

Gumbo will keep you up for OTHER reason's, too.

Your Aunt is lucky to have a nephew like you!
Whitefang

+1 Your Aunt is very lucky! I'll bet you had to sample it a few times before letting her take it to work. Having some good gumbo music like Little Feat in the background would put me in the mood to stay up all night with a little extra batch on the side...

I did take home a small container as a sacrifice to my awesomeness...

And as for what was playing in the background? Law & Order: SVU. (It's a decent enought show.)

The crisis was that she had over-thickened it...while simultaneously changing the flavor. I had to not only add liquid to thin it out- which would have been as simple as adding warmed chicken broth- but also had to correct the flavor.

And I had to do this for 2 batches measuring in the many gallons.

THAT was the part that took thought and skill.

I think the thing I'm proudest of is that, in the middle of the night and operating under time pressure, I figured out how to ensure the additional seafood had both the proper flavor AND texture.

Usually, the shrimp are the last thing you add. They don't need to cook much, so you just turn off the pot and throw them in to cook via residual heat. Seeing as how I had to add my gumbo rescue stuff to a non-seafood batch as well, I couldn't do that. If I had, I would have had to start over for the non-seafood gumbo rescue.

Instead, I pan sautéed them in the leftover oil from the additional hot sausage on loooooow, and added them to the seafood gumbo directly,

So when do you want me to come over and taste it

Alas, as of this moment, there are probably no leftovers- she took all of it to her office at 7AM.

In a way, I pity her co-workers- at least, the ones who didn't get the memo-walking into the office which normally smells of coffee donuts and human desperation and being smacked in the face with the powerful smell of gumbo...

And probably already having grabbed breakfast...

Let us know when you wind up on an episode of "Chopped" or "Iron Chef America", won't you?
Whitefang

All in all, this is good news - I always figured the God of Gumbo was going to turn out to be one of those scary Voudun gods. . . .

It's more like Foodoo... that I do so well.

Good King Gumbo wenteth out, to his father's sister.
Saved her gumbo, there's no doubt, he's the Gumbo Mister!
Now she'll take that gumbo out to her office party
When her workmates goeth home, they'll be very far-ar-ty!





Yeah, I know, it;'s not the best thing I ever wrote...

Oh, I don't know...I'LL be singin' it every Christmas!
Whitefang

I sing it better using chili beans on the "far-ar-ty" parts...

I started a Chili cook off pot o' beans tradition at work on St Paddy's day and know what it means to be smacked in the face with the smell of chili beans instead of coffee and donuts...

Sounds about right!

Cruel, isn't it?

"Oh yeah"...